Philadelphia Eagles News

Practice Blog: August 5

Aug 05, 2009 at 04:17 AM

Here's a look at what happened during Wednesday's practices at Lehigh University. The updates were provided by Bob Kent (BK), Chris McPherson (CM) and Bo Wulf (BW).

8:03 AM -Jeremy Maclin emerges from the A. Haigh Cundey Field House ready to take part in his first training camp practice. The Eagles waste no time getting him reps at punt returner in the pre-practice special teams drills along with DeSean Jackson and Danny Amendola. Today is a 30-and-over day which means players who are at least 30 years old get the morning practice off. (CM)
8:15 AM - The special teams drills are over and the players break out into positional drills. (CM)
8:21 AM- There were cheers from the bleachers as Jeremy Maclin caught his first ball of warmups, which then prompted an E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES cheer. More good news as Macho Harris is on the field in pads and practicing with the defensive backs. Jason Peters and Ellis Hobbs have walked on the field to join the rehab guys (Trevor Laws, Victor Abiamiri, and Matt Schobel). (BW)
8:36 AM- There is no sign of Cornelius Ingram on the practice field this morning. We'll keep you posted as soon as we get more information. (BW)
8:59 AM- Notes from the team blitz drill: The No. 1 defense was very animated, highlighted by Asante Samuel, Quintin Mikell, and Omar Gaither. The defense was in nickel the whole drill, so the linebackers were Gaither and Akeem Jordan. The other interesting personnel note was that with the absence of Ellis Hobbs and Sheldon Brown (over 30), Dimitri Patterson was getting the reps as the first team RCB. The D put on an impressive performance against the No. 1 offense, allowing only a 10 yard completion from Kevin Kolb to DeSean Jackson that produced some friendly chirping between Jackson and Samuel, who was covering him. "Try that again and I'll take it to the house," Samuel told Jackson. Afterwards, Mikell shouted words of encouragement to the unit, "That's how you do it D," he said. During the No. 2 offense vs. No. 2 defense, Jeremy Maclin caught a WR screen that looked like it would have produced some very positive yardage if the drill were live. The No. 2 nickel personnel was Gocong, Williams, Klecko, and Smith along the line from left to right, Mays and White at LB, Parker, Ikegwuonu, and Patterson at corner, and Baker and Jones at safety. (BW)
9:06 AM- In case you were wondering, the complete list of the 30 and over club excused from today's practice is David Akers, Kevin Curtis, Darren Howard, Sheldon Brown, Donovan McNabb, Juqua Parker and Sav Rocca. A.J. Feeley is practicing and Matt Shobel is rehabbing on the field despite both being over 30. (BW)
9:18 AM - Tight end Cornelius Ingram is out on the field, but he is watching practice from the sidelines in a jersey and shorts. (CM)
9:39 AM- With team chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie standing on the sidelines observing practice this morning, Asante Samuel went over to the boss after an impressive series by the No. 1 defense during special CAT drills and said, "Lurie, I know if you were a football player you'd be on defense right?" and exchanged a hand pound.
9:41 AM- Notes from the special CAT drill in which the team was working on red zone play: Kevin Kolb looked very patient and was taking whatever the defense gave him ... Jason Babin showed a good burst off the line of scrimmage when working in as the No. 2 LDE ... Moise Fokou has had a very impressive morning practice, including a play in which he beautifully sniffed out a swing pass to Lorenzo Booker for a stop five yards behind the line of scrimmage ... Jason Avant continued to show his good hands, making a couple nice catches ... Matt Wilhelm was working in with the No. 2 nickel defense at linebacker ... LeSean McCoy had a nice run slicing up the middle. (BW)
10:30 AM - The last team drill didn't include any live hitting. In fact, none of this morning's drills involved live hitting. The Eagles worked on third-and-short situations against a nickel defense. Jason Babin certainly didn't waste any time getting feisty with his new teammates. Babin mixed it up with Chris Patrick after a rep. The nicest play of the day from my view was DeSean Jackson burned Asante Samuel deep down the right sideline for a touchdown. Afterwards, Jackson simply kept repeating, "Yeaahh!" over and over to Samuel who had no comeback. Jackson said it one final time as both sides lined up for the next rep. The Eagles settled for a short gain on the next play as Kolb hit LeSean McCoy in the flat on the right side. Defensive line coach Rory Segrest instructed Chris Clemons, the left end, to make sure he gets his hands up. Brian Westbrook came out to the practice field adjacent to the one that the Eagles are working on to watch the latter part of practice. Head coach Andy Reid realizes that his defense is getting tired and is vocal in trying to pump them up to keep fighting. "I know you're getting tired of chasing No. 10," Reid said. Trent Cole was able to get Todd Herremans to commit a holding penalty on one of the final reps. Dimitri Patterson, the starting right corner at practice, had a nice jam at the line of scrimmage on Jeremy Maclin. The last rep saw Akeem Jordan make a nice pass breakup that nearly led to an interception. Reid commended Jordan on the play. From what I saw of the new defensive end Jason Babin, he has really good size and quickness. He looks like he could be the biggest end on the roster, it would either be him or Victor Abiamiri. The snaps I saw, he worked in as the second-team left defensive end. He showed good technique on one rep using a spin move to get inside to the quarterback. The players are stretching after the special teams drill as practice is about to finish up. (CM)
3:07 PM - The team is currently working on kickoffs before heading into more of the 10-10-10 practice. Jeremy Maclin is already getting work as a kickoff returner, splitting time with Danny Amendola. They're working on reverses and fake reverses during the return. Punter Sav Rocca is also proving to be a prolific handler of the JUGS machine. Ostensibly to give David Akers' leg a rest, Rocca is putting footballs into the machine which then rockets the ball up into the with the same height and distance of a normal kickoff. Rocca is so adept that he's been adjusting it accordingly after each rep to give slightly different looks. What a talent. (BW)
3:40 PM- During the offensive install portion of the practice, LeSean McCoy did something he's yet to do thus far during training camp ... he completed a pass. The Eagles ran a toss right for McCoy who then threw on the run to Hank Baskett. As for his throwing motion, I'd say it's probably a good thing he's a running back. None of the players who didn't practice this morning for injury reasons are practicing this afternoon, which means Eugene Bright is getting some valuable reps as the backup tight end. This is also the first time that Jeremy Maclin and Donovan McNabb have practiced together, and they hooked up on a long completion during the same offensive intall session. (BW)

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