Bullhawks in high school – NBC Sports Philadelphia

On Thursday, the Eagles were on the field for OTAs again.

They went through stretching, posture drills, 7v7 and even 11v11 during this session and the secondary shined. The Eagles are scheduled to conduct an additional live drill on Friday. This will be their sixth and final volunteer practice this spring.

But next week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — the team will hold its mandatory mini-camp. This will be the first time the team has held a mandatory minicamp under Nick Sirianni and all three days will be open to reporters. So that will be exciting.

But for now, let’s get to 10 takeaways from today:

1. These OTAs are completely voluntary but the Vultures have had a strong presence. A few veterans — Jake Elliott, Kelly Ringo and CJ Uzuma — returned from absence the last time reporters were allowed to watch.

Here’s who was missing today: DeVonta Smith, Lane Johnson, Josh Sweat, Darius Slay, CJ Gardner Johnson, James Bradberry.

Bradbury’s absence is most notable because his future with the team seems to be in question. If Bradberry is released or traded after June 1, the dead money will be split over two years instead of one year.

2. Some injury notes today:

•Sydney Brown (ACL) is still not training but is monitoring the training closely. It stands from the standpoint of very deep safety of the exercise and taking mental reps.

• Nakobi Dean (foot) returns to 7-on-7 action after being ruled out of team training last week. good mark.

• Aeneas Smith is still on his way back from a stress fracture, while Zeke McPherson is trying to return from a ruptured Achilles tendon. There were no full participants.

• The last time we saw practice over a week ago, cornerback Eli Ricks was injured early but was a full participant today. Receiver Jacob Harris was a spectator today with an undisclosed injury. Shame on him because he showed some juice on Wednesday.

3. Some offensive depth chart notes:

• The top OL looked the same without Johnson. From left to right: Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Mikey Becton. It’s also worth noting that Matt Hennessy is still the backup right guard.

• Second Team OL: Fred Johnson, Darian Kennard, Brett Toth, Hennessy, Anim Danquah

• Without Smith, the Eagles’ top receivers were AJ Brown, Paris Campbell and Joseph Ngata. Ngata was a member of the UDFA last year and has been here longer than other players fighting for roster spots.

4. Some notes on the defensive depth chart:

• Today’s top cornerbacks (minus Slay and Bradberry) are Isaiah Rodgers, Ringo and Tyler Hall in the slot. Without Gardner-Johnson, Reed Blankenship and Avonte Maddox were the safest. It’s interesting to see Maddox running with the first team at safety but they are light at that position.

• The top linebackers starting today were Devin White and Zach Baun, but Dean worked there, getting some first- and second-team reps. He initially took over for Baun but then took over for White later in the practice. The Eagles mix and match a bit.

• The second-team defense featured Quinnyon Mitchell and Eli Ricks at outside cornerback and Cooper Dejean at nickel. Oren Burks and Ben VanSumeren got most of the LB reps on the second team. Mekhi Garner and Tristan McCollum were the team’s second safeties. Not long ago, Josh Jobe was the Eagles’ best backup player and he’s working with the third team these days. It’s certainly not a knock on him but it tells you how much talent the Eagles have added at the position.

• In 11-on-11 games, the Eagles’ top defensive line was Brandon Graham, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams and Bryce Huff

5. The best defensive plays in the game came from the secondary. A couple of nice interceptions on this day from the defensive back:

• On a backup play (third-and-6 from their own 5-yard line), Jalen Hurts was picked off by Isaiah Rodgers, who took it the other way for a pick-6. Nice pass from Rodgers, who hasn’t looked rusty since returning from a year-long suspension.

• Garner, who was serving as the second-team’s safety, leapt into the air to catch a dropped ball from Kenny Pickett on a deep pass to John Ross. Nice play from Garner but a poor wobbly throw from Pickett, who got another ugly pass later.

• The practice ended with an interception from CB Shon Stephens, who earned a spot on the 90-man roster after a tryout in rookie camp. Good story.

• Another big defensive play came from Ringo, who had great coverage deep on Campbell’s left sideline. Ringo intervenes to break up a pass from Hurts. It was a nice play but Ringo was upset that he didn’t catch it and heard about it from some of his teammates.

• The other interception came from Baun on a tipped ball. The pass was passed to Bown, who then passed it to himself and continued on.

6. The 11v11 segment saw Hof make a nice quick move against Mailata. It’s hard to say much about the linemen in these practices but the quickness and quickness with Huff shows.

7. A couple of tough shots from the tight fight further down the list:

• EJ Jenkins rose above Andre Sam to pick off a pass from Kenny Pickett. The biggest cheers of the day came from the offensive line. In two practices open to reporters, Jenkins made two big plays. Either he’s having a good spring or he really likes it when we’re outside watching.

• A few plays ago, Albert Okwuegbunam made a great catch over Orrin Burks on the left sideline. The front office clearly loves Albert Au and it will be interesting to see if he can clinch a spot on the 53-man roster.

8. AJ Brown didn’t make any great shots on Thursday but Hurts threw the ball to him often. That’s what we saw last training camp and then Brown had another great season. We also saw him working inside again on Thursday; Keep that in mind when we get to training camp.

9. Some notes on ascending angles:

• Quinion Mitchell didn’t see much action but actually got one rep inside. I’m not sure if we’ll see more of that or if it was just a one-off.

• Cooper DeJean saw reps inside and outside again in the practice and went from nickel to boundary on back-to-back plays. He had a PBU on a pass intended for Britain Coffey late in the session. Nice break on the ball. DeJean also earned one rep with the first team. First time we’ve seen a rookie on a starting unit.

10. This was our first look at John Ross and we saw him in action. It’s a shame for him that Pickett’s deep ball was so low because I was looking forward to seeing him follow it up. His best catch came from a ball thrown behind him. Great job by Ross to connect with him and disrupt him.

Stupid note of the day: There is a new addition to the Eagles training field: a giant screen with a live broadcast of training.