Eagles Training Camp Practice Notes: Is Eli Ricks the dark horse in the cornerback competition?

Observations from the NovaCare Complex.

Today marked the eighth Philadelphia Eagles training camp practice ahead of the 2025 NFL season. The padded session lasted for about one hour and 40 minutes. Here’s what I observed at the NovaCare Complex.

EAGLES PRACTICE NOTES

• JALEN HURTS UPDATE: Hurts was solid yet unspectacular. He hit a crossing DeVonta Smith in stride for a nice gain. He had another good ball to Dallas Goedert. Hurts had a chance to make the play of the day by hitting Jahan Dotson for a deep touchdown. The wide receiver was comfortably open for an over-the-shoulder catch in the end zone but Hurts overthrew him. The quarterback wasn’t helped by the wind being at his back; the upright streamers and a big flag nearby were blowing in the same direction the ball was thrown. Still waiting to see another hot stretch from Hurts like he had early in camp.
• EAGLES INJURY REPORT: Bunch of new updates.

DID NOT PRACTICE

LB Zack Baun (back contusion)
WR A.J. Brown (hamstring)
S Lewis Cine (hamstring)
RB Montrell Johnson Jr. (hamstring)
WR Terrace Marshall Jr. (knee)
CB Mac McWilliams (quad)
LB Ben VanSumeren (ankle)

Baun has missed four straight practices.

Marshall has missed three straight practices.

McWilliams and BVS have missed two straight practices.

Brown is a new addition to the injury report. Obviously a big one to monitor. UPDATE: Here’s some encouraging insight.

Cine and Johnson Jr. are also newly injured.

LIMITED PARTICIPATION

LB Jihaad Campbell (shoulder)
LS Charley Hughlett (neck)
TE E.J. Jenkins (hamstring)
S Andrew Mukuba (shoulder)
WR DeVonta Smith (back tightness)
LB Nolan Smith (concussion)

DeVonta took part in some team drills in his first day back after missing four practices.

Nolan was limited to position drills. He’s ramping up after missing three practices.

Campbell doesn’t appear to be limited despite being listed as such.

Mukuba was limited for the second practice in a row. Still not participating in team drills.

Hughlett is a new addition. Something to keep an eye on ahead of the first preseason game on Thursday. UPDATE: The Eagles are reportedly bringing in a new long snapper.

Jenkins was upgraded to limited after missing the last two practices.

OTHER INJURY NEWS

Jalen Carter (shoulder), Landon Dickerson (ribs), and Cam Jurgens (back) were removed from the injury report.

• POSITION BATTLE UPDATE — CORNERBACK: Adoree’ Jackson was first up with the first-team defense on Sunday. That makes five days when Jackson has been up first and three days for Ringo. Jackson had good coverage on DeVonta Smith in 7-on-7 to force Hurts off that read. Jackson would’ve allowed a deep touchdown to Dotson if not for a Hurts overthrow. Ringo broke up a Hurts pass to Goedert.
• Is Eli Ricks a dark horse candidate to win the starting cornerback job? He hasn’t been getting regular first-team reps with Jackson and Ringo splitting those. But the third-year defender’s having a nice summer. There’s often talk about how player development isn’t linear. In this case, Ricks showed some promise as an undrafted rookie in 2023 before underwhelming in 2024. Maybe he’s ready to rebound in Year 3. Here are the plays I wrote down Ricks’ name for on Sunday: a pass breakup on a Tanner McKee throw to Nick Muse in 7-on-7, tight coverage on Dotson where he arguably ran the route better than the receiver in 11-on-11, and three more pass breakups on McKee throws to Elijah Cooks. The last two happened in an end-of-game situation where the offense had to score with very little time left and no timeouts to work with. A leaping Ricks first broke up a fade pass to Cooks. Then he denied the pass from a scrambling McKee to Cooks, who was trying to uncover for a tiptoe grab along the right sideline in the end zone. Cooks has more often than not been a tough cover for Eagles defensive backs this summer but Ricks was able to get the better of him on Sunday. Ricks did have a rep where he got beat deep to allow a catch to Darius Cooper.
• Speaking of Darius Cooper, he’s intriguing. Did you realize that he led all NCAA wide receivers at any level (Division I FBS, Division I FBS, Division II, Division III) in receiving yards at Tarleton State last year? He had 1,449, which is 67 more than second-place Nick Nash (who is 26 years old) and 133 more than third-place Tetairoa McMillan (who was the No. 8 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft). Cooper played two more games than those players … but he saw 46 fewer targets than Nash and five fewer than McMillan. Cooper only ranked tied for the 15th most targets with 125 (8.9 per game). Cooper’s production wasn’t just about pure volume; he was pretty efficient with 19.1 yards per reception and 14 touchdowns. Only two out of 744 qualifying players ranked above him in yards per route run. On Sunday, Cooper beat Ricks to make an over-the-shoulder catch down the right sideline. He made some other catches and also showed some juice on a kick return. As it currently stands, I don’t think Cooper makes the roster. But it’ll be interesting to watch him in the preseason. He’s at least done enough to warrant a practice squad spot.
• Jihaad Campbell stood out for being in position to bump Will Shipley immediately after a short reception. The rookie also got his hands on a ball to break up a dump off to Ainias Smith.
• With feel-good personalities like Brandon Graham and Darius Slay gone, the Eagles will look to emerging leaders to bring some levity to the locker room (helps to break up the monotony of the daily grind). Jordan Mailata and Jordan Davis are top candidates in this regard. There was a moment during Sunday’s practice where Hurts took a bump as a runner (he remained upright). It was a defender who touched him, however. It was Goedert, who had been pushed by Davis. After the play, Mailata ran up to Davis and pretended to be mad at him and throw punches at him. Davis played into the fun by acting like he was actually getting hit. Davis was also messing around during Jalen Carter’s media availability after practice:

