August 08, 2026
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Saquon Barkley can still make even great defenders look silly with some of his spins and jukes.
The Eagles moved practice up about 30 minutes Saturday to avoid the hottest portion of the afternoon, but it sure didn't feel that way as the first-team offense scrimmaged against the first-team defense several times for about two hours.
And while the defense appeared to get the best of the offense for most of the morning, it wasn't like one side completely dominated the other.
Here are some of the heroes and zeroes from the sweaty slugfest:
Saquon Barkley, RB: On a day when the DT tandem of Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis stood its ground often, Barkley still managed to dig deep into his bag of stutter-steps, jukes, and slithery spins to break a few good runs that perhaps would've been longer if the drills were being run in true game simulation. Barkley had his share of run-ins with the gigantic wall up front but also found the end zone in a low red zone drill on a nifty outside-in move that caught the linebackers out of position as he disappeared behind his blockers, then emerged to scamper into the end zone. Barkley then jogged up to Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell for some playful trash talk.
Later, in a drill with the offense backed up near its own goal line, Barkley spun away from Jihaad Campbell at the line of scrimmage with a lightning-quick juke that left Campbell frozen as Barkley found daylight around the left side. Had that been a real game, and if he kept running, it could've been a signature Barkley home run.
Willie Lampkin, OG/C: You might not expect the 1-on-1s between offensive linemen and defensive linemen to be the place where the undersized Lampkin would do some of his best work, but the 5-foot-11, 290-pound center/guard shined there. He twice stonewalled 6-foot-6 DT Gabe Young, showing good anchor against Young's bullrush on consecutive reps. Later, he put in good reps against DT Zion Wilson, who outweighs Lampkin by more than 25 pounds.
In team scrimmages, Lampkin got an opportunity to rep at second-team right guard despite mostly seeing opportunities at third-team center throughout camp. With the Eagles in need of interior offensive line depth, Lampkin will be a fun one to watch in the preseason.
Nolan Smith Jr., EDGE: Smith's speed and athleticism should help him dominate 1-on-1s but he got taken for a ride by Jordan Mailata on back-to-back reps as Mailata blocked him to the outside on the first rep without Smith mustering much of a counter. On the next rep, Smith tried to beat Mailata to the inside,but it wasn't an overly effective move. And while the defensive front caused chaos for a good portion of team scrimmages, Smith didn't stand out as much as Jalyx Hunt and others did.
Pass catchers: Making matters worse for an already sporadic offense were a few critical drops, including an easy ball that bounced off the hands of a wide-open rookie TE Eli Stowers across the middle (although to his credit, Stowers rebounded and finally made some nice catches as practice went on) and one apiece from WR Elijah Moore and WR Hollywood Brown. And although he's not a pass catcher, RB Tank Bigsby fumbled a handoff and had to jump on the loose ball to preserve the possession. Too much sloppiness from the offense in critical sitiuations.
SIGN UP HERE to receive PhillyVoice's Sports newsletters.
Follow Geoff on Twitter/X: @geoffpmosher
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
