Eagles

Eagles Training Camp: Crossing that Bridge

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 3rd, 2018 · 12:26 PM EDT

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As Rebecca Black once said, “it’s Friday, it’s Friday, gotta get down on Friday.”

That’s what the Eagles did today, getting down with a light 10-10-10 training camp session at the NovaCare complex. Players were not in pads and Carson Wentz did not participate. The Birds get a day off tomorrow before returning for Sunday’s public practice. Tickets for that event are free, but you’re required to get them from Ticketmaster and they now appear to be sold out.

When I checked the website at 11:44 a.m. today, I got this message:

Same thing with next Saturday’s open practice. Looks like Eagles fans really wanna see their defending Super Bowl champions.

Some Friday notes from the assembled media:

• Zach Ertz got a rest day
• Tim Jernigan was in the locker room but did not speak to reporters and did not give a time frame on his return.
• Darren Sproles is taking kick returns in addition to punts
• Michael Bennett played some defensive tackle snaps next to Chris Long
• Sidney Jones did more work with the 1st team defense as the nickel corner
• Haloti Ngata was back after getting Thursday off
• Richard Rodgers did not practice (took a hard hit yesterday)

Jake Elliott just successfully kicked an onside kick to himself. Totally caught the kick return team off guard. #Eagles

— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 3, 2018

Seemed like a quiet day down there.

Doug Pederson spoke after the session and didn’t have much to say:

• Wentz didn’t participate today because 10-10-10 isn’t a controlled environment. “The situations are controlled, but the actions are not at the snap. It’s still part of the plan and we’re not going to subject him to that right now.”
• Doug reiterated that what he saw from Wentz on the first couple days is good enough for him. “We’ll cross that bridge when that day comes.”
• no setbacks for Wentz, no swelling, no nothing, what you guys see might look backwards (in terms of his participation), but he’s doing much more behind the scenes that people do not see
• on Sproles returning kicks: easier than catching punts, but with the new rules, probably allows for a little more space (mentions that even with the new rules, kickers were still able to boot the ball out of the end zone in last night’s Hall of Fame game)
• Josh Sweat and Richard Rodgers both had “nagging” injuries, just wanted to give them some extra time to recover
• happy with Cameron Johnston as the punter, he’s done a good job
• they have benchmarks and milestones for Wentz’s recovery but didn’t want to get into specifics on that

Here’s the video:

Watch live as head coach Doug Pederson meets with the media. https://t.co/Uu8PFVuFET

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 3, 2018

So yeah, it’s easy to sit here and kind of roll your eyes at the same Carson Wentz questions over and over again, but the fact of the matter is that we’re 34 days out from the season opener and he hasn’t done 11v11 this week. It’s good to know that the Eagles aren’t concerned, but you’d probably like some reassurance in the form of your starting quarterback actually being on the field in a full contact, non-controlled environment.

That’s it. Enjoy your Friday.