• Said it on Friday and I’ll say it again: Saquon Barkley looks really good. If there’s going to be a player who defies historical precedent and runs for 2,000 yards again, I wouldn’t count him out. He looks primed for another big year.
• Two young players who’ve stood out in OL vs. DL 1-on-1 drills this summer: rookie tackle Myles Hinton and second-year defensive tackle Gabe Hall. Hinton will make the roster. Hall has a chance.
• Johnny Wilson has disappointed as a pass-catcher but you can see the value he has a big-bodied blocker. He helped to seal off Adoree’ Jackson a running play to the edge.
• Andre’ Sam broke up a McKee throw to Kylen Granson in the end zone. The quarterback tried to fit it in a tight window. The tight end had a chance at making a really good catch but the Eagles’ second-year safety won out.
• Tristin McCollum knocked down a McKee throw to Granson along the right sideline. Later, McCollum dropped what would’ve been a game-winning interception (in this simulated situation) thrown right at him by Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
• McKee had multiple passes get knocked down but he also had some good completions as well. Such as one to a tightly covered Nick Muse on a curl route. Or later in practice when he hit Granson along the right sideline to allow the tight end to get out of bounds and the offense to set up in goal-to-go.
• Using a one-handed strike, Josh Uche pancaked second-team left tackle Kendall Lamm to notch a “sack.” Pretty impressive. Later, Uche had a bad offside penalty.
• ShunDerrick Powell had another long run. We’ll see if these flashes carry over to preseason football.
• DTR ultimately led the third-team offense to a touchdown by hitting Harrison Bryant in the middle of the end zone. The two-point try to tie the game was unsuccessful, however, with him throwing a pick to a leaping Dallas Gant to end practice.
• Kyle McCord didn’t get many, if any, 11-on-11 reps. But we’ll probably see a lot of him in the preseason games.
• First-team kickoff coverage unit during special teams drills (from left to right): Cooper DeJean, Will Shipley, Ochaun Mathis, Sydney Brown, Tristin McCollum, Kyle Granson, Patrick Johnson, Andre’ Sam, Avery Williams, and Kelee Ringo. And then Jake Elliott doing the kicking.
• Kick returner pairings, in order: Darius Cooper and Keilan Robinson, Taylor Morin and ShunDerrick Powell, Giles Jackson and Keilan Robinson, Taylor Morin and Darius Cooper. The odds are against these any of these players making the roster.

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UP NEXT: The Eagles are back at practice on Monday morning starting at 10:00 AM Eastern. You can find more of the Eagles’ training camp schedule by clicking here.