Taking stock of the 16 practices we watched.
Now that Philadelphia Eagles training camp is over, it’s time to take a look back at the best and worst performances of the summer.
PhillyVoice’s Jimmy Kempski and I gave out one MVP (most valuable player) point, one LVP (least valuable player) point, and one play of the day point after every single practice. Those points have been tallied for a final net score in the table below.
(Jimmy and I used to do this activity for our daily training camp episodes on BGN Radio, which obviously didn’t exist this year. Still hoping to have good news on the podcast front soon. We’ll see.)
Notes:
- Breaking: A.J. Brown is very good at football. He was basically unguardable out there.
- DeVonta Smith is also very awesome. He spent more time in the slot than he previously has and that did nothing to slow his production.
- Jalen Hurts had a strong summer. I think it was his best camp so far in his career. I know Jimmy agrees with that assessment. Some other reporters think 2022 was better. I think Hurts looks more evolved as a processor. Not to mention he also appears to be faster than ever as a runner.
- Jalen Carter is a beast. He could have a huge year.
- Quinyon Mitchell is ready to play right away and the coaches clearly believe as much since they’re looking to find a role for him on defense. At the very least, he’ll be the nickel cornerback. He could even start on the outside and then shift into the slot with Isaiah Rodgers coming in for base defense packages.
- I gave Kellen Moore an MVP point one day for some of the creativity (pre-snap motion, under center, tempo) we saw in camp.
- I gave Nick Sirianni an MVP point one day because the Eagles mostly ran a crisp camp and the vibes appeared to be good. However, I’m still concerned about some of his conservative approaches in various situations where he could afford to be much more aggressive.
- Good to see Jalyx Hunt show up in the MVP column after entering camp with very low expectations. It seemed like he might need a redshirt year but he seems ready to contribute sooner than later.
- I gave Lane Johnson an MVP point because of how bad the offensive line looked without him one day. And for keeping Bryce Huff pretty quiet when he did practice.
- Johnny Wilson finished at -1 with two LVP days and one MVP day. He has some intriguing upside but the Eagles clearly don’t believe the rookie is ready to have a major role.
- Nakobe Dean’s LVP points came early in camp. He struggled early on before building more momentum recently.
- Parris Campbell’s stock is clearly down after not doing much in camp and the Eagles acquiring Jahan Dotson.
- Tyrion Davis-Price has looked good as a runner but he’s been unreliable as a pass-catcher.
- Ainias Smith had a real rough start to camp but he didn’t look quite as bad by the end. He’s probably done enough for the Eagles to not give up on the rookie just yet. But Smith doesn’t look ready to play much as a rookie.
- Kenny Pickett hasn’t looked good in the preseason games and he hasn’t looked in practice, either. Despite this, the Eagles are rolling with him as QB2. It would’ve been nice if they actually had a real competition for the backup job instead of giving it to him and not giving Tanner McKee much of a chance.
Here are the MVP/LVP breakdowns before net scoring was applied:
And here’s the play of the day table.
Notes:
- In before: “How did A.J. only have one point?!” Multiple things there: 1) He dominated practices, hence his top spot in the MVP standing, without necessarily needing to make big plays. 2) Jimmy and I decided to spread the credit around instead of just always piling it on A.J. 3) No shortage of Jalen Hurts’ play of the day credit came with him making a great throw to Brown as the recipient, so some of A.J.’s credit shows up in Hurts’ success.
- Hurts made a number of great throws to lead this category.
- Quinyon Mitchell flashed by being able to break up passes against top competition.
- Don’t sleep on Britain Covey. He’ll be no more than WR4 after the Dotson trade but he could be a solid role player in this offense.
- Wilson has big play potential. He won’t see much volume but he might be able to shine in his limited opportunities.
- Saquon Barkley got one point for looking very good during a pass protection drill one day. He earned another half by getting open and catching a wheel route touchdown to beat Matt Judon against the New England Patriots. Kind of a quiet summer for Saquon, which ultimately might not mean much. But one can wonder why he never quite took over a practice the way that Kenny Gainwell did on the final day.
- Austin Watkins and Parry Nickerson, two of the more deep cuts on this table.