Defenses dominate with hard hits at joint practice
PHILADELPHIA – The first thing you notice in an NFL joint practice is that “clack” sound of shoulder pad meeting shoulder pad is louder, which is never a bad thing for a league that has seen training-camp contact dwindle to almost nothing over the last 20 years — particularly the last 10.
Such was the backdrop on a sweltering Monday afternoon for the first of two joint practices conducted by the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens ahead of their Thursday night preseason game at Lincoln Financial Field.
Passes were harder to complete for both sides, and running backs were subject to big pops (despite no tackling to the ground) throughout. It wasn’t real football, but it was closer to the real thing than what the Eagles had been doing since camp opened last month.
Here are some highlights and takeaways from the practice, which except for breaks to work on special teams, featured the Eagles’ offense vs. the Ravens’ defense on one field and the Ravens’ offense vs. the Eagles’ defense on another.
Most difficult moment: Tight end Richard Rodgers, who spent most of last season on the injured reserve list and most of this camp working off to the side with a foot injury, was finally fully cleared Sunday. A day later, he left the practice field on a cart after an unspecified injury to a leg or foot.
The fact that coach Doug Pederson came over and hugged him before the cart whisked him away suggests the team is bracing for his return to injured reserve.
There was no contact on the play, either. Rodgers either landed awkwardly or hurt himself while trying to
turn upfield after the catch.
This wasn’t good news, even for a man like Josh Perkins, who’s the perceived fourth tight end on a team that likely will only keep three on the active roster. Perkins stuck with the team after camp last summer because of Rodgers’ injury.
“I’ve been seeing Rich work his butt off the last couple weeks, trying to get back,” Perkins said. “He was trying to help us out because we were low on numbers [with Dallas Goedert also being out]. To see him go down like that, my heart goes out to the guy. I told him I was praying for him and hope everything comes out and he gets better.”
Carson report: This wasn’t the best of days for Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, but that had a lot to do with Baltimore’s sticky defensive backs. Jimmy Smith broke up an early attempt to Alshon Jeffery and later denied him in the end zone, and Marlon Humphrey also beat up a little on Jeffery to force some incompletions.
Come to think of it, it was Jeffery who struggled much more than Wentz, who also made some excellent throws — like when he fired a fastball through a tight window to Mack Hollins for a touchdown. But his overthrows were more noteworthy. DeSean Jackson was able to get behind Humphrey on a fly pattern but wasn’t able to catch up to the ball thrown over his head. Later, Jeffery beat Brandon Carr deep but also was led too much by Wentz, who was perhaps was dealing with an adrenaline spike.
Pressure package: On the defensive side, the Eagles brought a lot of pressure early on Baltimore quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Trace McSorley, the rookie from Penn State, resulting in a number of broken plays.
Some of the most noteworthy included cornerback Sidney Jones’ breaking up a pass over the middle and generally always being in good position; linebacker Alex Singleton penetrating on a blitz; and some great flashes from Ronald Darby, who had just recently been cleared for full-team drills in his slow but steady recovery from a torn ACL suffered early last season.
Early exits: Linebacker Zach Brown and offensive linemen Nate Herbig and Andre Dillard left practice early. All were thought to be because of the heat, but Brown showed up in the locker room with his left ankle wrapped, so look for an update on him Tuesday. Later, as OL Halapoulivaati Vaitai pulled off his pads inside, he doubled over in pain as his legs began to cramp, and he had to turn down an interview request to seek a trainer for an IV.
Again, probably nothing serious, but on hot days like this one, some players often can’t get water into their systems faster than they lose it, so caution is required.