Eagles practice observations: Nick Sirianni chucks megaphone; Jalen Hurts is (still) so good, as are A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert

The Eagles held their 14th open practice of the 2023 training camp at the NovaCare Complex on Sunday. Here are the links to Days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Here were my observations from Day 14.

Jalen Hurts hasn’t garnered much attention in my notes because, well, we know for the most part what he can do. This season is an important one in his development, of course. He has to prove he can play at an elite level in consecutive seasons. There’s been no sign to the contrary in camp. But Sunday’s practice might have been the first to indicate he’s improved even more.

With the Eagles working on blitzes, Hurts and the first-unit offense often took advantage of numbers advantages in the secondary. A year ago, the Detroit Lions blitzed the heck out of the quarterback in the opener and the offensive line struggled, with Hurts often forced to scramble. The offense made strides as the season progressed, but defensive coordinators are likely to continue to test the young quarterback by sending extra rushers.

Both sides had their wins and losses on Sunday, but Hurts often found an open receiver when pressured, most often A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, or Dallas Goedert.

One of Hurts’ best passes also led to the best catch of the day. He went to Olamide Zaccheaus on a deep cross with safety Terrell Edmunds draped on the receiver. The throw had to be low and Zaccheaus made a shoestring grab with his fingertips and somehow held on even though Edmunds was flagged for pass interference.

Hurts spread the ball around to his top three ball catchers and all three were more than reliable. He went to Brown early and cornerback James Bradberry made the receiver work. But Brown pulled in each pass, the last one in the set being his best: a reception in which he plucked a dart out of the air.

Smith’s first target was broken up by cornerback Darius Slay, who has stepped up his play the last week. Slay also ran with him on a deep route when Hurts threw one up vs. Cover 0. But Smith finished strong, first by leaping for a perfectly aimed toss by his quarterback in the back of the end zone in seven-on-sevens. And then he caught two comebackers in front of cornerback Josh Jobe when the first team went up against the second-unit defense.

Goedert was not to be outdone. The tight end ran precise underneath safety routes that Hurts kept going to vs. various pressures. He caught a touchdown in zone coverage during seven-on-sevens. And he flashed his sure hands with tightly contested catches against safety Reed Blankenship and linebacker Christian Elliss.

Nick Sirianni can be a hothead. He wasn’t necessarily shy about showing that side in his first two seasons as coach, but he’s seemingly lost his cool more this summer. He had his biggest explosion to date when the Eagles were working on a hurry-up situation.

It was fourth down with seconds remaining and Hurts ran on a draw and apparently picked up the first down. The kicking team, though, ran out onto the field. Sirianni slammed his megaphone on the ground and chased after long snapper Rick Lovato to get him off the field. It was too late as the clock had run out.

Sirianni has worked a lot on sideline communication in camp. He doesn’t want to have to burn timeouts because coaches and players aren’t situationally aware. Earlier in camp, Hurts didn’t get the offense off the field in a timely fashion and his coach flipped out on him — and understandably so.

The Eagles open the season in exactly three weeks. Depending on the viewpoint, that’s either more than enough time to figure out the last few open starting spots, or far from it with only one more competition against another team remaining. On Saturday, Justin Evans and Zach Cunningham seemed to have the edge at safety and linebacker, respectively.

There was more rotation at safety a day later, but Cunningham continued to get the most snaps alongside the entrenched Nakobe Dean at linebacker. Edmunds started the day at safety, but Sydney Brown and Evans also took turns at safety next to Blankenship. The competition at linebacker, meanwhile, got lighter with Myles Jack’s retirement. He clearly wasn’t catching on in Philly.

» READ MORE: Source: LB Myles Jack to retire after a brief Eagles training camp opportunity

On the injury front, outside linebacker Patrick Johnson (ankle) returned to action as a full participant. The following players remained out: linebacker Haason Reddick (thumb), receivers Quez Watkins (hamstring), Britain Covey (hamstring) and Greg Ward (ankle), running back Trey Sermon (ankle), linebacker Kyron Johnson (appendectomy), and defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (concussion).

Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox (knee soreness) and cornerback Mekhi Garner (ankle) were upgraded to limited.

As noted above, the Eagles worked on blitzing and new defensive coordinator Sean Desai threw a variety at Hurts and the other quarterbacks. Marcus Mariota and his offensive line struggled during one set, failing to pick up an overload blitz that gave defensive end Janarius Robinson a free pass on the blind side, and not handling a double-A gap blitz that freed up Elliss.

The first-unit offense wasn’t exactly perfect vs. the blitz, either. Sydney Brown was unaccounted for on a delayed blitz that Hurts walked into when he spun toward the safety. Mariota did essentially the same when he turned away from pressure and there was Avonte Maddox after a blitz from the slot.

There’s been a lot of speculation about Desai’s scheme and whether he’ll blitz much, or at least more than predecessor Jonathan Gannon. Desai wasn’t known for sending extra rushers at a high rate in his one year as coordinator with the Chicago Bears, but he did like to be creative with four-man rushes, and I think that’s what we may see more of this season.

Mariota had a decent practice on Sunday coming off the dismal performance in the second preseason game, but his inconsistencies returned a day later. He was sloppy on his first set in seven-on-sevens. On his first pass attempt, I couldn’t tell if he was throwing the ball away or trying to hit a receiver, but either way it was an incomplete pass. He then missed an open Dan Arnold on a corner in the end zone when he checked down instead. He threw at Grant Calcaterra’s ankles on a relatively easy short throw. And then he failed to hook up with receiver Joseph Ngata on a sideline route.

Mariota fared better in his first-team drill vs. the first-unit defense, hitting Arnold on a deep dig and then tight end Brady Russell down to the 1-yard line with Bradberry in coverage out of the slot.

Asked for young players who have impressed him so far in camp, Bradberry mentioned Tanner McKee first. The rookie quarterback didn’t practice much the day before, but he got some action on Sunday. Tyree Jackson, who was one of his favorite targets early in camp, has seemingly leveled off the last few weeks. They struggled to connect on a few throws.

Quarterback Ian Book took his first team snaps since the first preseason game. He was under center for third-team reps in seven-on-sevens and tried to hit Jackson in the back of the end zone on successive passes. Jackson couldn’t hang onto the first while also stepping out of bounds. He pulled in the second, and while he was given the touchdown, I was standing 10 feet away and could see he only got one foot in.

» READ MORE: Eagles punter Arryn Siposs loses competition pressure with Ty Zentner exit

Dean had a near interception on a Hurts pass to Goedert in seven-on-sevens. … Fred Johnson’s promotion to second-team left tackle seems to be primarily based on merit. … Defensive tackle Jalen Carter has gotten his most first-team defense reps with Fletcher Cox out the last two days. I asked the rookie about his highlight rush last week in which he seemingly pancaked Joel Bitonio and whether the Browns’ Pro Bowl left guard had tripped. “It was a good rep from both of us, but he happened to fall,” Carter said. “Things happen on the football field. He just got back and we played the next down.”

At the end of practice, Sirianni had emergency kicker tryouts. Mariota went first from PAT distance and shanked his attempt wide left and short. Running back Boston Scott was next and snuck his through. Offensive lineman Cam Jurgens toed his try through the uprights. Evans made his and looked the best in doing so. In round two, Scott was wide left, Jurgens bricked his toe job off the right upright and Evans kicked his wide left nearly out of bounds. It’s probably safe to say that Sirianni will go for two if Jake Elliott can’t kick in a game. … The Eagles have a closed walk-through on Monday before Tuesday’s joint practice with the Colts.