On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles held their final practice of the spring, during a one-day mandatory minicamp. We won't see the Eagles on a football field again until late July. As always, we have practice notes.
• To begin, the Eagles had perfect attendance. That's perhaps a positive side effect of taking care of your most valuable players before their contracts expire. By contrast, the Commanders, who spent a lot of money on outside players in free agency, were without Terry McLaurin during their mandatory minicamp, as he is unhappy with his contract.
• At linebacker, Zack Baun did not participate in team drills. He attributed that to "general soreness." With Nakobe Dean and Jihaad Campbell also out, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and rookie Smael Mondon Jr. were the first-teamers.
• Kelee Ringo was with the first-team offense at corner, and he made some plays, including an impressive pass breakup on a comeback route to Danny Gray. He was running vertically, stopped on a dime, and came back to toward the ball with impressive speed to knock it down. He also had blanket coverage on a deep ball to Terrace Marshall. The pass was off-target, but probably didn't have much of a chance to be completed even if it were. He looked the part on Tuesday.
• Terrace Marshall had about a half dozen catches. Marshall was a 2021 second-round pick (59th overall) by the Carolina Panthers. He played three years in Carolina before getting waived at 53-man cutdowns. Marshall then joined the 49ers' practice squad, before getting cut again, and landing with the Raiders. His career stats:
| Terrace Marshall | Rec | Yards | YPC | TD |
| 2021 (CAR) | 17 | 138 | 8.1 | 0 |
| 2022 (CAR) | 28 | 490 | 17.5 | 1 |
| 2023 (CAR) | 19 | 139 | 7.3 | 0 |
| 2024 (LV) | 3 | 41 | 13.7 | 0 |
Marshall is 6'3 and he ran a 4.4 flat at the 2021 Combine. He also has other appealing athletic measurables.
There's some opportunity to crack the roster at receiver. A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Jahan Dotson are all locks, and Johnny Wilson had sort of a Zach Pascal-like "dirty work" role last season. Beyond that, it's wide open. Danny Gray had a good practice in OTAs last week; Marshall had one this week.
• The other notable receiver not mentioned above is Ainias Smith, a 2024 fifth-round pick that the team really liked when it drafted him. He had a poor training camp last season, and rode the bench all season as a rookie. His draft status won't save him this year if he doesn't play well in camp. Smith had a nice day on Tuesday. He had at least two catches down the field — one down the sideline, and one in the middle of the field. He is a better player than he was last year, but again, he has to be better than guys like Marshall, Gray, and newcomer Avery Williams.
• Sydney Brown and Andrew Mukuba split reps at safety, like they did during OTAs. Mukuba also played sort of a dime linebacker role on a few reps when the Eagles put 6 defensive backs on the field. The backup slot corner behind Cooper DeJean was once again Mac McWilliams, who has looked solid so far.
• Rookie iDL Ty Robinson had a batted pass. That's a part of his game. He had 4 batted passes at Nebraska in 2024, and 6 in 2023.
• The play of the day was a great diving catch by TE Nick Muse, on a pass from Kyle McCord. Muse lined up on the left side, came all the way across to the right, and made a full-extension grab near the right hash. McCord and Muse actually paired up for three connections on Tuesday. McCord fired a nice ball into the end zone to Muse, with perfect placement where only Muse could get it, with the smaller Andre' Sam in coverage. McCord has looked good this spring. There's little question he's going to make the team.
• Of course, if McCord is going to make the team, that would leave Dorian Thompson-Robinson on the outside looking in. DTR had a poor showing in OTAs last week, but he rebounded with a nice day on Tuesday, making several nice throws, and a few plays with his legs. Maybe the Eagles can deal DTR and a 7 for, like, a 6 or something.
• Jalyx Hunt isn't just taking over for Brandon Graham at edge rusher. He is also taking over as the energy guy during practices. He was all over the field on Tuesday, chasing Jalen Hurts around, and giving full-on effort on every play. I'm sure the coaching staff loves him.
• Brett Toth is getting first-team reps at center with Cam Jurgens recovering from a back procedure. He had several bad snaps. This isn't the first offseason that this has happened, and in fact there was one year the Eagles had to sign a guy off the street because Toth was messing up reps for the other 21 guys on the field. There's perhaps a spot on the line where Toth can try out for the team, but it ain't at center.
Toth's bad snaps reminded me of a blurb I read recently on a scouting report of Drew Kendall, a rookie who the Eagles drafted in the fifth round. (I can't find it for accreditation purposes, so my apologies to whoever noted this.) Anyway, the report said that Kendall almost never had bad snaps, and also noted that he snapped to a wide range of quarterbacks with vastly different heights. In 2022, he snapped to Phil Jurkovic (6'5). The next season he snapped to Thomas Castellanos (5'10), and in 2024 he snapped to combination of Castellanos and Grayson James (6'3).
Anyway, Jeff Stoutland is the unquestioned GOAT and all, but Jeff, let the kid snap for the more important players.
• Saquon Barkley recently made some news when he suggested on Chris Long's "Green Light" podcast he could up and retire at any moment. On Tuesday, he made sure to note, "I don't plan on retiring anytime soon."
• DeVonta Smith skipped voluntary OTAs, as he always does, to work out on his own. He was at practice for minicamp, and looks like the same old DeVonta. He was asked where the "DeVonta Dagger" ranked among his career catches. He responded, "Top 3."
It's hilarious that that kind of catch wouldn't be the No. 1 play of someone's career, but Smith has made a ton of huge catches. When asked what the other two were, he said that they were both against Washington.
Smith also had a walk-off TD catch for a National Championship against Georgia.
That's not even in his top 3, apparently.
On Tuesday, Smith had a long catch deep down the sideline on what looked like a busted coverage.
• We should probably also mention Jalen Hurts. We didn't get to watch every practice this spring, but he had strong performances in the three that we saw. He was generally quick and decisive, and the ball rarely hit the ground.
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