Last year, when the Eagles opened up training camp as defending Super Bowl champions, they did so as a shell of themselves.
When the first-team offense took the field for Day 1 of training camp last season, they did so without their starting quarterback, their top wide receiver, their best defensive end and a number of other key players.
It was a training camp that at times had to be more focused on rehabbing players than coaching them. The result was a slow start from a team that in 2018 never felt fully prepared or cohesive.
The good news for the Eagles is that they are already leaps-and-bounds ahead of where they were last season.
No, the team is not completely healthy — injuries to Brandon Brooks and Fletcher Cox are certainly important — but they do begin training camp considerably further along and more prepared than they did last season.
On offense, the obvious piece that begins camp healthy is quarterback Carson Wentz.
After attempting 330 team-drill passes in training camp prior to the 2017 season, Wentz’s recovery from a torn ACL cost him almost all of training camp in 2018, as he attempted only 100 passes in team settings. He got almost no reps with receiver Alshon Jeffery, and by the time he took the field in Week 3, he lined up with a collection of players — outside of receiver Nelson Agholor and tight end Zach Ertz — that he barely played with in 2017.
There are plenty of reasons the offense wasn’t the same in 2018 as it was in 2017, but Wentz basically missing training camp might be No. 1. Having Wentz in-and-out of team drills made it tougher not only for the quarterback to get chemistry with his teammates, but it also made it tougher for the coaching staff to improve the offense in general. With the focus on Wentz’s health, adding a ton of new wrinkles to the playbook was likely tough to do. That shouldn’t be the case during this year’s training camp.
When Wentz takes the field on Thursday he should have every single significant skill position player by his side ready to practice. Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Nelson Agholor, Jordan Howard, Darren Sproles, Miles Sanders, Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside — all of them should be on the field working with the starting quarterback. Of those nine players, Wentz has really only had a full slate of training camp practices in his career with Ertz and Agholor.
One thing Wentz has shown during his three-year career in the NFL is that how he looks in training camp is a pretty good indicator of how he will look that upcoming season.
In 2016, his rookie season, he was not perfect but he showed plenty of potential and looked ready to play. That was basically what the Eagles got from him his rookie season. In 2017 he was absolutely electric, going 227-of-330 with 31 touchdowns and five interceptions in team-drills during training camp. He went on to have an MVP-caliber season. In 2018, Wentz was not great when he was on the field during training camp -- nine touchdowns to five interceptions -- and missed plenty of time in camp due to injury. He would go on to have the same kind of frustrating, injury-filled season.
During the three-day mandatory minicamp earlier this offseason, a fully-healthy and medically-cleared Wentz went 34-of-48 with seven touchdowns and two interceptions, playing some of the best football the team has seen from him in over a year. Yes, the very fair questions about his ability to stay healthy will be there until he proves he can be under center for the games that matter late in the season. The fact remains though that so far during this offseason Wentz has looked much more like the 2017 version than the one the team saw last year.
Not only should a fully-healthy offense allow the first-team to get a ton of reps together, but it will also allow the coaching staff to get more creative with their play designs. Finally healthy and read to focus on football instead of rehab, the result for Wentz and the Eagles should be one of the best offenses in the NFL.
The work to make sure that happens begins today.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!