PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles technically ended training camp last week, but really it ended on Tuesday, after two days of joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens.
Now, they’ll get back to a regular schedule before the preseason finale next week against the Jets.
Tuesday’s practice wasn’t the most exciting one of the preseason, but there was at least one mini-scuffle, a pseudo-scrimmage and ... a lot of hand-offs.
Here are the final practice takeaways of the preseason, with every throw from Carson Wentz tracked.
I focused on the offense, Mike Kaye focused on the defense in his observations.
Here are six thoughts from the Eagles’ second joint practice with the Baltimore Ravens ...
1. What to do with Mack Hollins: The young receiver has had a tough go of things since his rookie season, suffering a strange groin injury that cost him all of last season and this year’s OTAs, and then hurting his hip early in training camp, making him limited for a large portion of practice. He finally returned to game action against the Jaguars last week but only had one catch. Now that he’s back in full practice participation, he hasn’t quite flashed on offense either.
Tuesday, Hollins had a particularly egregious error when Wentz struck Hollins perfectly on a deep ball, past two defensive backs, but Hollins let it slip through his fingertips. At the end of practice, he wasn’t ready for a Josh McCown pass attempt, so by the time he looked up to track it, it had already hit the ground.
He’ll likely make the 53-man roster, as coaches are high on him still and he’s solid on special teams, but his struggles at receiver are at least concerning.
2. Wentz is better: Wentz struggled a bit against the Ravens on Monday, but he definitely improved on Tuesday, even if his passing stats don’t jump off the page.
His best throw — discounting the Hollins drop — was on a corner end zone floater to Alshon Jeffery for a touchdown in 7-on-7 drills. (Jeffery remains elite in that area.)
He nearly completed a pass to the same spot to rookie J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, but the Stanford alum couldn’t come down with it. Of note, Wentz didn’t target DeSean Jackson as much against the Ravens in practice, while he had been one of the most oft-targeted receivers throughout camp. He only had one target on Tuesday.
Final stats: 14 of 23, one touchdown
3. McCown’s comfortability: The 40-year-old mostly checked down on short passes on Monday, but he aired it out a little bit more against the Ravens on Tuesday. His best throw was about 20 yards down the field to a diving Alex Ellis, the young tight end.
McCown was already making calls at the line of scrimmage on Monday, but it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he’s a fast learner.
There was also an impressive play on a wheel route to Corey Clement.
“Some things come back a little quicker," McCown said after practice, “but I’m still getting acclimated to the timing of just different guys, throwing to these guys and getting to know everybody. That’s the main thing right now. Understand the system, knowing the calls, things like that. Coaches are doing a great job of teaching it and the guys are doing a great job around me of helping me out.”
Final stats: 8 of 12
4. Jordan Howard is still here: Amidst all the Miles Sanders love emanating from the Eagles facility throughout training camp, Jordan Howard has almost been lost in the shuffle.
He’s not quite the same sort of exciting running back that Sanders is, at least not in his running style. Howard is a power back, through and through. He won’t be doing many LeSean McCoy-esque jump-cuts.
But he’s solid, the coaches like him and he’s ran the ball quite well throughout camp, including on Tuesday.
Sanders will almost certainly overtake Howard at the top of the depth chart at some point, and probably soon, but Howard will still play a role. Especially if he keeps showing signs of progress as a pass-catcher, where he’s been solid thus far. At minimum, he’ll be one of the Eagles’ top options when it comes to short-yardage situations and in the red zone.
5. Scuffle! The Eagles and Ravens ended practice with a sort-of scrimmage — it was really just 11-on-11s, but only on one field this time instead of splitting the teams’ units onto two fields. It was here where tempers started flaring and Eagles undrafted rookie defensive tackle Kevin Wilkins got into a mini-scuffle with a Ravens offensive lineman before they were quickly separated. It was bound to happen eventually.
6. Quick hits ...
- Just a quick note on Jordan Mailata: Even if he still has a ways to go in terms of technique, his athleticism is just unreal. He works his way up the field for second-level blocks better than anyone his size has any right to. He’ll make this team again.
- There was no Richard Rodgers update — Doug Pederson said he was getting more tests on Tuesday — but odds are the injury he suffered in practice on Monday was serious enough to question his status for the season. Joshua Perkins is all but locked in as the third tight end at this point. Alex Ellis at least has a shot at the practice squad, too.
- I honestly couldn’t point out a single positive or negative play from Wendell Smallwood this whole training camp. Yet, somehow, he’ll sneak his way onto the roster again because he always does.
Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZackBlatt. Find NJ.com on Facebook.