Inside the Iggles
FanSided

Philadelphia Eagles: Recapping Day 3 Of Minicamp

By Anthony DiBona

facebooktwitterreddit

Although it wasn’t so sunny in Philadelphia, head coach Chip Kelly insisted that the Philadelphia Eagles finish their minicamp with an outdoor practice. While coaches around the league are cancelling practices here and there, Kelly values every single second he has with the team together and will never pass up on the opportunity for them to get better. Thursday was the team’s final day of minicamp and the last time they would all be together until training camp begins on Sunday, August 2nd.

The day began as the first two days of minicamp had, with Kelly addressing the media in a morning press conference. Kelly spoke highly of the team as a whole when asked about what he has learned about them. “I think their capacity to work is the biggest thing that our staff has been impressed with,” Kelly said. “It’s an extremely thirsty group. In terms of they always want something more, something new. You’ll see them today, a lot of people kinda ‘mail it in’ this last day, these guys are fired up about getting out there one last time.”

That type of attitude to take advantage of every opportunity you have to get better is something that Kelly focuses on as a coach and it certainly seems to have passed down to the players. Second-year wide receiver Josh Huff is one of those players that has learned to never take any rep for granted. Huff has been a standout thus far during the team’s practices and is even staying after practice, working on his hands with fellow wide receivers using the JUGS machine.

Once the team got on the field for the final time today, it was a bit sloppy from the quarterback position, mostly due to the weather. Sam Bradford had his ups and downs throughout the practice but he did throw an interception to converted safety Walter Thurmond. It’s important to note that Thurmond seems to be making the switch from cornerback to safety successfully and remains on track to be the favorite for the starting spot opposite of Malcolm Jenkins to open the regular season.

On the other hand at safety, Earl Wolff has hardly seen the field during the team’s practices thus far. He’s battling microfracture knee surgery he had in the offseason, which is tough to recover from. But then again, Wolff has been dealing with this knee issue for most of his time in Philadelphia. Kelly even questioned Wolff’s toughness when asked about where he stands on the roster. Here’s what Kelly had to say about Wolff’s status during OTAs, according to Brandon Lee Gowton of BleedingGreenNation.com:

"“Q. How is Earl Wolff’s progress in coming back from micro-fracture surgery?CHIP KELLY: Earl has done nothing except stretch. So there is no progress right now.Q. With Wolff, is that just a pain threshold thing? Has he been cleared?CHIP KELLY: He’s been cleared from Dr. [James] Andrews a couple weeks ago, but it’s about what he can tolerate.”"

That isn’t exactly what you want to hear if you’re Wolff. Kelly is basically openly questioning Wolff’s toughness and if he truly is working his hardest to return to the field, it’s almost like a slap in the face. That being said, it’ll certainly be interesting to see if Wolff is healthy enough to take the field when training camp begins.

Huff and tight end Zach Ertz continued to impress those at practice today and they’re both in line for big jumps in production in 2015. With Jeremy Maclin‘s departure to Kansas City, the team will rely on the young pass catchers to fill that void. Bradford has always liked to target his tight end and Ertz is likely the best tight end he has played with in his career.

That’s all for today’s recap of the final day of minicamp. Now the team will go on a hiatus until August, when they return for the beginning of training camp. Let’s just hope nothing crazy happens during their individual training workouts and the entire team can return healthy to the NovaCare Complex on August 2nd.

Next: Zach Ertz Taking Steps To Become An Elite Tight End

More from Inside the Iggles

Home/Eagles News