Eagles training camp: Devin White's group chat with Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown; Vic Fangio on James Bradberry; latest injury news

Jordan Davis is a large man sweating the little things.

The Eagles defensive tackle is going into a pivotal third season with the team noticeably slimmer and off to a promising start in the early going of training camp. After the team’s opening practice, a minute detail in Davis’ technique even earned a shoutout from the sometimes-terse Vic Fangio during the defensive coordinator’s film review session with his group.

New Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is known to not mince words. There’s usually not much gray area with him.

When Fangio was asked Thursday morning about edge rusher Bryce Huff, and why he thinks Huff can be an every-down player, Fangio delivered an honest assessment of where things stand early in training camp.

In the lead-up to training camp, Devin White started a new group chat with Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown. The new Eagles linebacker named the group ‘accountability’ and sent them a photo of an empty glass.

Before they had the chance to respond, White added a message with a goal for the impending training camp.

Landon Dickerson returned to action in training camp on Thursday, one day after he was sidelined due to a toe laceration.

The starting left guard is considered a limited participant in the second practice of camp. Mekhi Becton, who filled in as the starter in Dickerson's place on Wednesday, remained his backup in offensive line drills.

After spending his eight-year NFL career as a starting cornerback, James Bradberry is tackling a transition in his career, taking reps in training camp as a depth safety.

That transition won't be easy — on Thursday morning, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio discussed the challenges that veteran corners face while attempting to make that switch.

While spring drills involve mostly passing plays, and the same applies to non-contact training camp practices, we did get our first glimpse of Barkley getting handoffs. He broke into the second level on a trap play that sealed off Carter for his best carry of the workout.

Run downs allowed Fangio to work on his base defense. His five-man front had outside linebacker Bryce Huff on the left side. Huff was essentially a pass rush specialist with the New York Jets. He had to defend the run at times, but not often on early downs. Can he be effective in that role, or at least set the edge so that the interior linemen and off-ball linebackers get to the ball?

The ever-important dynamic between Hurts and Sirianni has been subject to scrutiny. Hurts gave measured answers about Sirianni’s job security in January following the team’s late-season collapse and was similarly measured when asked about Sirianni being willing to cede some control of the offense to Kellen Moore at the conclusion of organized team activities early last month, saying he didn’t know how to answer the question.

According to The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane, Hurts’ answer to the question “disappointed several key members of the Eagles’ organization.”

I’ll have more of an in-depth look, ahem, at the depth chart in another post soon, but here’s a quick rundown on how key positional battles looked on the first day:

At outside cornerback, Isaiah Rodgers was first up with the starters. Kelee Ringo got some snaps with the first team, as well. Rookie Quinyon Mitchell should be in the mix, as well, for the spot opposite Darius Slay, but he ran with the twos on this day. He could have a better shot at slot cornerback (more on that later).

Saquon Barkley, like everyone else, also is getting accustomed to a new offense. Throughout the team periods, Barkley took plenty of handoffs from Jalen Hurts and even snared some passes out of the backfield. He’s getting used to running behind a new offensive line, which he said was the reason why he wanted to play in Philadelphia in the first place.

“I had a run today where it just felt natural,” Barkley said of working with the offensive line. “It felt like we’ve been doing this for a long time. I kind of set the linebacker up, and I went front door. It was wide open. We got a big gain on them. I’m looking forward to [more of] that.”

The Eagles moved on from Ted Rath, their vice president of player performance. That move was the most notable among the various staff changes the Eagles announced in early June.

Rath was named the NFL’s top strength and conditioning coach for a second time following the 2022 season, which ended with a loss in Super Bowl LVII. But the team took a step back in 2023, and some Eagles staff members felt some players were not in the shape they needed to be in late last season.