Eagles-Pats Day 2
Posted August 21st, 2026 | No Comments »The Eagles wrapped up their joint practices against New England on Thursday. The Birds went to Foxboro to be tested against good competition and that’s just what they got. Each team had some success and some struggles. That’s how you get better. The Eagles seemed to be more intense and more focused on Thursday. Battling a good team for two days got them fired up.
Riq Woolen came up big on Thursday. Jimmy Bama has the details.
Riq Woolen had a tough day on Wednesday but he bounced back in a big way on Thursday. He made plays all day, but two monster plays stood out.
1) Covering A.J. Brown on a goal line play, Brown ran a quick out, and Woolen also ran Brown’s route for him. Drake Maye seemingly decided he was going to Brown no matter what at the snap. But Brown was blanketed by Woolen and when Maye let it rip Woolen stepped in front of Brown for the INT and was off to the races. It would’ve been something like a 100-yard pick-six.
2) While covering Brown again, Brown ran a slant, and again, Woolen had close coverage. Brown was able to secure his hands on the ball for a moment before Woolen ripped it out of his grasp, sending the ball high in the air. It looked like the ball was going to fall harmlessly to the turf, but Jalyx Hunt made an incredible diving INT. That was the play of Eagles training camp, in my opinion.
Woolen also had a really nice pass breakup on a fade route to Romeo Doubs. Doubs leapt for the ball, but Woolen, with his back to the play, had good technique and got his hand in between Doubs’ hands and broke it up.
He also forced an incompletion late in practice once again against Doubs in the back of the end zone. I think by that point he was feeling himself a little and talked some s*** to some nearby Pats fans.
Woolen did give up at least one TD in red zone drills, one of which was a great throw and contested catch by Doubs, but even on plays with bad results he was right there. And certainly, the good plays outweighed the negative ones.
Woolen has all the talent in the world. He struggles with consistency, which we saw in Foxboro. At his best, he is a difference-maker. That version of Riq showed up on Thursday and it was good to see. It will be interesting to see if Vic Fangio can push the right buttons to get the best out of him.
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AJ Brown seemed to get the best of Quinyon Mitchell on both days. AJ wasn’t as productive as Wednesday, but still won his share of battles. AJ was really locked in. It would have been nice for this version of him to have showed up last year. Alas…
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Jalyx Hunt had the impressive INT that Jimmy mentioned above, but that wasn’t his only highlight. Dave Zangaro has another standout play.
And Jalyx Hunt had another excellent play to force a fumble against Rhamondre Stevenson. Hunt just ripped the ball out and recovered it too. Hunt had an impressive two days, which isn’t a surprise based on what we saw back in Philly. But to see him do it against another team is a good sign as he goes into Year 3 with huge expectations.
Hunt was outstanding over the past two days. Bo Wulf said some Pats reporters told him they thought Hunt was the best player on either team. I think he caught them off-guard with how good he was.
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The Eagles offense didn’t finish well on Wednesday. That changed on Thursday. BLG has the details.
The offense went through some uneven stretches where they struggled but Hurts finished practice strong during the red zone scrimmage setting when everyone was focused on the same field (as opposed to the players being split on two fields like they were earlier in practice).
- Hurts moved the offense into goal-to-go from about the 4-yard line with a completion to Wicks along the left sideline. On the next rep, he rolled right and found Hollywood Brown in the back of the end zone … but the receiver wasn’t able to keep two feet in.
- Hurts responded with a tight window connection with Brown to beat former Eagle Kindle Vildor for a touchdown. The Eagles went for a two-point conversion on the next rep and Hurts once again rolled right to float a ball back left to Darius Cooper for the successful try. Hurts put nice touch to get it over the defender and DC did a nice job of uncovering.
It is great that Hurts and the offense came through this time around. We know that there will be a learning curve for the offense this season. There will be ups and downs. Hurts isn’t afraid of adversity so I think he’ll be able to work his way through issues.
The offense was up and down from an overall perspective. Hurts got picked off a couple of times. While I don’t like the INTs, I do like the fact he is more willing to take chances this summer. You never want turnovers, but an offense won’t be at its best if the focus is being careful. You want to be aggressive. Just don’t be reckless.
A couple of more notes from BLG.
- Hurts threw a touchdown to Dallas Goedert over the middle in the end zone. The tight end celebrated by dunking the ball over the goal post, which drew a penalty from a referee (seriously).
- Hurts threw another touchdown over the middle to Dontayvion Wicks.
- Hurts hit Wicks again for first down yardage.
- Hurts should’ve had another touchdown throw to Tank Bigsby … but he didn’t get enough air on the ball to float it over a Pats defender who instead ended up batting it into the air for an incompletion.
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The Eagles run game was impressive on Wednesday. It didn’t have the same level of success yesterday. Here is Jeff McLane’s take on that.
I spent most of practice watching the Eagles offense. Sean Mannion’s unit started slow and finished strong, unlike the day before when it got off to a hot start before petering out. With most of team drills worked inside the red zone, the condensed area made it more difficult for the pass offense.
The run offense didn’t have that excuse and it struggled after an impressive showing the day prior. Saquon Barkley had few holes, especially on outside zone runs. He was strung out on his first carry. Patriots edge Gabe Jacas broke through for a tackle for loss on Barkley’s next tote. Patriots defensive tackle Milton Williams was able to get inside tackle Lane Johnson and stop Barkley after a minimal gain.
New England’s defense pushed the envelop at times and would tackle to the ground. Johnson took exception at one point and there was a scrum. The Eagles’ frustration boiled over several more times. Barkley appeared to get into it with Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore even though neither was participating in the drills. Receiver Dontayvion Wicks was in the middle of a fracas that halted practice.
Tackle Jordan Mailata said afterward that the fights disrupted the flow of the run game. But it was tough sledding for both of the Eagles’ units. Running backs Tank Bigsby and Will Shipley — who shined on Wednesday — kept getting bottled up.
The Pats were embarrassed with how bad their run defense was in the first practice. I’m sure Mike Vrabel made it clear that had to change on Day 2 and it did. Give them credit. The OL and RBs can study the tape to see what they need to do better. The run game must be good this year.
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The Eagles defense was even better with their run defense. Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo controlled the LOS. Jalen Carter missed practice for personal reasons, but the DL didn’t miss a beat. Good sign for the depth. Ty Robinson got additional snaps and held his own, another good sign.
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A few people pointed out that safety Andre Sam looked good. He plays fast and is physical. He has a limited ceiling, but is a reliable pro. You can do worse with a backup DB.
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Makai Lemon was a limited paricipant and is getting closer to a full return. That’s great news. He and Eli Stowers were the last two on the field. They stayed after practice to get work with the JUGS machines. It is encouraging that the guys are going above and beyond with effort. We just need to see better results. Effort isn’t enough in the NFL.
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Some Eagles OL vs. Patriots notes:
– Drew Kendall is super strong and technical. He controlled the Patriots defensive linemen.
– Myles Hinton really struggled against speed rushers. They turned the corner on him on almost rep and he never stood a chance.
– The starting OL…— Cayden Steele (@cayden_steele19) August 19, 2026
Patriots-Eagles Day 2 joint practice notes, focused on Patriots offense:
– Drake Maye 9/18, 4 TDs, 2 INTs in 11s, Tommy DeVito 8/17, 3 TDs in 11s
– Each top offense had a TD and missed 2pt in two minute situation.
– A.J. Brown beat Quinyon Mitchell three times in 2-on-2s and…— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) August 20, 2026
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