Ballhawks in the secondary – NBC Sports Philadelphia

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

They did stretching, position drills, 7-on-7 and even 11-on-11 during this session and the secondary shined. The Eagles are scheduled to hold another OTA practice on Friday. This will be their sixth and final voluntary practice this spring.

But next week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – the team will hold its mandatory minicamp. This will be the first time the team will host a mandatory minicamp under Nick Sirianni and all three days will be open to journalists. So it will be exciting.

But for now, let’s return to 10 observations from today:

1. These OTAs are completely voluntary but the Eagles had a strong turnout. A few veterans — Jake Elliott, Kelee Ringo and CJ Uzomah — returned from absences 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.

Bradberry’s absence is most notable as his future with the team appears to be in question. If Bradberry is released or traded after June 1, then the dead money would be spread out over two years instead of one.

2. Some injury notes from today:

•Sydney Brown (ACL) is still not training but has been following training closely. He has a very in-depth view of training safety and takes mental reps.

• Nakobe Dean (foot) returned to 7-on-7 play after being held out of team drills last week. A good sign.

• Ainias Smith is still recovering from a stress fracture and Zech McPhearson is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Neither were full participants.

• Last time we watched practice over a week ago, cornerback Eli Ricks was injured early, but he was a full participant on the day. Receiver Jacob Harris was a spectator today due to an undisclosed injury. Too bad for him because he showed some juice on Wednesday.

3. Some offensive notes on the depth chart:

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

• OL second team: Fred Johnson, Darian Kinnard, Brett Toth, Hennessy, Anim Dankwah

• Without Smith, the Eagles’ top receivers were AJ Brown, Parris Campbell and Joseph Ngata. Ngata was UDFA last year and has been here longer than the other guys fighting for spots on the team.

4. Some notes on the defensive depth chart:

• The best cornerbacks today (without Slay and Bradberry) were Isaiah Rodgers, Ringo and Tyler Hall in the slot. Without Gardner-Johnson, the top safeties were Reed Blankenship and Avonte Maddox. Interesting to see Maddox running with the first team at safety, but they are light at that position.

• The best linebackers to start the day were still Devin White and Zack Baun, but Dean worked in there, getting first- and second-team reps. He initially took over for Baun, but then took over for White later in practice. The Eagles are mixing it up a bit.

• The second-team defense had Quinyon Mitchell and Eli Ricks at outside cornerbacks and Cooper DeJean at nickel. Oren Burks and Ben VanSumeren got most of the second team LB reps. Mekhi Garner and Tristan McCollum were the second-team safeties. It wasn’t long ago that Josh Jobe was the Eagles’ top backup and he’s working with the third team these days. It’s certainly not a blow to him, but it tells you how much talent the Eagles have added at the position.

• In 11-on-11 play, the Eagles’ best defensive line consisted of Brandon Graham, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Milton Williams and Bryce Huff.

5. The best defensive plays of the game came from the secondary. Some nice interceptions that day from the defensive backs:

• On a saved play (3rd and 6 from their own 5 yard line), Jalen Hurts was spotted by Isaiah Rodgers, who took the reverse for a pick-6. Nice break on the ball from Rodgers, who hasn’t looked rusty since his return from a year’s suspension.

• Garner, working as a second-team safety, leapt into the air to scoop up a ball thrown by Kenny Pickett on a deep pass to John Ross. Nice play from Garner but a bad wobbler of a throw from Pickett, who had another ugly pass later.

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

• Another big defensive play came from Ringo, who had excellent coverage deep down the left sideline on Campbell. Ringo stepped in to break up Hurts’ pass. It was a good play but Ringo was upset that he didn’t make it and he heard about it from some of his teammates.

• The other interception came from Baun on a deflected ball. The pass was given to Baun, who then handed it to himself and held on.

6. In the 11-on-11 game, Huff made a nice quick move against Mailata. It’s hard to say much about the linemen in these practices, but Huff’s speed and agility shine through.

7. Some tough takes from the tight ends battling at the bottom of the roster:

• EJ Jenkins rose above Andre’ Sam to collect a pass from Kenny Pickett. It was the biggest cheer of the day on the offensive end. During two practices open to journalists, Jenkins made two big plays. Either he’s having a great spring or he really likes it when we look outside.

• A few plays earlier, Albert Okwuegbunam made a nice grab on Oren Burks on the left sideline. The front office clearly likes Albert O and it will be interesting to see if he can earn a spot on the 53-man roster.

8. AJ Brown didn’t make any spectacular catches Thursday, but Hurts threw him a ton of the ball. That’s what we saw last training camp, and then Brown had another tremendous season. We also saw him working more inside on Thursday; keep that in mind when we get to training camp.

9. Some notes on rookie corners:

• Quinyon Mitchell didn’t see much action but he actually got a rep inside. I don’t know if we’ll see more of this or if this was just an isolated case.

• Cooper DeJean saw reps inside and outside again in this practice and went from nickel to the edge on back-to-back plays. He had a PBU on a pass intended for Britain Covey at the end of the session. Nice break on the ball. DeJean also earned representation with the first team. This is the first time we’ve seen a rookie with a starting unit.

ten. This was our first look at John Ross and we saw him take action. It’s a shame for him that Pickett’s through ball was thrown so poorly because I was looking forward to seeing him follow it. His best catch came on a ball thrown behind him; nice job by Ross to go back and catch it.

Stupid observation of the day: There’s a new addition to the Eagles’ practice field: a giant monitor with a live stream of practice.

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