Brandon’s World: Top Five Storylines Of Eagles Camp
Wednesday, the Philadelphia Eagles, along with the rest of the NFL, started unpadded practices with veteran players as training camp begins to ramp up. On Monday Aug. 17, padded practices can begin. Each team can have 14 total padded practices, but they are not allowed to have more than three straight days of padded practices in a row.
In a year where COVID-19 has taken over the world, forcing the preseason to be cancelled, training camp is more important than ever! Jobs will be won and lost for all teams inside their training facilities.
1. Deep at cornerback
Since Doug Pederson became the Eagles head coach in 2016, his defense, led by Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz, has been one of the worst in the league at defending the pass. In order over the last four seasons, the Eagles pass defense has ranked №13, №17, №30 and №18 respectively. In terms of receiving yards given up over the same time period, the Eagles ranked №14, №18, №30 and №20 respectively.
While the numbers do not look spectacular, the numbers are about to change!
In March, General Manager Howie Roseman decided to not re-sign popular All-Pro safety Malcolm Jenkins. Instead, Roseman opted to move 2016 seventh-round pick Jalen Mills from corner to safety and trade for Pro-Bowler Darius Slay, acquiring him from the Detroit Lions for two picks in the 2020 NFL Draft ( a third and a fifth).
Slay will allow the Eagles to play more man coverage, something that Schwartz seems excited about, telling reporters on a Zoom call on Aug. 9 that Slay will be a big part of the Eagles change in philosophy on the defensive side of the ball in 2020.
“I don’t know that it’s going to be a 100%, all-the-time thing,” Schwartz said. “Maybe it’s a particular game. Maybe it’s 50% of the games. Maybe it’s 75% of the games that Slay is matching a particular receiver, but you will see that from our defense.”
Besides Slay, the Eagles also acquired nickel corner Nickell Robey-Coleman in free agency on a one-year deal. The 28-year-old defensive back ranks №6 among all nickel defensive backs entering the season. With Robey-Coleman presumably locking up the slot corner position, the №2 DB position across from Slay will come down to two Eagle draft picks: 2017 second-round pick Sidney Jones and 2018 fourth-round pick Avonte Maddox, and the odds look to be in the latter’s favor.
Maddox played 50.69% of the Eagles defensive snaps last year, playing 12 games. Jones on the other hand played only 28.73% of the defensive snaps and played the same amount of games.
Cre’von LeBlanc looks to be the top backup to Robey-Coleman in the slot, so he is going to make the team. The final corner position should be won by 2017 third-round selection Rasual Douglas, but if the Eagles get an offer for Douglas, don’t be surprised if they don’t take it, and Craig James, who was in on 52.55% of the Eagles’ special teams plays in 2019, becomes the №6 and last corner on the depth chart.
Besides Slay, there may not be a whole lot of great names on the list, but all of the defensive backs bring something to the table, and competition is always a good thing, which is what makes the Eagles defensive back battle the most intriguing part of training camp.
2. Jalen Mills transitioning to safety
As mentioned when talking about the depth of the Eagles defensive backs, Mills’ transition from corner to safety is something to keep an eye on. Many have done it in the past, including Ronnie Lott, Charles Woodson and Jenkins himself, but it is still a tough task to accomplish. However, Mills, who changed his number in the offseason from 31 to 21, is full of confidence and expects great things from himself this season.
If Mills does struggle, the Eagles aren’t unprepared. Roseman signed Will Parks in free agency and drafted K’Von Wallace out of Clemson in the fourth-round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Both have experience in being in three safety defenses and playing around the “box”, a la, the Malcolm Jenkins role.
3. Lack of linebackers
Since Schwartz became the Eagles defensive coordinator, there’s been one common theme among his defenses’: Linebackers are irrelevant.
The Eagles starting linebackers in Week 1 this season are expected to be Nate Gerry, a fourth-year converted safety out of Nebraska, T.J. Edwards, an undrafted second-year man out of Wisconsin and Duke Riley, a fourth-year linebacker who has barely had any playing time in the NFL on defense. With fourth-year linebacker Jatavis Brown unexpectedly retiring, the only other players the birds have at the linebacker position are two 2020 rookies: Third-round pick Davion Taylor out of Colorado, and sixth-round pick Shaun Bradley out of Temple. Both are viewed as projects and don’t seem to be in the defensive plans this season.
However, all is not rainy in Philadelphia!
Why you ask? Because the Eagles don’t use linebackers!
The reason why the linebacker is irrelevant in Schwartz’ system is because the Eagles play most of their defense out of the nickel and dime formations. The nickel is where the defense has at most two linebackers on the field at a time, and the dime formation is where the defense has only one linebacker on the field. Both are designed to stop the pass, and the Eagles believe that their front four on the defensive line is so strong, they can stop the run even with smaller players on the back end, and that believe has held up over the last four seasons as the Eagles rushing defense has ranked №15, №1, №7 and №3 respectively over that time.
4. Who is going to be the backup quarterback?
The reason why this storyline is not №1 or №2 in training camp is because the hope is 2020 second-round pick Jalen Hurts or 2016 sixth-round pick Nate Sudfeld will not have to start a game in 2020, but Carson Wentz has only taken 100% of the Eagles snaps once in his first four seasons.
Roseman shocked the Eagles fanbase and the entire NFL when he selected Hurts №53 overall in April, but Pederson insists the pick had nothing to do with Wentz, and Hurts will be the third string quarterback entering 2020, backing up Sudfeld. Sudfeld has been with the Eagles since 2017 and even though the Eagles have always publicly praised him, he has never been the team’s top backup quarterback entering the season. Sudfeld is in the last year of his contract, so this training camp is huge for him, but one has to wonder if Hurts stands out in training camp, will this be a New Orleans Saints situation where they have a backup QB, and the third man is used in a wildcat way, a la Taysom Hill, or will Hurts flat out match his jersey number and be the №2 signal caller behind №11?
One thing’s for sure: All eyes will be on the red quarterback jersey’s when actual padded practices start next week!
5. Who is going to step up at wide receiver?
With Alshon Jeffrey expected to miss the first six weeks of the season due to the fact he’s still recovering from his Lisfranc injury he suffered last season, the Eagles lack of experience at wide receiver is as bad as at linebacker.
With Marquise Goodwin deciding to opt out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns, 33-year-old Desean Jackson is by far the most experienced player in the receivers room, entering year №13 of his career. The next most experienced receiver is fourth-year man Robert Davis, who may not even make the team
The Eagles are counting on last year’s hero Greg Ward, an undrafted free agent in 2017 who spent time in the infamous AAF as a member of the San Antonio Commanders and got cut three times by the Eagles in the last three seasons, 2019 second-round pick JJ Arcega-Whiteside, who only played 41.75% of the Eagles snaps last season, and rookies Jalen Reagor, John Hightower and Quez Watkins to step up. With Jackson’s injury history (he hasn’t played a full season since 2013), Roseman and Pederson are taking a huge gamble with the receiving core.
They are trusting their coaching and player development, and that’s not a bad idea. We’ll see if new wide receivers coach Aaron Moorehead can make a difference. It can’t be worse than last year, right?!
Brandon Lewis is a columnist, radio show host and podcaster. Check out his podcast, Brandon’s World, here, and follow him on Twitter @real_bworld. Columns will be out every Friday!
