Six months removed from Achilles surgery, Eagles’ Brandon Brooks sets his sights on the season-opener

Eagles right guard Brandon Brooks rode the cart off the field in New Orleans on Jan. 13, and underwent surgery to repair his Achilles tendon a few days later.

So it was more than mildly surprising Thursday, when the Eagles took the field for the first practice of training camp 2019, to see Brooks wearing a uniform and helmet, with his ankles taped around his cleats.

This turned out to be a bit of a tease — though injured Eagles usually don’t wear helmets during warmups, several of them did Thursday. Once full-team work started, Brooks adjourned to another field amid a contingent that included defensive tackle Fletcher Cox (foot), corner Ronald Darby (knee), safety Rodney McLeod (knee), running back Corey Clement (knee), linebacker Nigel Bradham (foot), and defensive end Derek Barnett (shoulder).

Only corner Jalen Mills (foot) did no practice work Thursday; Mills is forbidden from practicing, having been placed on the active/physically unable to perform list. This means the Eagles want to preserve the possibility of having Mills start the season on PUP, which would cost him six games. But since you can’t go on PUP once you’ve practiced, it also means Brooks and those other guys ought to be ready sooner rather than later.

“If not the first game, within the first couple,” said Brooks, whose recovery so far has gone without a hitch. Former tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai manned Brooks’ right guard spot Thursday, as was the case during spring drills.

“I’m extremely excited that they had the confidence in me and that I had the confidence in myself to come out here and move around today,” said Brooks, who agreed that Week 1 would be extraordinarily quick, for a player to be full-go after a mid-January Achilles injury.

“I don’t want to say I’m going to be out there Week 1 and then not be out there,” Brooks said. “But that definitely is the goal. I’m not going to lie to you guys about it."

Bradham, meanwhile, said he tore ligaments in his big toe in that same game, the playoff loss at New Orleans, which featured several turf-related injuries. Bradham indicated he hopes to be ready before the end of the preseason.

Cox’s foot injury also occurred in the playoff loss. He said rehabbing an injury made it “a little bit of a different offseason for me. I’ve just tried to be smart about it and follow the plan.”

He added that he was surprised not to have gained weight, since he wasn’t able to work out normally, but he did watch what he ate.