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Eagles-Ravens Practice Recap: Smith injured, Curry at OLB

By Pat Roach

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The Philadelphia Eagles took the field this afternoon for their second consecutive session of joint practices, leading up to their Saturday matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. Prior to the on-field activities, Chip Kelly spoke with the media and addressed several concerns leading up to the team’s second preseason game.

The prevailing question since the start of camp has been in regard to the injury status of Sam Bradford, and when he’ll be ready to step in against live competition. After being held out of the Eagles’ first preseason game, pressure has been mounting for Bradford to take the helm. Today, Chip once again addressed the prospect of Bradford suiting up against Baltimore, and it doesn’t appear that the status quo has changed:

When Kelly announced that he’d be holding Bradford out against the Colts, he did (sort of) commit to the idea that he’d be ready for this week’s game with the Ravens. While Kelly hasn’t said anything that could be considered a clear indication that Bradford won’t play this weekend, I can see why some might be perturbed by Kelly’s refusal to formally commit to his quarterback. I understand the frustration of the fan-base, however, after listening to Kelly I don’t get the impression that his noncommittal attitude is reason to sound the alarm. Kelly has been peppered with questions regarding Bradford’s playing status at a heinous clip for months, so his fatigue is understandable. When Kelly says that Bradford will play barring an unforeseen injury, I take his comments at face value.

The important takeaway here is that Kelly didn’t reference a setback in regard to Bradford’s rehabilitated knee. Judging by Kelly’s comments, he is confident in Bradford, and considers him full-go for Sunday. His referencing an unrelated injury as the only potential hurdle seems to be his way of saying “we’ve been over this; as of now, Sam is ready to go, so stop asking me.” Not that Kelly cares, but if he backtracks and holds out Bradford at his own discretion, the scrutiny will be intense and unavoidable. I doubt Kelly would intentionally give off the impression that Bradford would start, and then pull the rug out from everyone a day prior to game-time. Bradford should be ready to take the field on Saturday.

In non-QB related news, Kelly addressed Earl Wolff‘s most recent injury woes:

It really is a shame how incredibly unfortunate Wolff has been. It seems that he has a quasi-degenerative knee issue, and just can’t get past it. At this point, I don’t see Wolff hanging on to make the final 53-man roster; he just hasn’t shown the staff that he can stay healthy and productive. As Kelly says, at the end of the day all the staff can do is evaluate the product that has been presented to them on the field, and to this point, Wolff hasn’t been able to stay on the field long enough to leave a satisfactory impression.

As a few of the beat reporters have pointed out, Chip has taken to arbitrarily (or perhaps calculatingly) using nicknames when discussing various players on the roster. Today, there are a few more nickname-related updates:

It’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out, and if there really is anything to the whole nickname thing.

Moving on to the on-field portion of today’s practice, there was a scary moment when OLB Marcus Smith went down with an apparent leg injury during a special teams rep:

While Smith played virtually no role with the team during his rookie season, he improved himself this offseason from a mental-physical standpoint, adding size and better acclimating himself to the NFL. Smith seemed to have taken a step forward during the team’s game with Indianapolis this past Sunday, and given the state of the OLB corp, he very well could be in a position to assume the primary backup role in 2015 — a post that Brandon Graham occupied rom ’13-’14, and contributed meaningfully from. Some might have a flippant attitude towards the second-year player, however, the depth at OLB is paper thin, and Smith could be in line to fulfill an important role should either Barwin or Graham be sidelined for an extended period of time. Luckily, it doesn’t appear that Smith’s injury is as serious as those in attendance had initially feared:

Hopefully Smith’s injury can be quickly remedied, and he’ll be able to return to the rotation sooner than later, though I would consider him highly doubtful to participate in Saturday’s game.

In Smith’s absence, Vinny Curry lined up opposite of Bryan Braman for a number of second team snaps. The results appear to have been mixed:

Out of the defensive lineman on the roster, I’d consider Vinny Curry the most capable in transitioning to a part-time outside role. Curry played 4-3 defensive end in the past, and at 6’3″ and 279 pounds, isn’t so huge or inherently adverse to the change that he wouldn’t be able to operate in space at all. Still, Curry isn’t a longterm solution at OLB, just a versatile pass-rushing option in a sub-package role. I’d expect Curry to rotate in during the regular season on obvious passing downs. The Eagles have an interesting assortment of pass rushers on the roster, so it’s encouraging to see Billy Davis getting creative in the way that he deploys his personnel.

In regard to how the team performed in practice today, we were fortunate enough to get an outside perspective from a Baltimore Raven’s reporter:

The Philly beats have done an excellent job covering the team during training camp, however, the issue is just that; they have only covered the Eagles, and don’t have much of a pulse on the state of other teams in the league to this point. The Baltimore reporters have watched the Ravens on a daily basis, and offer an outside perspective on the state of the Eagles. Having watched a consistent and capable playoff caliber team operate during TC lends credence to the notion that this Eagles roster looks impressive.

That’s it for today, be sure to stay tuned in for further updates throughout practice and into the Eagles’ preseason showdown with the Ravens on Saturday.

Next: Eagles Analysis: 5 Players That Must Show Up Aganist Ravens

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