All indications from the Philadelphia Eagles' Day 5 training camp practice were that it had a lot of problems on offense.
The positive is that the defense played really well, and the safety position seems to be in a really good spot. On the flip side, the offense was just off in every single way.
SportsRadio 94 WIP's Eliot Shorr-Parks reported that seven penalties were called on the offense, multiple incompletions, Jalen Hurts throwing an interception that was overthrown, and more made for a messy practice. This really isn't as bad as some fans would think, though, but it definitely exposed a bigger problem at hand.
Eagles' offense has an issue that's not a Jalen Hurts problem
Shorr-Parks gave Hurts a C+ grade and shared his practice stats: six-of-19 completions and one interception. There was a clear reason for the struggles on offense, and it was Hurts, though.
"Tuesday was one of the most choppy, discombobulated practices I’ve ever covered," Shorr-Parks said. "The offense performance was filled with backups and flags. Both Devonta Smith and Makai Lemon missed practice due to hamstring injuries. Lane Johnson was once again an excused absence.
Add in a decision by the coaching staff to have a few periods with (basically) an entire backup offensive line, and there were stretches of practice where Jalen Hurts was on the field with 9 or 10 players that weren’t on the team last season. Those factors have to go into account when judging Hurts day."
Not having Smith, Lemon, and Johnson at practice definitely hurt the team. Smith and Lemon are two of the top receivers on the team and need to be there to build chemistry with Hurts. Johnson is one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL and is a key piece to the success of the offensive line.
The problem isn't that Hurts and the offense look bad. No, the problem is that the offense's depth is a bigger issue than fans imagined.
All offseason, the offensive line had a massive concern regarding its depth behind the starting five. That was exposed last year with injuries to Johnson, Landon Dickerson, and Cam Jurgens. This is a problem the Eagles hoped was fixed with the draft of Markel Bell and Micah Morris.
When the offensive line has been on the practice field in training camp, they have struggled to protect Hurts. Seven sacks were recorded in one day last week. That can't happen with backups or starters.
At receiver, depth may not be as much of a problem as it's Hurts needing time to develop chemistry with them. He threw an interception to safety Michael Carter II because Hurts and Marquise Brown were not on the same page, and an overthrow happened. That kind of stuff will happen in camp with so many new weapons on offense.
Read more: 4 Eagles players dominating camp and 3 who are fading quickly
This is not going to be perfect for all of training camp, and Eagles fans are smart enough to understand that, but the depth concerns that were had in the offseason appear to be out in the open now. While nothing needs to be done about it right now, it is something that must be monitored over the next few weeks at camp.
Add us as a preferred source on Google