PHILADELPHIA — With Cooper DeJean getting an expanded role on defense and Britain Covey no longer on the roster, the Eagles have been looking for their next primary punt returner.
As halftime approached in the first preseason game last week against the Bengals, receiver Ainias Smith caught a punt on his heels, slipped a tackle, then another, and darted across the field and down the right sideline deep into Cincinnati territory for a 46-yard gain. Yet it was a team effort.
“It was a great move by Ainias out there,” special teams coordinator Michael Clay said during training camp at the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday. “We have our base calls that we go out there for special teams in the punt return world. You saw Ainias did a good job of pressing vertically for the first six yards. Then he got back out, then he made a heck of a cut off that right side to get past 32; I think it was (Bengals RB Gary) Brightwell off Cincinnati. Then it was all him right there.
“But a lot of it, as much of a great return that Ainias had, Keilan Robinson did a heck of a job on the outside (blocking). Then once it got to the return, he almost took a charge from basketball and took out half the coverage players. So, as great as it was for Ainias, he can’t get a return started without the other 10 guys in front of him.”
It was Smith’s only punt return of the game. He also returned a kickoff 20 yards. Team effort, yes, but he has been getting a fair amount of return reps during camp. Receiver Avery Williams handled three punt returns for 15 yards against the Bengals. It’s a position to keep an eye on.
• • •
Long snapper Charley Hughlett returned to the field from a neck injury Tuesday, and Christian Johnstone was released. The Eagles are hoping Hughlett can help kicker Jake Elliott bounce back from an uneven year after parting ways with veteran long snapper Rick Lovato.Elliott was just 1-for-8 on field goals over 50 yards last season, though he did hit a 50-yarder in the Super Bowl.
• • •
Quarterback Jalen Hurts has been getting advice from Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.
“He calls me a lot and just asks me lots of questions,” Manning told NBC Sports analyst Cris Collinsworth on the PFF Podcast. “They actually run a lot of plays that we used to run, from that (head coach Nick) Sirianni to (former Colts coach) Frank Reich to (former Colts offensive coordinator) Tom Moore, sort of that chain.
“He calls me with very specific questions about certain plays,” Manning said. “He’s a student of the game. … His appreciation of the cerebral part of the game is what’s impressive to me and how he’s taken his game to the next level.”
In two Super Bowl appearances, a loss in LVII and a win in LIX, Hurts has a combined 525 passing yards, three touchdowns and an interception, plus 142 rushing yards and 4 TDs on the ground. In the loss to the Chiefs, he committed a costly fumble, but he kept the Eagles in it and led them to a Lombardi Trophy two years later.
Hurts was famously benched at halftime of a college national championship game when he played at Alabama before ever getting to the pros, and Manning cited it as another example of his stick-to-itiveness.
“That’s the kind of situation where it’s embarrassing, and you just don’t sort of recover from it mentally and emotionally,” Manning said. “That tells you how mentally tough he is. They said he was the first one to high-five Tua (Tagovailoa) in the locker room and was as celebratory after that win of all the players that were involved in the game.
“And he’s played so well in both of those Super Bowls. … I think the sky’s the limit for this guy.”
• • •
Inside linebacker Zack Baun (back), receiver A.J. Brown (hamstring), running back Montrell Johnson (hamstring) and defensive tackle Byron Young (groin) were limited in practice. Left guard Landon Dickerson (right knee), receiver Elijah Cooks (shoulder), guard Kenyon Green (shoulder) and defensive tackle Gabe Hall (shoulder) sat out.
Dickerson is set to undergo a meniscus procedure, which he hopes will have him ready to play Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys. He had to be helped off the field in Sunday’s open practice.
• • •
Former Eagles teammates WR DeSean Jackson and QB Michael Vick, now HBCU head coaches, were at NovaCare to discuss their schools’ upcoming matchup at Lincoln Financial Field on Oct. 3. Jackson is head coach at Delaware State. Vick — who served prison time for organizing a dogfighting ring and also personally murdering dogs himself through manual strangulation, manual drowning, electrocution, hanging, and other means — coaches at Norfolk State.
——
Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.
Source: Berkshire mont