Good morning, Eagles fans! Today is the final practice before the Eagles take on the Jaguars in Jacksonville on Thursday. The action will begin at 9:15 a.m. and head coach Doug Pederson and Carson Wentz will speak with the media immediately afterward. Both press conferences will be livestreamed here and on our social media platforms at around 11:10 a.m. In this edition of Morning Roundup presented by Microsoft, we will cover all the action from Monday's lighter practice. Even though the time on the field was shorter, the practice was nothing short of intense. Let's get into the most notable stories.
1. Practice Notes: 15 takeaways from Monday's workout
In the latest edition of Practice Notes, Fran Duffy, Ben Fennell, and Chris McPherson offered observations from the shortened session. The 10-10-10 practice was 90 minutes long and featured learning lessons for some of the young players on the team. But practice opened with the franchise quarterback on fire.
Carson Wentz dropped a couple of great throws in the bucket downfield, first hitting Nelson Agholor on a fade route down the right sideline over the shoulder against Avonte Maddox for a long touchdown. On the next play, he threw a pass to tight end Josh Perkins on a similar route on the left side. On the final play of the sequence, Wentz unleashed a beautiful go route to Alshon Jeffery down the left sideline for a long touchdown against Jeremiah McKinnon. – Fran Duffy
2. Paul Worrilow: 'I'm going to make the most of every one of these moments'
Sunday was a milestone day for Paul Worrilow, who was back on the field for the first time since the start of Training Camp. He's battled to get back to full health since he tore his ACL on the first day of the 2018 spring OTAs. Worrilow has been waiting a long time for this. Now that he is healthy, he is ready to take advantage of the opportunity to make the 53-man roster. For the complete story, check out Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro's piece on Worrilow’s journey back to his best self.
"I'm trying to push it as far as I can every day," Worrilow said. "It's not hard to do when you're doing something you love. I'll continue pushing this and I'm going to beat it. For right now, it just feels great to be out on the field practicing. Hopefully, I'll get out there and play some real football very soon."
3. Andre Dillard shows promise in preseason debut
Fran Duffy analyzed the performances of the young offensive linemen from Thursday's preseason debut against the Titans. Here's what Duffy wrote about the Eagles' first-round pick, Andre Dillard.
"My favorite part of Dillard's play, however, was how he used his hands. It's not often that we see tackles with his physical gifts who use their hands as well as he showed on Thursday. Why? Those guys are so gifted in college that they typically don't NEED to be technicians, so it takes time for them to get there in the NFL. That does not seem to be the case through one game with Dillard. As soon as some of those veteran pass rushers tried to wipe away his hands in pass protection, he was extremely quick to replace them, putting them back on the opponent's breastplate and regain control of the block. This happened a few times in this game, namely on Nate Sudfeld's touchdown throw to Marken Michel."
The rookie has lots of room to grow before he can be a quality starter in the league, but he took a great first step on Thursday night.
4. Mike Groh: DeSean Jackson is more than just a long ball threat
Jackson has a reputation of being a deep threat, from his performance in Miracle of the Meadowlands, No. 2 to holding the record for the most 60+ yard touchdowns in the NFL with 24. While this element is a big part of his game, offensive coordinator Mike Groh knows Jackson's talents can translate to many roles on the field.
"DeSean is a complete player," Groh said. "He can do anything that he wants. As a coach, it's really exciting because you can just say, 'Hey, can you run this route or can you do it like this,' and you can just tell him and he can do it. So from a coaching standpoint that makes it really easy, and we're just trying to move him around and have him do a bunch of different things because he is such a weapon."
