Eagles training camp notes: Young CB flashing, Mailata vs. Garrett and more

Eagles training camp notes: Young CB flashing, Mailata vs. Garrett and more originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles have made it through 10 days of training camp and are finally ready of their first preseason game.

The summer is far from over, though.

Joint practices against the Browns and Colts are yet to come and there are still two more preseason games before final cuts.

But before all that, let’s clean out the notebook:

All eyes on Josh Jobe

This offseason, the Eagles signed Greedy Williams in free agency and then traded up to draft high-profile cornerback Kelee Ringo in the fourth round.

But neither of them appear to be the Eagles’ top outside backup corner. That spot belongs to Josh Jobe.

“I think Josh Jobe is obviously playing well,” Jalen Hurts said this week when asked which young corners stand out. “He’s a physical corner.”

Jobe, 25, earned a roster spot last summer as an undrafted free agent out of Alabama and is having another impressive training camp this year. When James Bradberry missed some practice time with a groin injury, it was Jobe who replaced him.

And Jobe has been making plays all summer.

“I feel like the game has slowed down for him,” Bradberry said. “I think he’s thinking at a faster pace. He’s always been athletic, he’s always been physical. I think that showed last year. But I think the mental part of the game is definitely starting to improve for him.”

Bradberry explained a couple of the tips he gives to Jobe. One is to use his 32 5/8ths arms to his advantage. Jobe was in the 87th percentile among corners in arm length coming out of college. And the other was for Jobe to use his heavy hands to his advantage when he’s in press coverage.

“He can also run,” Bradberry said. “I think he’s faster than me. I think it’s going to be a good year for him.”

Facing a monster

Jordan Mailata was a little disappointed last summer when the Eagles showed up to the first day of joint practices against the Browns and Myles Garrett wasn’t there. But Garrett did show up for Day 2 and faced off against Mailata in 1-on-1s. After practice, Mailata and Garrett chatted for a long while, exchanging tips and thoughts.

And now Garrett and the Browns are coming to Philly for joint practices on Monday and Tuesday. Mailata joked that he wasn’t looking forward to facing the perennial Pro Bowler, but he is.

“We talked (last year) about what he sees that I do,” Mailata said this week. “Myles gave me a couple of good tips to kind of key in on what he looks for. Those are things that come this time next week, I’m not going to try to give it to him and see where I am this year and compare it to where I was last year. I’m looking forward to it. I really am. Because Myles is a helluva player, man. He is a helluva player. And why not go up against the best when you can and see and evaluate where your game is at. That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

Garrett, 27, was the No. 1 overall pick back in 2017 and has lived up to his draft status. He is a four-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro. He has 16 sacks in back-to-back seasons and already has 74 1/2 in six NFL seasons. The only players with more sacks in the last six seasons are T.J. Watt (77 1/2) and Aaron Donald (75).

Here’s what Garrett told NBC Sports Philadelphia last summer about facing Mailata:

“I think he’s talented. I think he’s very athletic. I think he’s also a good person. He came over to learn more and I try to learn from him. I know they set a little bit differently than some other teams. They really kind of give them an opportunity to go 1-on-1 with the D-ends. I think he likes the challenge and the opportunity.”

Taking a punch

The Eagles spend a lot of time on ball security and for good reason. They talk about it constantly, there are reminders hanging in the building but they also work on it in practice quite a bit too.

Here’s one of my favorite ball security drills from practice:

That got me wondering: Does Singleton ever miss?

“He’s accurate but he’ll miss sometimes,” Kenny Gainwell said with a smile. “He’ll sometimes catch you in the jaw or catch you in the arm.”

As a rookie in 2021, Gainwell fumbled twice but he didn’t cough up the ball once last year in 116 touches in the regular season and playoffs.

Gainwell said he doesn’t mind when a punch from Singleton hits him instead of the ball. Because that happens in games too.

“That all comes with it,” Gainwell said. “We always go between the tackles and there’s always big guys hitting you in the arm, hitting at the ball, defense always ripping at the ball, trying to like pull your hand off the ball. Basically, that’s always going to help us. That’s going to help us down the line when we’re carrying the ball.”

It’s always him

During Wednesday’s practice, there was a play when Landon Dickerson leveled Derek Barnett on a crack-back block and Barnett wasn’t pleased. He stormed over to Dickerson and shoved him to the ground, eliciting a penalty flag flag.

Another personal foul.

“Yeah, you know, I love his his competitiveness,” Nick Sirianni said. “I love how tough he is and everything like that. But in a scenario like that you can't react. Anytime you get a personal foul you always want to talk about, hey, we can't do that because we have to fight them within the next play legally, right?”

On one hand, maybe the block from Dickerson really was too much. Barnett wasn’t the only player displeased by it. Players are supposed to take care of their own at practice. Sirianni didn’t want to answer a question about his take on the block but said they’re still looking at it. It might have been over the line.

But on the other hand, Barnett has earned a reputation over the years for these types of penalties and for making stupid decisions on the football field. If it was any other player, you’d probably be more willing to give them a pass. Not Barnett.

Barnett has been penalized 26 times in his NFL career, including 11 personal fouls, according to NFLPenalties.com.

Sirianni said he planned on using this moment as a teaching point.

“It’s a good teaching lesson for everybody,” Sirianni said. “There will be things that a guy on another team does that's out my control that I'm not going to like. You have to be able to play tough, violent, strong, nasty, aggressive, all those different adjectives, and have to do all those things while doing it legally.

“It'll be a good teaching moment for all of us to be able to teach off that, just like we teach off any situation. That's just another situation that popped up that we'll learn from and get better from.”

Barnett is in the final year of his contract and took a pay cut earlier this spring. He might be the Eagles’ fifth edge rusher but there’s no guarantee he makes the 53-man roster.

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