The Philadelphia Eagles are days away from their preseason opener. The Birds will take on the New York Jets at home on Friday, August 12. In their lone home game until the 2022 regular-season games kick off, are the Eagles prepared for what’s ahead?
PRESEAON PREPARATION
The Eagles are now in Week 3 of training camp, and as always, there’s been positives and negative surrounding the team.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Miles Sanders have continued to make improvements, and guys like A.J. Brown and James Bradberry have settled in well. Jordan Mailata and Andre Dillard, who were both out with concussions, returned today. And maybe, more importantly, were the players (Britain Covey) who were originally overlooked and are now showing the coaching staff they can be utilized to make an impact.
The bad news is the lengthly list of injuries — one that center Jason Kelce has been added to. Tuesday morning, he was absent from camp and it was later announced that he would be undergoing surgery to “cleanout” his elbow. Though the team is expecting Kelce to be back by Week 1, Cam Jurgens will be backup and has already been taking first-team reps.
The Jets have had a positive training camp thus far. The offense is doing well, and while the defense still needs to work some things out, they are making progress. The mistakes they made last year have been dealt with and their rookies this season have taken first-team reps.
Overall, New York is pretty healthy with the exception of Mekhi Bechton’s recent knee injury. When the injury first occurred, head coach Robert Sales stated it’s “not a big deal”. However, since then, Bechton’s injury has progressed to a fractured kneecap which may end his season.
Both teams are scheduled to have two more practices before they meet on Friday. The Eagles will have practice on Wednesday, and a walkthrough on Thursday.
EAGLES VS JETS — PRESEASON GAME ONE
Though both teams’ training camps have gone a little differently, the Eagles and the Jets seem to have the same preseason game plan as they head into Friday.
Both Sirianni and Saleh are entering their second season as head coach, and in their first year, they didn’t play their starters much.
Sirianni stated, “Still sorting through all that. We don’t have to make that decision until Friday. We’ll probably make it a little bit sooner than that, but still sorting through that.”
He continued, “Last year we played them [starters], I want to say two series each. We felt like that was a good formula. I’m not committing to that yet. But we’re still thinking it through at this time.”
Sales agreed. “We’re planning on paying all our guys for a series or two. So it’ll probably end up being a quarter. That’s for the first group and then the seconds [and] thirds will finish off the game.”
It’s likely both teams will be using Friday’s game more so as continued practice. The game begins at 7:30 PM.