PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - Eagles training camp report, Day 8: Jalen Hurts, passing game impresses while DeVonta Smith returns, A.J. Brown sits

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

Fresh off the practice field, Zach Berman and Fran Duffy discuss the latest from Eagles training camp. Find out why the passing game looked good, why Jalyx Hunt and Moro Ojomo were players to know on defense, the situations the Eagles worked on in practice, injury updates, and so much more Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fresh off the practice field after day eight of the Eagles practice. I'm Zach Berman. That's Fran Duffy here for the PHLY Eagles show. Big news today, AJ Brown has a hamstring injury, did not participate in practice. You would think that would affect the passing game. Fran, how did the passing game look? Yeah, we talked on Friday about how the offense really started to bite back and the run game was a big part of it. But here on Sunday, the past game really was able to hit on some explosive plays down the field and in the intermediate area. We saw Jalen Hertz and Tanner McKee able to hit.

some of these chunk plays. I thought the past game looked as good as it has looked over the last week or so. Yeah, the good news for the Eagles, Devante Smith back, right? He had missed a few practices here, and there was a play early on in practice, just so smooth. Devante running across the middle, Jaywin hitting him. The offense missed him when he was gone. Important to have him back. Also, Dallas Goddard was a real big part of the offense. You saw Jaywin going to Goddard quite a bit. Yeah, no question. I think we know the connection that those two guys have. So being able to get Devante Smith back on the field. I think the Eagles would like it both 11 and number six back out there,

but it was nice to see the past game, really starting to get into a little bit of a rhythm after a rocky couple of days last week. The first team defense, what stood out about that group? Yeah, I think overall a couple of things. Number one, I wrote number 97 down a handful of times once again. Morrow Jomo continues to shine. 58.

I wrote down Jalek's Hunt. He looks a little bit more powerful this year than we did last year, and we knew that coming out of Houston Baptist that he was going to need a little bit more physical development and technical refinement. But I think the physical development has really come along. He's got a little bit more heavy-handedness with the way when he strikes offensive linemen,

you can see guys get knocked back. I thought that popped a handful of times here in this session on Sunday. And then the secondary, continuing to see a lot of rotation there on the back end. Sidney Brown getting the majority of the looks with the first team. Keeley Ringo, it felt like got the majority of the looks as well here at the other quarterback spot. opposite of Quignon Mitchell. Yeah, Keeley Ringo, who has been hot and cold this summer.

He had a few nice plays. There was one pass breakup in particular on Dallas Goddard that stood out. And a bow made a good point on Friday show about the Ronald Darby effect almost, you know, where he's in the right place, but he doesn't necessarily make a play on the ball. He was able to get that pass break up today. That's what you want to see from him. Yeah. He had another example, too, on one of those short throws where you saw that ability to just close really fast from Kili Ringo.

And so the physical tools, they're going to put him in position to be able to make those plays. And that's going to come down to if he's the starter, let's say there's nine of those plays, 10 of those plays over the course of the season. If you're an Eagles fan, if you're the Philadelphia Eagles, you're hoping that it comes on a positive end of it, six or seven of those plays. You mentioned Sidney Brown, positive development for the Eagle Safety, he's Drew McCuba back at practice. He had been absent really since Monday of last week.

Lost ground in that safety competition. I know we didn't see him as much with the ones today, but progress having him back. Yeah, no question. He spoke with reporters afterwards, and so anytime you're seeing a young player get back out in the field, Vic Fangio said last week that nothing can replace those physical on-field reps. And so getting him up to speed, that's going to be big for this safety competition. It does feel like that's Sydney jobs or Sydney Brown's job right now, but we'll see if McCuba has anything to say about that as they get ready for the first preseason game.

As far as taking the viewers and listeners inside, the structure of practice, today. There was a lot of end-of-half, end-of-game situations, and there was one play that stood out in particular, and that was a little pitch to sit to Sequin, Barclay, and Sequin rushes for the sideline there. It was a good play to gain some yards before the end of the half or the end of the game to kind of set yourself up in field goal range. They had the offensive line kind of bracketing on the path to the sideline. But you saw on that play just like Sequin's elusiveness. there are questions. Should Sequin go upfield a little more? Should he go out of bounds? Is that a play that stood out to you? Yeah, and Seaquin, coming up to the side, he was like, yeah, I feel like I could have gotten a few more there.

