The Offense Rests

The early word from Philadelphia Eagles training camp is Jonathan Gannon’s defense is having the upper hand over quarterback Jalen Hurts and the offense.

On the latest of the edition of the Inside the Birds podcast, Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher share intel and observations from the first few days of camp.

ITB photo: Eagles WR Jalen Reagor hauls in a pass during WR drills.

Tight Ends

Adam Caplan: “Grant Calcaterra grabbed the back of his leg. It really looked like a hamstring (injury).”

Geoff Mosher: “I’m pretty sure it’s a hamstring because I was told it’s going to be several weeks (out) for him.”

Caplan: “Calcaterra’s down, Tyree Jackson with the ACL, and Richard Rodgers with the undisclosed injury. They’re down three tight ends. Here are your healthy tight ends right now: (Dallas) Goedert, (Jack) Stoll’s the number two, Noah Togiai had a nice catch when I was there on Saturday, JJ-Arcgea Whiteside, and Jaeden Graham, who’s a special teamer who dressed for a bunch of games for the Falcons. They’re going to have to do something.”

Mosher: “I asked around about it. I didn’t get the sense that they felt panicked that they had to go and get a guy. Some of these guys are going to be coming back.”

Jalen Hurts

Mosher: “Look, you got to make good throws in practice. You can’t have bad habits and repeat them and you can’t make bad decisions too much, so that’s something we will have to watch going forward, especially as we expect to see a more mature passing offense. But like I said, as it was described to me, everything is just a little step slow for the entire offense right now.”

Caplan: “I would probably call his performances uneven. The thing that is troublesome a little bit is making the same mistake twice…The first throw was terrible, I think it was Wednesday’s practice, he threw it across his body to get rid of it when he just should have thrown it out of bounds. And then I was there Saturday, he did something similar. Just throw it out of bounds, coaches will love that… The good: downfield throws. Greg Cosell told us this, he said he’s got enough arm. He clearly does. In fact, in 7 on 7, (he had) a beautiful downfield throw. Quez Watkins beats coverage and Watkins simply did not track the ball correctly. It was a great throw. The untrained eye would say this is an overthrow, it was not an overthrow.”

Miles Sanders

Caplan: “Technically, he did run with the twos, but the crazy thing was they give a bunch of backups work with the ones. I can see how he might find it annoying how people are making a big deal out of it. It obviously is not. Sanders is the guy and has always been the guy. There was never any kind of role reduction. In terms of first and second down, it’s Sanders, and then they’ll see whether it’s going to be (Kenneth) Gainwell or Boston Scott.”

Mosher: “I feel like Nick Sirianni even said that in his press conference. He really made it seem like it’s a two-person backfield unless there’s some need for a third person, which might be situational or injury, but usually it’s a two-person backfield.”

Defensive Front

Caplan: “They were kind of stuck with what they ran last year. They couldn’t do enough because they just didn’t have the talent. Now when you look at Jordan Davis…their ability to be multiple with Hargrave, Milton Williams, (Marlon) Tuipuloto…You’re going to see (Josh) Sweat stand up and you’re going to see him with his hand down. (Derek) Barnett will play with his hand down and he will stand up. BG (Brandon Graham), you’ll probably see him do both, I would still think more with his hand down. Gannon has the ability to do what he wants.”

Linebackers

Mosher: “I think people thought Nakobe Dean would be first team right away, but I think they have to remember he’s a third-round pick. As a reporter covering this team for almost 20 years now, I cannot remember a single third-round pick who got to start on the first team right away.”

Caplan: “When they go to a 34 front, the two inside ‘backers to start now are (Kyzir) White and (TJ) Edwards, but that’s going to change over time. Dean’s going to push Edwards. Edwards will most likely be a two-down player. Look for Dean to cut into that. Davion Taylor looks really good. He looks like he’s put some weight on. We’re told that to help with the injury stuff, he took up yoga. The good thing is now that, where they didn’t have a lot of depth at inside linebacker, when they go to a 34 front they got it.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com