PHILADELPHIA — Sirens would have sounded if Jalen Hurts had done last summer what he did Wednesday during the Eagles’ joint practice with the Cleveland Browns.
From the beginning, it was a difficult day for the Eagles’ quarterback at the team’s practice facility in South Philadelphia. He was intercepted early in a one-on-one drill by Browns cornerback Cameron Mitchell, but it may have been wide receiver Ainias Smith’s fault.
Regardless, it proved to be a sign of things to come.
A short time later, during a 7-on-7 drill, Hurts threw a pass over the middle that was intended for tight end Dallas Goedert. Linebacker Devin Bush stepped in front of Goedert for Cleveland’s second takeaway of the steamy hot morning.
Finally, Hurts threw a third pick during an 11-on-11 team drill when safety Ronnie Hickman stepped in front of Jahan Dotson and returned the interception for a touchdown.
Again, this would have caused panic if it happened during the Eagles’ joint practice with the Patriots last August in New England. Back then, Hurts was coming off a season in which he threw a career-high 15 interceptions and turned the ball over 20 times.
This season, Hurts is coming off a season in which he threw just five interceptions and was charged with 10 turnovers. Of course, he was also the Super Bowl LIX MVP.
That allowed Hurts to offer a more relaxed and realistic view of how things went during the offense’s first look at an opposing team’s defense since the start of training camp.
Hurts said the Eagles didn’t game plan at all for the Browns’ defense, which two years ago allowed the fewest yards in the league.
“The mentality coming in was just going out and playing and let it all come to us,” Hurts said. “I think when we look back on it, they’ll be some things that we want to improve on and talk about and I think they’ll be some things where we’ll say that we are in a good spot. That’s what training camp is all about.”
Hurts and the offense did have some good moments.
On his first pass in team drills, the quarterback made a deep connection to 6-foot-6 second-year receiver Johnny Wilson, who was the star of the Eagles’ opening preseason game last week against Cincinnati. Wilson also made another deep grab with Tanner McKee at quarterback later in practice.
“Johnny made a big-time catch today,” Hurts said. “It’s always good to see that. We all have some things to work on and he has some things to work on, but he’s also taking advantage of some key opportunities.”
Hurts also had a sweet touch on a scoring pass in the right corner of the end zone to DeVonta Smith, but an objective observer would have ruled in favor of the Cleveland defense in its battle with the Eagles Wednesday. The two sides will go at it again on Thursday.
Big shoes to fill
Brett Toth took all the reps at left guard in the absence of Landon Dickerson, who suffered a right knee injury that will require surgery during Sunday’s practice at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles are hopeful that Dickerson will be back for the season opener Sept. 4, but the job belongs to Toth in the meantime.
"Whatever they ask me to do, I’m going to step to the plate and give it the best I got,“ Toth said. ”Hopefully I can perform to the standard that was before me."
Toth had a pretty good day going against Maliek Collins, a 10-year veteran with 30 career sacks. He was beaten badly once by Collins, who stopped Saquon Barkley in the backfield for a loss. Toth, after praising Dickerson’s ability and toughness, said he did not “perform up to our standards ... and I’ve got to do better.”
The Eagles worked heavily on their run game and appeared to be having success with it, although it’s impossible to entirely know when tackling to the ground is not allowed.
Meanwhile on defense
My teammate Cayden Steele observed the Eagles’ first-team defense against a Cleveland offense that was led by 40-year-old Joe Flacco, the pride of Audubon and the MVP of Super Bowl XLVII for the Baltimore Ravens.
The ruling from Steele was that the Eagles’ defense got the better of Flacco and the Cleveland offense, which is short on weapons. The Browns finished last in scoring a year ago.
Some personnel observations:
_Josh Uche was with the first-team defense at the start ahead of second-year edge rusher Jalyx Hunt. That has been happening more frequently in recent practices. Uche had a sack on Flacco and created more pressure throughout the day
_Sydney Brown started opposite Reed Blankenship at safety, but rookie Drew Mukuba rotated in with the starters.
_Kelee Ringo started at cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell with Adoree’ Jackson and recent trade addition Jakorian Bennett rotating in with the starters.
_Cooper DeJean played safety in base defense.
Notable plays:
_Rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell failed to pick up running back Trayveon Williams out of the flat and gave up a short touchdown. Eagles linebackers coach Bobby King had a talk with him after on the sidelines. Nakobe Dean also approached him.
_Azeez Ojulari had his best practice of camp, sacking Dillon Gabriel and taking down Dylan Sampson in the red zone for a short gain.
_Bennett had a pass breakup on a short pass to Jerry Jeudy, but later got beat for a touchdown in the red zone by wide receiver George Larvadain, an undrafted free agent. He was also beaten by Jeudy on an intermediate route and flagged for pass inference on tight end Harold Fannin.
_Kelee Ringo misjudged a pass from Flacco to Jeudy that resulted in a big gain. Ringo had good coverage but mistimed his attempt to jump the route.
Injury report
Wide receiver A.J. Brown (hamstring) did not practice Wednesday and linebacker Zack Baun (back) was limited. He didn’t participate in team drills.
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Bob Brookover can be reached atrbrookover@njadvancemedia.com
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