Eagles practice observations: Sloppy start; Jalen Carter passes the early eye test; a budding TE returns

The Eagles opened the 2023 training camp with their first practice of the summer at the NovaCare Complex on Wednesday. Here were my observations from Day 1:

Sloppy Joes. I can’t imagine Nick Sirianni expected his squad to run like a well-oiled machine on the first day — especially when he had so few workouts in the spring — but the mistakes piled up as team drills periods extended late into practice. I counted, all told, six pre-snap penalties. There may have been more, but I was situated on the left sidelines near the field judge, who gave his right arm quite the workout from all the flags he threw.

Sirianni exploded several times. The Eagles don’t want reporters quoting coaches and players directly from practice, but Sirianni’s language was colorful as he lambasted rookie guard Tyler Steen for a false start, defensive end Janarius Robinson for jumping offside, and even new defensive coordinator Sean Desai when his unit kept making errors.

I recall the post-Super Bowl Eagles from five years ago — confirms from past notes — committing a slew of pre-snap penalties early in camp and then-coach Doug Pederson increasingly becoming unhinged. This post-Super Bowl team, despite the loss to the Chiefs, is seemingly in much better shape for various reasons (see one reason why below) than the 2018 group. But there are new faces, a new defensive terminology, and there is always a learning curve. That’s what camp is for, however. One sloppy, 55-minute workout in shorts and shells does not a season make.

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts and the Eagles look to forge a new identity as they begin training camp: ‘Whatever wins’

Roll call. The Eagles are probably the healthiest I ever seen them at this stage in the 15 seasons I’ve covered the team. There was only one significant player missing – outside linebacker Haason Reddick — but the Eagles said he would be back from a groin injury by the weekend.

Cornerback Avonte Maddox (toe) and defensive end Derek Barnett (knee) were listed as limited participants before practice. Maddox missed most of the spring and Barnett is returning from a torn ACL. Wide receiver Devon Allen was placed on the non-football injury list. The hurdler suffered a calf injury during track season.

Health check. The Eagles, obviously, wouldn’t give back their lone Lombardi Trophy, but they paid the price in terms of injury following the 2017 season. They lost a number of players to surgery during that run, most significantly quarterback Carson Wentz, but several others played through pain till the end and had to hold off procedures after the long season.

It made for a difficult camp and start to the season, one that was complicated by Wentz’s resistance to the team’s timetable for his return. The Eagles were then bitten by the injury bug – some of it unavoidable, some of it a product of medical staff turnover and roster moves that brought back injury-prone veterans like Jason Peters or Darren Sproles and aging free agents such as Mike Wallace and Haloti Ngata.

The Eagles were among the most healthy teams last season. They were fortunate, but the sports science staff’s approach to fewer and shorter practices and to soft pedaling the return of key players during camp seemed to have paid off in dividends — then and now.

» READ MORE: Eagles health check: No big injuries to open training camp

Running on full. My first look at the (unofficial) depth chart can be found here. I provided notes on each position based on Wednesday’s team drills. Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman fielded questions about replacing Miles Sanders at running back, but there likely won’t be just one player who takes the majority of his carries this season.

The by-committee approach was on full display at practice. Rashaad Penny took the first handoff from quarterback Jalen Hurts, but D’Andre Swift got his touches with the first unit, and Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott were featured with the second group. Team and seven-on-seven drills were in the red zone and Penny got some goal line rushes. It’s hard to gauge his strength with little contact, but he ran well despite all the injuries he’s endured in his career.

Receiving was a different story. It’s easy to see from the routes he ran why Penny hasn’t been much of a factor in the passing game. The same can’t be said for Swift. He had some grabs, and while safety Tristin McCollum was able to wrest a ball from his hands that deflected to linebacker Davion Taylor for an interception, rookie quarterback Tanner McKee’s pass was late and high.

So good. Hurts’ slow start last camp should put into context early reports of success or failure in camp. On Wednesday, he was often on time with his throws and smartly threw the ball away whenever his first reads were covered. Desai’s unit deserved some credit for not making his day an easy one. Safety Reed Blankenship broke up a pass to Gainwell during seven-on-sevens. Safety K’Von Wallace wasn’t fooled by a fake and stayed with Gainwell on a first read wheel route. Cornerback James Bradberry plastered tight end Dallas Goedert and forced an incomplete pass.

But Hurts had in-rhythm tosses to Goedert on a crosser in front of linebacker Nakobe Dean and he hooked up with receiver A.J. Brown underneath a soft zone. Goedert had maybe the best day of the skill position players and found the end zone a few times with runs after the catch. He’s pretty good.

Quarter pole. Backup quarterback Marcus Mariota had probably the pass of the day. He also had maybe the blunder of the day. On the former, he lifted a pass over a defender to tight end Tyree Jackson in the back of the end zone for a score. Jackson, the former college quarterback who raised eyebrows as a ball catcher two camps ago, nicely pulled in the pass and got both feet in before the end line. Jackson caught another pass from Mariota on a comeback route in front of cornerback Darius Slay.

Mariota’s mistake came earlier when he lost his handle on the football on a broken play. The turnover was reminiscent of the fumble he had on a key short-yardage run in last season’s opener for the Falcons, as featured recently on Netflix’s “Quarterback” docuseries. Later in practice, Mariota couldn’t field a low snap. He scooped the ball up and tried to throw, but Robinson spread his arms for a batted pass.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Hurts turned down the chance to be featured on Netflix’s ‘Quarterback’ docuseries

Self Tanner. The 6-foot-6 McKee stands out among the Eagles’ other quarterbacks. Not so much for his accuracy — at least not yet. The Stanford product’s head has to be swimming in information and that can affect the mechanics. He had a few wobblers, which were caught, but only because the distance wasn’t very far. He tried to thread a pass to Jackson, but rookie defensive backs Sydney Brown and Mekhi Garner combined to force an incompletion.

Scheming ways. It’s going to be some time before we know if there will be any significant differences in Desai’s defense vs. Jonathan’s Gannon’s scheme. They both come from the school of Vic Fangio, but Desai is bringing with him new terminology. The verbiage will take time to get used to, but it shouldn’t be a deterrent to being ready in six weeks.

Desai will utilize multiple fronts — most often 3-4 on obvious run downs and 4-2 on pass downs — and lean on split-safety zone coverages. But he will have an assortment of looks and do his best to disguise pre-snap. I did notice defensive end Brandon Graham, who was filling in for Reddick, dropping into coverage on a pass play. Some didn’t like seeing Reddick drop last season. But he only did it 7 percent of the time and it helped disguise some of Gannon’s pressures.

Get Carter. I spent the latter part of team drills focused on Jalen Carter, the Eagles’ top draft pick. The defensive tackle passed the early eye test. He got off the ball quickly and used a sudden swim move to penetrate past guard Landon Dickerson for a pressure.

Center Jason Kelce said after practice that he didn’t have to block Carter, but he said he felt the 6-foot-3, 324-pound rookie “make a drastic inside move” during one play.

Extra points. … Special-teams drills focused exclusively on punts and punt returns. Incumbent Arryn Siposs and rookie Ty Zentner took turns booting next to each other and it helped a little in comparing the two. I didn’t clock their hang times, but Siposs appeared to have more strength in his kicks. Power isn’t everything, though. … Britain Covey, Quez Watkins, Greg Ward, and Olamide Zaccheaus fielded punts. … The Eagles have a closed walkthrough scheduled for Thursday and will open again for Friday’s practice.