Eagles Camp Day 14: James Bradberry Sharpens A.J. Brown, Nick Sirianni Angst & Kicking Fun
PHILADELPHIA - If you’re around the NFL long enough, iron sharpens iron is one of those training camp cliches that turns into white noise right up until you see it in action.
For the Philadelphia Eagles, there’s no better example of that than when A.J. Brown and James Bradberry wake up and decide to bring their A-games to the NovaCare Complex.
That happened on Sunday in the dog days of camp.
To the uninitiated, it might have seemed like a poor day for Bradberry, the second-team All-Pro cornerback. On the first play of team drills, Brown snared a Jalen Hurts pass on what could only be described as a violent comeback route with Bradberry nestled on the star receiver's hip.
From there Brown also made at least three more catches on comebacks and outs despite sticky coverage from Bradberry, who was also victimized by DeVonta Smith snapping a Hurts pass from the air like a Venus flytrap and Dallas Goedert working the seam to perfection.
On every single play, Bradberry was there with dogged coverage making things more difficult.
If there was a box score, you might be prompted to say Bradberry, who continued to take some slot reps as an interesting curve ball to his outside work, had a poor performance but leaving the field the sentiment was that’s a damn good cornerback.
Iron was sharpening iron.
-Head coach Nick Sirianni hurled his bullhorn in anger tied to miscommunication on a “Hurricane” drill in which the kicking team needs to hurry onto the field for a field-goal attempt with no timeouts and the clock running down to zero.
The exact situation was end of the half at the plus-43-yard line, 20 seconds left, no timeouts on 3rd-and-12.
Left guard Landon Dickerson explained that the issue was uncertainty on whether the prior play was a first down. If it was, the offense is taught to stay on the field and spike the football. The special teams thought it wasn’t and was racing onto the field and some of the offensive linemen didn’t get to the sideline on time.
Communication and personnel changes have been an issue at times this summer and Sirianni is getting tired of it as the days on the calendar continue to turn.
-Dickerson told SI.com’s Eagles Today that his foot injury was getting stepped on. “Those spikes are sharp,” the big man said. Dickerson got the occasional respite today and when that happened Sua Opeta took the reps at left guard.
Not practicing were receivers Britain Covey (hamstring), Greg Ward (ankle), and Quez Watkins (hamstring), edge rushers Kyron Johnson (appendectomy), Haason Reddick (thumb), and Nolan Smith (shoulder), as well as defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (concussion), and running back Trey Sermon (ankle).
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox (knee soreness) and cornerback Mekhi Garner (ankle) were limited.
It should be noted that both Covey and Watkins had helmets when they hit the field and worked out before practice so they are getting close to returning.
-On the day linebacker Myles Jack called it a career after a very short stint in Philadelphia, the player he came with, Zach Cunningham, was again getting the most first-team reps opposite Nakobe Dean with Christian Elliss and Nicholas Morrow mixing in less. The growing sense is that the lengthy Cunningham will get the Will linebacker job opposite Dean barring injury.
Dean had a chance to make a splash play with good coverage on Dallas Goedert during 7-on-7 work but dropped a potential interception of Jalen Hurts.
-At safety, the rotation opposite Reed Blankenship doesn’t seem to be letting up with Terrell Edmunds starting the day on the first team and Sydney Brown ending it. Justin Evans and K’Von Wallace also got looks in between. The uncertainty at this late date doesn’t seem like a positive.
-The Eagles broke out a couple 21 personnel looks with Hurts running an RPO and pulling the football from D’Andre Swift on one such occasion.
-Play of the day honors go to Olamide Zaccheaus, who made a diving, fingertip catch on a deep crossing pattern from Hurts.
-In a rare rep for now fourth-team quarterback Ian Book, Tyree Jackson found himself open in the back of the end zone and Book delivered but the tight end dropped the pass. On the very next play, however, Book his Jackson on a nearly identical look for the TD.
-Arryn Siposs has seemingly won the Eagles' punting job after the team waived undrafted rookie Ty Zentner earlier this week. Siposs spoke after practice and noted that the aftermath of Super Bowl LVII was “real tough” for him. He said he rushed the misdirected punt that Kadarius Toney nearly took back to the house and tilted the game toward Kansas City and Siposs has been working on not rushing himself this offseason.
-The Eagles closed what was the final Eagles-only practice of training camp in fun fashion, a field-goal competition featuring four non-kickers: Marcus Mariota, Boston Scott, Cam Jurgens, and Justin Evans. Each attempted a 37-yarder with Mariota beginning with a wide-left miss.
The other three were successful with Evans winning on style points and Jurgens powering through with an old-school straight-line toe approach.
The three successful kickers advanced to 37-yarders in a real game-like setup with the entire battery of long snapper Rick Lovato and Siposs, the holder, plus a defense. All missed with Scott and Evans being wide left and Jurgens banging his off the right upright.
-The Eagles will close out the training-camp portion of their year on Tuesday of next week with a joint practice with the Indianapolis Colts and their new head coach Shane Steichen.
Steichen, of course, was the Eagles' offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2002.
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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
