Philadelphia Eagles: Top five position battles to watch in training camp
By David Esser
Training camp battles will be fierce for the Philadelphia Eagles this year.
NFL training camp is right around the corner, and while this offseason has been anything but normal, teams are still expecting to see some fierce positional battles take place over the next couple of weeks. Of course, the Philadelphia Eagles are no exception, as they have a plethora of position groups that still have question marks hanging over them.
Solidified players like Zach Ertz, Jason Kelce, and Fletcher Cox (just to name a few) obviously aren’t competing for starting jobs, and will likely view camp as a place to get back up to game speed and build chemistry with new teammates. However, whether it’s new signings, rookies, or even Eagles’ veterans who have yet to “pop”, there are plenty of guys on the roster fighting for minutes.
I’ve managed to narrow this list down to five positional groups, starting off first with arguably one of the weakest spots on the Eagles’ revamped defense.
Who will emerge as the Philadelphia Eagles second starting corner?
I spoke about the specific battle between Avonte Maddox and Sidney Jones in depth earlier this month, so I’ll keep the conversation about those two brief. While they have been named the leading candidates for the CB2 job by most, there’s still plenty of opportunity for other guys to sneak in.
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Rasul Douglas has been training extremely hard this offseason with notable footwork trainer Rischad Whitfield, and Jalen Mills could always make the slide back to corner if asked to.
With Darius Slay firmly entrenched as the team’s #1 corner, and Nickell Robey-Coleman and Cre’Von LeBlanc likely holding down the slot, the battle for the second outside job will be fierce. It’s a three way gauntlet, with all three candidates presenting different pros and cons.
Maddox knows the system the best, but is vastly undersized. Jones has serious amounts of talent, but has struggled to stay healthy. Douglas has the best ball skills of the group, but his lack of speed has been routinely exposed.
No matter who ends up winning the day one job, the Eagles will likely rotate guys at the position quite frequently throughout the season. Regardless, it will be an absolute dogfight between the above mentioned names during camp this year, as they all push to win the starting gig in week one.