Eagles Training Camp: Jalen Carter vs. Cam Jurgens & Violent Collisions Highlight 1st Day in Pads
PHILADELPHIA – The most exciting day of training camp is when the players put full pads on for the first time, as the Philadelphia Eagles did on Tuesday morning.
“It felt great,” said safety Reed Blankenship, “feels like football again. That’s what football is. It’s a violent sport. Once you put the pads on it shows who you really are as a person and a football player, too.”
Perhaps the biggest hit of the day in pads came when a pair of No. 43s collided on a pass pattern. That was when cornerback Mekhi Garner, an undrafted free agent from LSU who has been having a solid camp so far, plowed into receiver Charleston Rambo after Rambo took a short pass.
Garner hit Rambo immediately. To his credit, Rambo held onto the football.
The runner-up collision of the day came when safety K’Von Wallace, who is getting plenty of first-team reps and also having a solid camp, drilled tight end Dan Arnold, who got several reps with the second team on Tuesday.
“You get a chance to see some real football and to see how those made blocks happen, you get a chance to see some perimeter blocking, so there are some things that’ll go on with pads that we haven’t had the first three practices we’ve had,” said offensive coordinator Brian Johnson.
One thing that was seen for the first time, aside from the collisions, is the one-on-one work that takes place under the watchful eyes of offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland his assistant, Roy Istvan, and defensive line coach Tracy Rocker.
That meant getting a good look at first-round picks Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith.
Carter, the defensive tackle from Georgia, went against Cam Jurgens, who is doing nothing to believe that he won’t be the Week 1 starter at right guard against the New England Patriots.
The two mostly played to a stalemate, but Carter got the better of one rep when he bull-rushed Jurgens. Before Carter could get too deeply into the backfield, Jurgens pulled Carter down from underneath his pads.
“He’s good,” said Jurgens about Carter. “He’s got a low center of gravity. He’s very quick and he can move side to side pretty quick.”
Asked by SI.com Eagles Today how he thought he did against Carter, Jurgens said: “I think there’s a lot of stuff I can learn from it, and I’m excited he’s on this team.”
As for Smith, he made a nice strutter-step move to easily motor by Chim Okorafor, an undrafted free agent from Benedictine.
The first-team offensive linemen exerted their power and experience in most of their reps, with center Jason Kelce stoning Marlon Tuipulotu, left guard Landon Dickerson thwarting Jordan Davis, and left tackle Jordan Mailata besting Derek Barnett.
Davis had a rep where he beat second-team center Brett Toth while Tuipulotu redeemed himself by bull-rushing Cameron Tom up the middle.
Swing tackle Dennis Kelly had several good reps, stopping Tarron Jackson both times Jackson tried to get by him.
One of the forgotten edge rushers on the team, Patrick Johnson, had consistently solid reps, using his speed to get the best of a couple of reserve tackles.
“It feels great,” Jurgens said. “It’s my favorite thing in the day is to be out practicing, especially with pads on. It’s fun getting back into football things and fun getting to hit people, so I enjoy it.”
Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.
Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.
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