Bleed Green Sports | Eagles Training Camp, Day 4 — Monday, August 3, 2026
Just when we were getting into a groove dunking on the Jalen Hurts Training Camp TD Virginity Tour, the man went out and had his best day of the summer. Of course he did.
Day 4 was the first padded practice of camp, held inside the bubble at the Jefferson Health Training Complex because heavy rain was flooding South Philly. Usually indoor practices are a snoozer. Not this one.
The Legs Came First
We finally saw the running element show up over the weekend. On Saturday, the Eagles lined up in shotgun in the red zone and ran a zone-read where Hurts pulled it and beat Nolan Smith around the left edge for an 8-yard touchdown scamper. Monday, offensive coordinator Sean Mannion dialed up a designed QB draw on 2nd-and-goal from the 10 — the kind of call that gives Hurts more room than Moses got at the Red Sea.
Mannion has been open about wanting that in the toolbox. Asked about Hurts as a runner, he called Hurts uniquely talented athletically and said it’s an element the offense can lean into.
Translation: the QB run game is not decoration this year. It’s (needs to be) part of the plan.
But the Day Was Won With the Arm
Here’s the part that actually matters. Hurts didn’t win Monday with his legs. He won it by throwing the football and attacking the middle of the field — the exact thing every critic in this market has spent an entire offseason saying he can’t or won’t do.
It started shaky. In 7-on-7, Hurts and Elijah Moore had a miscommunication on the left sideline and Quinyon Mitchell jumped the route and took it the other way for what would have been a pick-six. Hurts’ first interception of camp.
Good.
We’re serious. Sometimes the worst thing an athlete can do in August is protect some arbitrary stat line. Zero interceptions through three practices isn’t a badge of honor, it’s a symptom. We don’t want Hurts playing scared of turnovers in a padded practice in a bubble in August. We want him pushing the envelope, testing windows, and finding out where the limits are.
Let it rip.
We spoke. He delivered.
Three Touchdown Throws. One Pick. Eating Over the Middle.
Hurts finished the day with three touchdown passes and one interception, and the tape on those three scores tells you everything:
- The seam shot to Elijah Moore. Roughly 40 yards, thrown with anticipation into a tight window, splitting the safeties behind the linebackers. Moore double-caught it, controlled it, and ran in. The Athletic’s Zach Berman called it possibly the best throw he’s seen from Hurts all summer. Hurts himself was fired up after it — as he should have been.
- The red zone dart to DeVonta Smith. Simulated 3rd-and-8, quick-fire to the front right corner of the end zone. Smith gained a step on Jonathan Jones and tucked it inside the pylon.
- The across-body strike to Dontayvion Wicks. Hurts rolled right, found nothing in the corner, worked back to the middle, and threw a laser to Wicks with Riq Woolen in coverage.
Then he added a two-point conversion to Smith on a roll-right, throw-left rep that beat Woolen in the back of the end zone. Beat the same corner twice. That’s not luck.
Eliot Shorr-Parks charted the opening first-team series as their best of camp: deep shot to Wicks, sideline throw to Smith, then over the middle to Moore. Shorr-Parks graded the day an A for Hurts, and we’re not going to pretend to disagree just to be contrarian.
Hurts was eating in the middle of the field, and boy was he hungry.
The Accountability Clause
Mistakes happen in life, in practice, and in camp. Mistakes give you the chance to learn and evolve — if you’re willing to actually learn from them. Hurts cannot get better without making them. Monday was a great first step. It needs to continue.
One good practice is one good practice. It is not a season. It is not even a week. Vic Fangio’s defense owned Days 2 and 3, and it’s worth noting that the first-team offense opened Monday against the second-team defense, with Jalen Carter and Jalyx Hunt watching from the sideline. Caveats exist.
But here’s our standard, and it doesn’t move:
When Jalen performs poorly, we attack relentlessly. When Jalen performs well, we don’t abstain from giving him his flowers. Toughest version of love. Everyone is accountable. No one is above criticism.
The Makai Lemon Problem Is Becoming a Real Problem
Not great news for Lemon truthers.
The first-round pick was on the field to start Monday’s session but did not participate in any team drills — and he is not listed on the injury report. He wasn’t on the injury report, he did individual work, and then he just… wasn’t out there when it counted.
For a rookie who already missed OTAs with a hamstring, this is exactly the wrong pattern. Lemon has been quiet through four practices:
- Beat writers have openly noted there’s been no “wow” moment yet.
