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Training Camp 2019 News & Updates


TwoUpTwoDown

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The boring part of the NFL offseason (Post Draft) is officially over as players are now arriving to camp today and the Eagles will begin their first day of training camp tomorrow July 25th with practice starting at noon.

Preseason Schedule

Thursday, Aug. 8: vs. Tennessee Titans, 7:30 pm

Thursday, Aug. 15 at Jacksonville Jaguars, 7:00 pm  **Nick Foles!!!11**

Thursday, Aug. 22 vs. Baltimore Ravens, 7:30 pm

Thursday, Aug. 29 at New York Jets, 7:00 pm

Position Battles

  • RB: Incredible competition here after spending a 2nd Rounder on Miles Sanders and trading basically nothing for Jordan Howard. Adding these two talented runners to what we put out last year means that Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood, Josh Adams, Donnel Pumphrey (lol), Boston Scott and even Darren Sproles are going to have to earn their roles as the third and fourth options on the roster at RB. Side Note: Miles Sanders showed up in Powder Blue Off-White Jordans so he is clearly here to dominate.

 

  • CB: For the past couple of years this has consistently been one of the most interesting position battles and this year should be no different. Ronald Darby signed a 1 year deal to come back and prove himself after his ACL injury last year. Will he be able to come in after rehabbing and start? We saw flashes from the young guys Maddox and LeBlanc, we'll see if they can challenge for more playing time over the older guys. Rasul is coming into his third year and Mills is now into his fourth year so the inexperience excuse for them is running out. Sidney Jones is coming into the season completely healthy so let's see if he can develop into the starter we expected when he was drafted. Overall this is still an incredibly young position group and it seems as if anyone could have a great camp and see themselves starting.

 

  • LB: After Jordan Hicks left to go to Arizona we have three players from last years unit: Nigel Bradham, Kamu Grugier-Hill, and Nathan Gerry. We added L.J. Fort, Zach Brown, Paul Worrilow (ACL in OTA's last year), Alex Singleton (Named to 2 CFL All-Star Teams), and two talented UDFA's in T.J. Edwards and Joey "Stupid Athletic" Alfieri.

 

  • OL: Obviously "OL" isn't a position but there is a lot of question marks this year on the offensive line due to injuries (Peters and Brooks) and an influx of young/developing players such as Dillard, Pryor, Mailata etc. It will be interesting to see where everyone ends up as things shake out during camp.

 

Interesting Individual Players

  • DeSean Jackson
  • Jordan Mailata
  • Derek Barnett
  • Malik Jackson
  • Zach Brown
  • Jordan Howard
  • Miles Sanders

 

Important Storylines

  • After spending all offseason last year rehabbing, Carson Wentz seems to be coming into camp fully healthy. Will we see MVP Wentz again?
  • Obviously we will be facing Nick Foles in week 2 of the preseason. Do we still have a Big D*ck Nick shrine in the locker room?
  • It is Mike Groh's second year as offensive coordinator. His offense averaged 22.9 PPG in his first year as OC in 2018. Frank Reich's offense averaged 22.9 PPG in his first season as OC here in 2016. Reich achieved 28.6 PPG in his second year as OC in 2017. Can Groh's offense make the jump that Reich's made?

 

Please feel free to post all of the training camp updates you guys possibly can in here and let me know if there is anything I missed!

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I think the RBs should be:

Howard
Sanders
Clement
Scott

Smallwood has only one year left of control on his contract (as do Howard and Clement) so to keep him doesn't make much sense.
Adams doesn't bring anything to the table that Jordan Howard doesn't.
Sproles is old and really has no business being on the team anymore except for MAYBE the occasional screen play and a couple punt returns. 
Lol Pumphrey

CB is the hardest thing to figure out.

LB I don't think Fort is on the team when the season begins. Allegedly he has some trade value and if we don't keep him on the team we get to retain our 4th round comp pick. Considering we only play 2 LBers most of the time. I think we move on from him rather than removing Sendejo.

OL Is also interesting. You have Peters, Seumalo, Kelce, Brooks, Lane, Dillard are all locks. Pryor, Wisniewski, and Vaitai, Mailata (barring an unforeseen trade) are all likely. Everyone else is on the outside looking in probably as of right now.

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Going to be interesting to see how many Trades Howie makes, before Cut Day? Zero doubt in my mind we have several players and position groups RB, OL, WR where if a injury or two occurs, Teams come calling!!

Fingers crossed We aren't one of those injury riddled teams again!!!!

