‘I Messed Up’

FOXBOROUGH – Tempers boiled over last week at Eagles camp, with defensive tackle Moro Ojomo and offensive tackle Fred Johnson engaging in fisticuffs that transcended your typical summer scuffle.

The Eagles, under head coach Nick Sirianni, have mostly avoided those kinds of clashes amongst teammates, though the encounter last Thursday felt inevitable.

The monotony of training camp, coupled with escalating August temperatures, merely served as the perfect storm.

Ojomo, who said he spoke to both Johnson and Sirianni, the latter of whom he said “set the standard straight,” took full accountability for his role in the sequence that ended Day 11 of training camp.

“It’s football,” Ojomo said Monday. “Emotions … and you kind of fight with your brothers. It was just football. It got a little heated. It was wrong. It’s not a standard that we set out here. It was a mistake and I messed up.”

Fortunately, Eagles starters will get their long-awaited opportunity to compete against someone in a different uniform this week, as they travel here for a pair of joint practices with the New England Patriots ahead of Saturday’s game. The game itself will cater to the reserves, while the joint practices are reserved for the starters and primary contributors. The practices act as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, serving as an effective barometer to gauge where things currently stand.

“I think the point of the preseason is like the game at the end of the regular season,” he explained. “If it’s a game that doesn’t matter, why do we put the risk of injuries, or risk the players out there? I think that’s kind of the mindset, especially where we can have controlled environments, where you can still get the work. So, why would we go and do that?”

Eagles DT Moro Ojomo apologized for his role in a fight Thursday that ended training camp early.

Ojomo’s point is well-taken, as the Eagles have largely avoided significant injuries during the Sirianni era. That’s a byproduct of practice structure as much as it is resting the starters in the preseason. Sirianni’s teams have also never dropped a season-opener, tossing the rust narrative out the window.

Ojomo noted the importance of joint practices, reiterating the controlled environment aspect, as well as the value of competing against a team that last season appeared in the Super Bowl.

Predictably, he’s eagerly anticipating the change of pace that awaits

“At this point, you’ve been hitting each other so much, you want to create that camaraderie and go versus someone,” he said. “Ultimately, we want to get the train rolling. We’re trying to have a great season. You start it off with a great joint practice versus (Patriots).”

Ojomo, 25, has been among the standout performers this summer, proving disruptive on most every snap. The fourth-year pro plays with a motor that seemingly always runs hot, using his quickness and leverage to power past interior offensive linemen. His hands, active and violent, act as an equalizer.

There hasn’t been a practice where No. 97 isn’t jotted down in the training camp notes. Whether knifing into the backfield to bottle up the ground game or collapsing the pocket, Ojomo is impossible to miss.

Should Ojomo, who enters the final year of his rookie deal, replicate his success of last season, his trajectory could match that of former teammate – and current Patriot – Milton Williams. The connection between them, by the way, remains, as Ojomo and Jordan Davis recently Facetimed Williams from the golf course.

Williams, like Ojomo, was cast in a deep defensive line room highlighted by a marquee tandem. The talent was evident, but still, he was relegated to a complementary role. But in his final season in Philadelphia, the 2024 season, Williams delivered career highs in sacks (five) and snaps (501), earning a four-year, $104 million contract with the Patriots last offseason.

“Milt didn’t get as much opportunity until that last year, and he took it and ran with it,” Ojomo said. “So, that’s the mindset. He was a hard worker, played hard. You look back, even all the way to (Javon) Hargrave, the Eagles have kind of had a history of a (defensive tackle) doing really well and ending up somewhere else.”

Ojomo was there to see Williams bear the fruits of his labor and now finds himself in a similar position. He is coming off a career season in which he led all Eagles defensive linemen in snaps (750), sacks (6) and tackles (38), and appears primed for an even splashier encore.

Armed with perspective, Ojomo remarked how, as a younger player, watching Williams prosper left a lasting impact.

“I think everyone’s encouraged by that,” he said. “Everyone’s encouraged seeing someone ball out and ultimately get to that second contract, which is kind of like that big abstract goal for players as a rookie.”

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is the Eagles beat reporter for InsideTheBirds.com.