After a light day of practice on Wednesday the Eagles were back to work on Thursday, this time with pads on and a much more intense pace to their practice.
Things should heat up even more on Friday, as head coach Doug Pederson said the plan is for the team to hold their first “live” sessions of training camp.
Here are some quarterback takeaway’s from Thursday’s session:
Carson Wentz: The Eagles top quarterback has had a very good first week of padded practices, and that continued on Thursday, when he connected with receiver DeSean Jackson for their first touchdown in training camp.
The touchdown came in an 11-on-11 drill. Wentz rolled to his right after taking the snap, then threw the ball on a rope all the way to the left side of the field about 25-yards from the line of scrimmage. Jackson did the rest of the work from there, darting across the field and making his way into the endzone. Although there was no tackling in the session, no player came very close to Jackson, whose speed was very evident on the play.
Outside of the touchdown to Jackson, Wentz had a solid practice. He completed his first nine passes of the day, including two to rookie receiver Jalen Reagor. After dealing with a complete lack of speed on the offense last year, Wentz must love what he is seeing from his receivers to start camp. There have been multiple plays so far in camp where one of the quick receivers has been able to make something happen after the catch, making Wentz’s life easier.
Overall Wentz looked like the best quarterback on the field on Thursday and didn’t show any reason for the team to be concerned that he isn’t well on his way to being ready for Week 1.
Wentz Reps on Thursday: 25
Wentz Stats on Thursday: 13/18, 1 TD, 0 INT
Jalen Hurts and Nate Sudfeld: Speaking to reporters prior to the start of practice on Thursday head coach Doug Pederson once again stated that Nate Sudfeld is the backup quarterback.
“Yeah, Nate is our No. 2, and obviously Jalen is still learning. Jalen, he's done some really good things for us. Again, like I mentioned, he's learning our system, and he's another one, one of our young players that's learning the game a little bit. He's got some athleticism. We've seen that in practice,” Pederson said. “But Nate has done a nice job for us, and Nate has come in and really done everything we've asked him to do from a backup position and really just moved the team and moved -- when he's in there, executing the offense, and that's where he's at. We still have to put Nate in game-like situations, too, because again, he's one that needs that as a quarterback. We need that. And then we also need to put Jalen in those situations.”
But while Pederson makes it clear Sudfeld is the backup, it does not look that way at practice.
Sudfeld and Hurts once again basically split reps on Thursday, with Sudfeld getting 13 and Hurts getting 11. What is interesting about how the team has divided up reps is there are times where Sudfeld is skipped all together. Normally, the team will run through an 11-on-11 or 7-on-7 drill with all three teams — first, second then third. On the drills where they have only had the first two teams go, however, they have been alternating between Sudfeld and Hurts.
Sudfeld had a solid day on Thursday, making one of his more impressive throws of camp. His first was a completion down the sideline to receiver Rob Davis, who out jumped cornerback Avonte Maddox to bring in the pass for a catch. Sudfeld did a nice job putting it high enough where only the taller Davis had a chance to make a play.
Hurts was a little more up-and-down than he has been in the first few days of camp. He threw maybe his worst pass of camp so far, sending a pass right into the hands of defensive back Elijah Riley on a short throw over the middle. Riley took the pass all the way into the end zone for a pick-six. It was one of the first “rookie” mistakes Hurts has made, as he telegraphed the pass, making it easy for Riley to come away with the interception.
Hurts followed up that throw, however, with a beautiful pass down the sideline to receiver John Hightower for a touchdown. One thing Hurts has consistently displayed during camp is the ability to throw a beautiful deep pass, in addition to making plays on the ground each day in the running game.
So far one of the main differences between the two has been Hurts makes plays, while Sudfeld has — mostly — been checking the ball down.
Sudfeld Reps on Thursday: 13
Sudfeld Stats on Thursday: 8/10, 0 TD, 0 INT
Hurts Reps on Thursday: 11 reps
Hurts Stats on Thursday: 5/7, 1 TD, 1 INT
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!