But look, those are the kinds of things. Those units are all trying to work out. The very next play, the third team offense went out there against the starting team defense. And it was a Hail Mary situation where, all right, Dorian Thompson, Robinson, who got all the third team reps with the quarterbacks, by the way, with third team offense. DTR chucked a Hail Mary deep And again, this is all Hail Mary Defense for the Eagles defense And Reed Blanketship went with a two-handed swat Down in the end zone So everybody kind of working a little bit of situational football

Here on Sunday. Speaking of end-to-game situations, you were on this back the beginning of camp, the second team defense. And at the end of practice today, the second team defense was keeping the Eagles out of the end zone. You saw a number of plays, like big-time plays.

You saw Dallas Gant. So that was actually, was that the, yeah, that was still the second team. at that point, making an interception to kind of end practice. What stood out about the second team defense today? Yeah, I mean, you just see those guys flying around. You know, whether it's some of the vets that are out there, you know, we've talked about Josh Ushay and Aziz O'Jolari,

but then you get into some of those young players. Dallas Gant is one of those guys. You know, Tristan McCollum, you know, those guys are always flying around. It's just like the energy that that unit has performed with over the majority of camp so far. You mentioned that interception to kind of end practice. The whole defense ran out in the field and mob Dallas Gant afterwards.

and so a lot of excitement from that unit to end practice. But I agree with you. I think that those guys were flying around. There's a really good energy from that second team defense over the course of camp. I saw you watching O-line D-line. Were there any players that really jumped out watching that drill? Yeah, I went over there thinking it was going to be O-Line D-Line-1s. And it ended up being two-on-toes where they were working on stunts and twists up front

with the defensive line and the offensive line, obviously working to protect, communicate, and try to pass those stunts off. So it's not quite as insightful from a pure one-on-one situation. But I will say that was one of those periods I referenced earlier with Jalix Hunt, a number of times where Jailx was able to strike offensive linemen. And you can see guys consistently just getting knocked backwards. I just don't think we saw that a year ago from the third round pick. Yeah.

As far as the full practice, I'm sorry, the full injury report today, Zach Bond did not practice back injury. We mentioned A.J. Brown hamstring injury. Lewis Seen hamstring injury. Montreal Johnson, an undrafted rookie who's been coming on, he had a hamstring injury. Terrace Marshall did not practice it with a knee. Mack McWilliams, the promising young rookie,

he has a quad injury, did not practice, and then Ben Van Sumer and with an ankle injury. Good news for the Eagles. Nolan Smith is returning into action, recovering from that concussion. I mentioned Devante Smith and Drew McCuba as well. So we're on Sunday here. The Eagles have three more practices

until that first preseason game. And then once you hit that first preseason game, the structure of the summer really changes. You have the joint practice. You don't have as many continuous days. What do you want to see from the Eagles during these next three days? Yeah, I think the big thing is just continuing to refine the details, get things ready for that first set of joint practices.

The only set of joint practices against Cleveland the following week. So it's going to be a big week here. You have practice on Monday and Tuesday, preseason game on Thursday. You've got some action over the weekend. and then you're getting ready for Cleveland to come to down for a couple of practices before that second preseason game against the Browns. One last thing, we've been talking about the playlist on the shows. One song that got filtered in here today, it was Durand's walkout music.

And so you didn't have the tarantula and the lights off and the cell phone lights on, but you did see, you heard the music. You could feel like you were in Citizens Bank Park there. I don't know if you caught that. Yeah, I caught that. Some players certainly seemed to enjoy that. However, look, Bo's not with us. The playlist did that. The boomer music was out in full force for the majority of team sessions before the Duran music. So there was some Steppenwolf. We had Hells Bells once again from ACDC for I believe the fifth or sixth time this summer. I'm sure Bo will give us a full report on that for Monday show.

So to find out about the playlist and what happened in Monday's practice, tune in to the P. H.L.Y. Eagle Show on Monday. Until then, that's friend Duffy. I'm Zach Berman. Thanks for watching