Eagles practice alone in Miami after Dolphins cancel session due to ‘non-COVID illness’

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Eagles traveled quite a distance to practice by themselves.

The team had Baptist Health training complex in Miami to themselves Thursday morning after the Dolphins canceled their practice to limit the spread of a supposed stomach bug affecting a noteworthy number of players the night before.

The second and final joint practice for the teams was set to begin around 10:15 a.m., but the Dolphins met virtually “out of an abundance of caution.”

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The two teams are scheduled to play their final preseason game at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday at 7 p.m. Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said the decision to cancel Dolphins’ practice was made in an effort to avoid jeopardizing the game. Dolphins players and staffers have both been affected by the illness, but McDaniel was purposefully vague when asked how many players were affected.

“It’s more than a few, but it’s not half the team by any stretch,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to prevent; to have half the team drained out from a stomach bug, fighting through the heat, and then have depleted performance in the preseason game.”

McDaniel said multiple times during his news conference that he hopes to get the team in a position to play the preseason finale if possible.

“For a lot of guys, it’s the most important game of their career.” he said. “I hold a strong amount of value to that.”

The Eagles trained against the Dolphins on Wednesday morning after spending last week practicing against the Cleveland Browns on the road. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said no Eagles players have any symptoms consistent with the Dolphins’ outbreak during his pre-practice news conference Thursday.

“We hope everybody with the Dolphins are OK,” Sirianni said. “We don’t have any symptoms on our side, so that’s why we’re out here practicing today. I’m not a doctor to know all these things, but after discussing with our trainers and our doctors, we’re good to go and good to practice.”

Sirianni’s impromptu practice ran for about an hour outside before spending another 20 minutes or so in the Dolphins’ indoor facility for a walk-through closed to the media. The outside portion was heavy on team periods and featured mostly the first- and second-team units.

Sirianni said he hasn’t determined a certain amount of advanced notice he’ll need from the Dolphins regarding postponing or canceling the preseason matchup.

“I don’t need a timetable on that,” he said. “Again, like I said, our guys are ready. Our guys are healthy and fine. Like I said, hopefully they feel better. As far as [whatever] the league tells us to do, we’ll do. But like I said, we’re good on our end.”

The Dolphins had a noted advantage over the Eagles in Wednesday’s session, although it’s worth mentioning the Eagles may have been travel-weary and had yet to acclimate to the muggy Florida weather.

Sirianni has harped on the importance joint practices have on the preparation for the regular season. He has exhibited a preference to them instead of preseason game snaps.

“You don’t go out there every single week and play the same defense every week,” Sirianni said. “It’s good to go against different schemes, that’s one of the benefits of these joint practices. Obviously we’re bummed today that we can’t go out and compete with them, but it really helps. In training camp, you want to be able to play your rules on each individual play and handle any of the things that pop up, that’s what I felt like our players did a good job of yesterday.”

Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith said lost reps against the Dolphins didn’t change his approach to practice. Smith had a strong performance on Wednesday and made a handful of plays Thursday, although he did have one drop during a team period late in practice.

“You’re still coming out here and getting better by working on what you need to work on,” Smith said. “No matter of it was them or us, it’s just coming out here and doing the fine-tuning on my game.”

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Inquirer Eagles beat reporters EJ Smith and Josh Tolentino preview the team’s final preseason game against the Miami and recap the joint practice leading into the game. Watch at Inquirer.com/EaglesGameday