Eagles stock up, stock down after 2nd round of training camp

The Eagles have now made it through six training camp practices and have made it to their second players day off.

So it’s time for another stock watch.

The last stock watch came after three practices. In that one, the stock up players were Marcus Epps, T.J. Edwards, Davion Taylor, Dallas Goedert, Andre Chachere, Mac McCain III and Miles Sanders. The stock down players were K’Von Wallace, Devon Allen, Carson Strong, Zach Pascal and Milton Williams.

All new names in this one:

Stock up

DL Jordan Davis

The pads came on this week and the 340-pound nose tackle has raised his level of play. He’s been a joy to watch during 1-on-1s but he’s also flashing during 11-on-11 drills too. Davis has been getting more and more first-team reps as camp goes on. Not only does he not look overwhelmed; he looks like he’s going to make an immediate impact as a rookie.

CB James Bradberry

The veteran cornerback from the Giants has been about as solid as any player during this training camp. Steven Nelson was good last year but Bradberry is just a better player. During this camp, Bradberry has given DeVonta Smith all he can handle. That’ll help Smith entering his second NFL season.

DE Brandon Graham

Graham does not look like a 34-year-old guy coming off an Achilles injury. Even though he’s in Year 13, Graham is still an excellent practice player. He’s been making Jack Driscoll’s life miserable this summer as he works with the second-team defense. And Graham is still a monster in those OL-DL drills.

WR A.J. Brown

Brown has gotten more targets than anyone with the first team offense this season as he and Jalen Hurts figure out how to play with one another. Brown is so big and strong and is able to use his body to become a huge target for the quarterback. His hands are smooth and he has already shown up in plays that will give the Eagles a bunch of YAC. He’s been making life difficult on Darius Slay.

CB Avonte Maddox

We talked about Bradberry, but let’s not forget about Maddox. The Eagles slot corner has had good battles with Quez Watkins throughout training camp and has won a lot of reps you wouldn’t expect. Even in 1-on-1s, which are heavily slanted toward offense, Maddox seems to win an awful lot.

C Cam Jurgens

Even though Jurgens got the first-team reps early in camp before Jason Kelce returned from COVID, he’s really beginning to show his ability as the pads came on this week. He gets compared to Kelce because they’re undersized centers with great athleticism, but it’s also clear how strong Jurgens is and how seasoned he is when it comes to using his leverage. Like Davis, he’s been impressive in 1-on-1s and also in team drills. It’s not all about second-level blocking either. Jurgens is strong in the middle of that line.

Stock down

QB Gardner Minshew

We didn’t get to see Minshew in training camp last year so this is our first extended look at him in practice. It hasn’t been great. He’s thrown far too many interceptions and hasn’t been able to get into a rhythm. Now, some of this might be because the Eagles are so deep on their line that they have Graham, Derek Barnett, Milton Williams and (at times) Davis rushing on the second team. But Minshew has made too many mistakes and has struggled to get much going. Minshew was slightly better on Thursday, but it wasn't enough to pull him off this list.

TE Grant Calcaterra

This isn’t Calcaterra’s fault. In fact, he was off to a pretty impressive start to his first training camp. But he suffered a hamstring injury on Day 3 of camp and has now missed three full practices. For a rookie sixth-round pick, this time is very valuable. The Eagles have to make sure he’s healthy and doesn’t come back too soon, but it’s not great for him to miss all this time.

LB Nakobe Dean

It’s not that Dean has done anything wrong or bad throughout the first two rounds of training camp. But he hasn’t made any big plays either. The problem with that is that most of the other off-ball linebackers have all been making splash plays. T.J. Edwards, Kyzir White, Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley have all made big plays. The best of the bunch has been Edwards, which will make it very difficult for Dean to wrestle away snaps at the MIKE linebacker spot. I’m still bullish on Dean but it might be harder for him to earn playing time than we first thought.

CB Tay Gowan

I really like Gowan’s aggressiveness but it’s been working against him in these recent practices. If the Eagles didn’t have referees out at these practices, Gowan probably wouldn’t be on this list. But he’s been way too handsy in coverage, getting called for DPI several times. Aggressiveness is great and Gowan has made positive plays this camp, but the penalties are started to overshadow them.

OT Le’Raven Clark

With Jordan Mailata and Andre Dillard on the shelf Thursday with concussions, the veteran Clark filled in at left tackle. It did not go well. It’s harsh to put Clark on this list after one bad practice but he wasn’t just getting beat by the Eagles’ top-tier edge rushers. He was getting beat in 1-on-1s by backups too. Clark is fighting for a roster spot and I expected a steadier performance from a veteran.

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