Edited by Nabbs4u
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9 hours ago, Danger said:

Sproles is old and really has no business being on the team anymore except for MAYBE the occasional screen play and a couple punt returns. 

This was harped on a bit in the Sproles resigning thread and I feel the need to again come in and defend the old man's impact.

Simple question: Who else on the team can return punts?

When Sproles went down in 2018 it was DeAndre Carter and Golden Tate after we traded for him....they're not on the team anymore

When Sproles went down in 2017 is was Kenjon Barner...he's not here anymore.

 

2019 Punt return options (aka camp battle):

The Challengers:

Darren Sproles: 36 years old but averaged 8.3 yards per punt return before getting injured last year at 35

Corey Clement: Got his first lick of punt returning last season after a whole 2 punt returns in his college career. Averaged 2.8 yards per return on 6 returns.

Nelson Agholor: Agholor was a pretty prolific punt returner at USC but has an NFL total of one punt return for 0 yards. With DeSean and JJAW in the building does this open up Agholor for special teams?

Michel/Thompkins: 2019 College FAs. Marken Michel leads this group because Fipp mentioned him potentially trying out punt returns. He had 5 returns for a 7.8 yard average for the Calgary Stampeders last year. Thompkins gets honorable mention as he had 66 punt returns in college for a 10.2 average.

The Super unlikelies:

Smallwood/Adams/Scott/Pumphrey: Collectively in college and the NFL they have 0 career punt returns. Do we carry a 5th RB solely to learn punt returns for the first time? Doubt it.

Hollins/Gibson/Braxton Miller/Greg Ward/Charles Johnson: We'll call this the experienced WR group. All have dealt with injuries all have 0 career punt returns.

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2 minutes ago, Hockey5djh said:

I think the most likely scenario is that Sproles makes it as the 4th RB and "Safe" punt return option and Michel or Thompkins make it as the 5th/6th WR as the "upside" punt return option.

I'm not a huge fan on having Sproles make the team as the 4th RB. I don't want to go into next season with only Miles under contract.

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3 minutes ago, Danger said:
5 minutes ago, Hockey5djh said:

I think the most likely scenario is that Sproles makes it as the 4th RB and "Safe" punt return option and Michel or Thompkins make it as the 5th/6th WR as the "upside" punt return option.

I'm not a huge fan on having Sproles make the team as the 4th RB. I don't want to go into next season with only Miles under contract.

Clement is an RFA so he'll likely hang around another year. That said i'd rather Sproles make it and contribute as a punt returner than Smallwood/Adams/Scott/Pumphrey who will most likely not have any positive contributions just for the sheer fact that they'll be under contract (or RFA). RB is a high turnover position.

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1 minute ago, Hockey5djh said:

Clement is an RFA so he'll likely hang around another year. That said i'd rather Sproles make it and contribute as a punt returner than Smallwood/Adams/Scott/Pumphrey who will most likely not have any positive contributions just for the sheer fact that they'll be under contract (or RFA). RB is a high turnover position.

To be frank. I think it's between Sproles and Scott. More or less to what degree can Scott do what Sproles does and to what degree.

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If Sproles fails to prove he has anything in the tank aside from PR, I think Howie will be smart enough to trade or cut him. 

They could easily put DJax back there, teams would probably be scared and kick it away/OB or he'll have multiple fair catch opportunities. 

I honestly was hoping for Hard Knocks. It'll be interesting to see some of those depth position battles, most starters are all penciled in. 

LB - Fort/Kamu/Brown/ Gerry 

DB - If they aren't healthy they'll probably have some catch up to do. 

RB - will the returning guys push for carries 

 

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11 minutes ago, nlesthought said:

If Sproles fails to prove he has anything in the tank aside from PR, I think Howie will be smart enough to trade or cut him. 

Sproles won't get traded or cut. If it trends that way he'd probably retire (or be asked to retire).

You don't bring back someone like Sproles just to cut them, its a bad precedent to set with veteran players and one we clearly went away from when hiring Doug and going back to the "family" mentality.

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10 minutes ago, Hockey5djh said:

Sproles won't get traded or cut. If it trends that way he'd probably retire (or be asked to retire).

You don't bring back someone like Sproles just to cut them, its a bad precedent to set with veteran players and one we clearly went away from when hiring Doug and going back to the "family" mentality.

yeah he came back to play here, wouldn't be a great look.

Biggest reason I'm totally fine with Sproles..who does he kick off the roster? Adams or Smallwood?

Fairly dime a dozen guys that we can add back should there be an injury. 

Sproles still has enough to give us a little something. If he can make a handful of big plays I'll take it for a team that lacked them badly last year.

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