Eagles training camp observations, Day 14: A fiery day in shorts as a fight breaks out

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The Eagles had a light 10-10-10 practice in shorts on Monday morning. 

Well, it was supposed to be light. 

But the practice in shorts and shells ended up being the most fiery day since training camp began in late July. That’s where we’ll start the practice obs: 

1. The first scuffle of the day came between rookie Andre Dillard and veteran safety Johnathan Cyprien. Dillard got to the next level and knocked Cyprien clear off his feet. The veteran safety got up swinging and needed to be restrained by teammate Jeremiah McKinnon. It might have been a block in the back. 

“We’ve been pushing and pulling on each other for almost three weeks now,” Malcolm Jenkins said. “It was bound to happen at some point.” 

2. But the real fight of practice came a little later on a red zone drill. Again, the rookie Dillard was involved. This time, he and Derek Barnett got into it. That’s two first-round picks going at it. This one caused a big scuffle and a bunch of guys were needed to break it up. 

“It’s good to have practices like that,” Jason Peters said. “You’re gonna fight your brother some days and love him some days too.” 

On the sideline after the fight, Peters talked to Barnett and Dillard and eventually made Dillard go to Barnett and smooth things over. 

“I just told him to leave it out there,” Peters said. “Stuff like that happens and you just move on and keep practicing.” 

After practice, Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman had a lengthy chat with Dillard on the practice field. They were likely telling him to tone things down, especially in an unpadded practice with his own teammates. They called Barnett over during the middle of the talk and the two teammates shook hands. 

Walking off the field, Pederson acknowledged today was a fiery practice and said he doesn’t mind them. 

3. A day after a little scare when JJ Arcega-Whiteside sort of rolled into Rodney McLeod’s knee, McLeod didn’t practice. But the Eagles said it was a veteran day off for McLeod. Jason Kelce also got a veteran day off. 

Not practicing today: Nate Sudfeld, Richard Rodgers, Dallas Goedert, Lane Johnson, Hassan Ridgeway, Daeshon Hall, Fletcher Cox, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Jalen Mills, Cre’Von LeBlanc, Blake Countess. 

4. It was a light practice, but Carson Wentz came out firing. The quarterback had three beautiful touch passes over defenders in the first period. The first one was to Nelson Agholor over Avonte Maddox down the right sideline. The second was over Jenkins to Josh Perkins. The third was to Alshon Jeffery over McKinnon down the left sideline. 

5. A couple depth chart notes: 

• Without Kelce, the Eagles used Isaac Seumalo at center today. And Peters also got a day off. So the first-team OL looked like this: Dillard, Stefen Wisniewksi, Seumalo, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Jordan Mailata.

• On defense, Rasul Douglas and Sidney Jones were the outside corners today, with Maddox as the nickel CB.  

6. Shareef Miller made a nice play on an end-around to DeAndre Thompkins. As the left end, Miller set the edge and didn’t bite on a play fake. He was there to make the stop on his former college teammate. 

7. The Eagles used a unique defensive formation today with six linemen on the goal line. Those six were: Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry, Treyvon Hester, Malik Jackson, Kevin Wilkins and Barnett. They also had Paul Worrilow, Zach Brown, Nate Gerry, Tre Sullivan and Jenkins on the field.

It was an unusual look and I’m not sure why they waited for an unpadded practice to break it out. 

8. Tight end Alex Ellis, who joined training camp late, made two pretty great catches today. One was a diving catch on a throw from rookie Clayton Thorson. The other was a touchdown in the end zone. That happened to be the play when the big scuffle broke out. 

9. L.J. Fort had an athletic interception today. McKinnon tipped up a pass and Fort jumped up to snag it out of the air with his right hand. 

10. Today will probably be a day Keegan Render never forgets. The undrafted offensive lineman from Iowa got to play tight end for a bit and caught a touchdown. Later in the period, they tried to go there again and linebacker Alex Singleton wasn’t having it. 

Stupid Observation of the Day: Whenever there’s a fumble, I can’t help it, I say, “Ball!” It’s the dorkiest habit and I just can’t break it. 



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