Eagles training camp observations: 1st team OL back together

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The Eagles were back at practice on Saturday morning as they prepare to welcome in the Patriots for a couple days of joint practices to start the next work week.

No pads for the Birds on Saturday and it was one of the shortest practices of the summer.

There were still plenty of things to observe:

1. Housekeeping notes:

• The Eagles made some roster moves this morning, activating Le’Raven Clark off the PUP list and waived WR Adrian Killins and TE Caleb Wilson. Clark (Achilles) was at practice Saturday but is in a ramping up period.

• DeVonta Smith (knee) has been upgraded from week-to-week to day-to-day. He was at practice with a helmet on Saturday but did not participate. During individual drills, Smith was on a side field with a trainer and was running sprints.

• The other day-to-day guys: Jason Huntley (ribs), Craig James (foot), Ryan Kerrigan (thumb), K’Von Wallace. Huntley is a new addition to the injury report, while Wallace was upgraded from week-to-week.

• The week-to-week players: Andre Dillard (knee), John Hightower (groin), JaCoby Stevens (hamstring), Davion Taylor (calf), Casey Tucker (biceps).

• Limited today: Grayland Arnold (hamstring), Genard Avery (groin), Jason Croom (knee), Isaac Seumalo (hamstring). Arnold, Avery and Croom all returned to practice on Saturday.

2. Because Seumalo was back in team drills some on Saturday, the Eagles finally had their first-team offensive line for the first time all summer. While Nick Sirianni hasn’t named Jordan Mailata the Eagles’ starting left tackle, it’s pretty obvious he will be. Seumalo and Brandon Brooks didn’t take every rep but they were out there together.

Here was the full starting line:

Left tackle: Jordan Mailata

Left guard: Isaac Seumalo

Center: Jason Kelce

Right guard: Brandon Brooks

Right tackle: Lane Johnson

3. Zach Ertz had a fantastic touchdown catch in the end zone on a perfect pass from Jalen Hurts during 7-on-7 drills. Hurts dropped in the pass over the outstretched arms of Anthony Harris and Ertz made a leaping grab in front of Darius Slay.

Soccer star Julie Ertz (and Zach’s wife) was a spectator at Saturday’s practice.

Other 7-on-7 notes:

During this 7-on-7 red zone period, Hurts was 4/5 with one touchdown. His other completions didn’t result in touchdowns.

Meanwhile, Joe Flacco was 1/4 with a touchdown going to Andre Patton with Michael Jacquet in coverage.

Nick Mullens was 2/3 in the red zone with a touchdown to Marken Michel, who was just brought back the other day.

4. The Eagles defensive line had three sacks in team drills on Saturday:

• Josh Sweat bent around Mailata and picked up a sack. But I liked even more that Sweat came back on the next rep with a stab. Sweat has a great blend of power and quickness.

• The next sack came from Javon Hargrave, who has been having a great summer. He overpowered Seumalo to collapse the pocket quickly.

• The third sack came from Brandon Graham against Lane Johnson. Give an assist to the coverage forcing Hurts to hold the ball, but Graham got the best of Johnson on this rep. Because the Eagles have had their first teams face off so much this summer, Graham vs. Johnson has been an everyday occurrence and it’s fun to watch.

5. After a big touchdown grab in Thursday’s game, Quez Watkins finally got some extended reps with the first-team offense. He was out there for the first play of team drills and caught a pass from Hurts. We saw some work with Watkins in the slot, which is where his touchdown came from on Thursday.

6. Rookie Zech McPhearson made a great leaping pass breakup in team drills on Saturday. McPhearson’s 40 1/2-inch vertical put him in the 92nd percentile among corners in the draft. He showed it off on this play.

7. We saw Hurts miss Watkins with a deep ball in Thursday’s game and on Saturday he missed a deep ball to Jalen Reagor who got a step on Darius Slay. Hurts overthrew Reagor, who didn’t look super clean in the route.

8. On the second rep of team drills, Dallas Goedert settled into a zone and would have had an easy catch on a perfectly thrown ball from Hurts had Slay not timed it perfectly for another PBU.

9. Travis Fulgham had a nice catch leaping backward in the first team period of practice. He hasn’t had a great training camp but he still has the ability to bring down some tough passes. He just needs to do it more consistently.

10. We’ve watched Doug Pederson making the rounds at training camp practices in Chicago and Indianapolis and the Eagles had a guest on Saturday. Former Chargers head coach Mike McCoy made an appearance.

McCoy was the Chargers head coach from 2013-16. During that time, Sirianni was a quality control coach and also coached quarterbacks and receivers.

Yeah. It's great to have him here,” Sirianni said. “It's really great to have him here and see him practice. I always respected how much Mike paid attention to situations. He just -- there's so many situations that pop up in a game, and I'm not just talking about third down. I'm not talking about red zone. Yes, I'm including those two-minute backed up, four-minute. I'm including those, but there's so many situations within situations. There's so many things that pop up. And he always, always, always, spent a ton of time talking about those things and practicing those things and walking through those things. And it made us a smarter football team. I do believe that we definitely became a smarter football team because of it, and so I always took that from him.

“And, you know, I always thought he was great with our families, too. My wife can't wait to see him today to say hi to him, because he was just always great with the families and he made it a family atmosphere there at the Chargers.”

Stupid Observation of the Day: I respect Derek Barnett’s commitment to wearing pants at practice every day. Today was a steamy one but Barnett didn’t waver.

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