- He was blanketed by Cooper DeJean on a deep ball Saturday that fell incomplete.
- Andrew Mukuba read a route of his over the middle and nearly picked it off, arriving at the same time as Lemon for a heavy collision.
- He’s been taking punt return reps alongside DeJean, Britain Covey, and Quez Watkins.
None of that is a death sentence. Rookie receivers routinely need time to get their legs under them, and the Eagles have not slow-played him — Berman has noted Lemon’s been working with the first team. But you cannot make plays in games if you can’t get on the field in practice. Reps are the currency here, and Lemon is running low.
Remember the price of admission: Howie Roseman traded up three spots in the first round to take him at No. 20 out of USC after Lemon won the Biletnikoff Award with 1,156 receiving yards and 13 scrimmage touchdowns. That pick was the result of A.J. Brown getting moved. Brown is now a Patriot, and the Eagles are carrying a $43.45 million dead cap hit split across 2026 and 2027 to make it happen.
That’s the context Lemon is operating in. Fair or not.
Elijah Moore Is Making Lemon’s Life Harder
Full transparency: Bleed Green Sports has not been high on Elijah Moore. We had him fighting just to survive final cuts.
We were wrong, and he keeps making us more wrong every day.
Moore was one of the two biggest winners of Day 4. He caught the 40-yard seam touchdown. He ran a sharp route to get open in the middle for a 15-plus yard completion. He caught a layered throw in stride with room to run after the catch. This is now a pattern, not a practice.
Moore is no longer fighting for a roster spot. Moore is fighting to start. And if Lemon can’t get on the practice field, Moore is the most likely beneficiary — he could very realistically be the Eagles’ Week One starter in the slot.
That’s not a knock on Lemon’s talent. That’s how camps work.
Wicks Has Already Earned It
We pegged Dontayvion Wicks as the Y receiver to open the season, and he’s already shown enough to lock that role down.
The résumé says the Eagles agreed with us before we said it. Philadelphia traded a 2026 fifth and a 2027 sixth to Green Bay for Wicks, then handed him a one-year, $12.5 million extension. You don’t pay that for a WR5. Wicks also has the single biggest advantage in that room: he already knows Sean Mannion’s system from their time together in Green Bay. In three seasons with the Packers he put up 108 catches, 1,328 yards, and 11 touchdowns while buried on the depth chart.
His knocks were never talent. They were health and drops — and drops are the one that will get him benched in Philadelphia in October if it resurfaces. So far in camp: opening-day deep shot from Hurts, a contested slant with Michael Carter swiping at the ball where he showed strong hands through contact, and now a red zone touchdown over Riq Woolen.
Four practices. Zero drop concerns. We’ll take it.
Odds, Ends, and Things Worth Watching
- Backup QB battle: Andy Dalton was first up with the twos again and looked sharper than Tanner McKee on Monday. The 38-year-old can still sling it — he ripped multiple over-the-middle throws to Johnny Wilson, then hit Will Shipley in the flat for a score and Hollywood Brown for another. If you thought splitting reps was silly, Dalton is making it look less silly by the day.
- Injury report: OLB Jonathan Greenard remains on Active/PUP with a pec strain. Not practicing Monday: Keyshawn James-Newby (ankle), Micah Morris (shoulder), Jaeden Roberts (calf contusion), Cole Wisniewski (hamstring), and Lane Johnson (excused). Cameron Williams was limited with a knee contusion but took team reps.
- Right tackle: With Lane Johnson out, Fred Johnson opened as the starter, but rookie third-rounder Markel Bell got first-team reps later. There may be a swing tackle battle brewing.
- Jalen Carter was Jalen Carter. Double-teamed by Myles Hinton and Drew Kendall and threw them both off him. Hinton went down hard.
- Roster bubble watch: Darius Cooper made another non-routine grab — a diving catch on a low Hurts throw. Johnny Wilson couldn’t secure a low McKee ball on the very next sequence. Those two may be competing for the same spot.
- Off the field: Nolan Smith publicly apologized for a speeding arrest in Georgia, saying it can’t happen again.
Up next: Practices Tuesday and Wednesday, then a walkthrough closed to media on Thursday.
The Bottom Line
Hurts had the best practice of his summer, threw three touchdowns, took a shot that turned into a pick-six, and came back from it. That’s the whole point of August.
Do it again Tuesday.
Go Birds. 🦅
