We are now 11 practices into Philadelphia Eagles training camp, so I figured I’d take some time to poll the Eagles’ media contingent on which players have looked good so far throughout camp, and which ones have not looked so good.
For this exercise, I asked 25 Eagles media people, all of whom have attended every practice (or close enough to it) to identify one player whose stock is up, and one whose stock is down.
Stock up 📈
On the stock up front, nine players received votes:
| 📈 | Votes |
| Quez Watkins | 7 |
| Josh Sweat | 4 |
| Zech McPhearson | 4 |
| Tyree Jackson | 3 |
| Javon Hargrave | 2 |
| Kayode Awosika | 2 |
| Jordan Mailata | 1 |
| Jason Huntley | 1 |
| Kenny Gainwell | 1 |
For full disclosure, my vote was for Watkins. I think Sweat has had the best camp of anyone on the team, but Watkins has done the most in terms of exceeded expectations.
Here are the players in the past that have gotten at least four “stock up” votes:
| Year | Players with at least 4 “stock up” votes |
| 2017 | Marcus Johnson (13), Nelson Agholor (4), C.J. Smith (4) |
| 2018 | Kamu Grugier-Hill (4), Matt Pryor (4) |
| 2019 | Sidney Jones (10), Miles Sanders (7) |
| 2020 | John Hightower (4) |
The biggest “false positives” were Sidney Jones in 2019, and John Hightower last season. However, the first 10 or so practices of camp were predictive of good seasons for Miles Sanders in 2019, as well as Nelson Agholor, who had his lone impact season in 2017. Also, guys like Marcus Johnson and C.J. Smith were players who entered camp as longshots, but deserved to make the team, and did. Still, the “stock up” players have been a little hit-and-miss in terms of predictive indicators of a strong season ahead.
MORE: Eagles training camp notes, Day 11: The injury list grows | Will first preseason game answer any of our questions about the 2021 Eagles?
Stock down 📉
On the “stock down” side, Andre Dillard ran away with the voting this year, with 12 out of 25 votes. It should be noted that multiple voters commented that they didn’t vote for Dillard because their expectations for him were already very low.
| 📉 | Votes |
| Andre Dillard | 12 |
| Jalen Reagor | 4 |
| Jalen Hurts | 2 |
| John Hightower | 1 |
| Kerryon Johnson | 1 |
| J.J. Arcega-Whiteside | 1 |
| Joe Flacco | 1 |
| Davion Taylor | 1 |
| Hassan Ridgeway | 1 |
| Isaac Seumalo | 1 |
My pick on the “stock down” vote was Dillard. I, too, had low expectations for Dillard entering camp, but he was even worse than I expected, and hell, he was competing for a starting job at a premium position.
Jalen Reagor’s four votes were also fair, in my opinion. After such a disappointing season in 2020, how does a wide receiver fail a conditioning test at the start of camp?
Here are the players in the past that have gotten at least four “stock down” votes:
| Year | Players with at least 4 “stock down” votes |
| 2017 | Patrick Robinson (14), Shelton Gibson (10) |
| 2018 | Corey Nelson (7), Isaac Seumalo (5), Chance Warmack (5) |
| 2019 | Clayton Thorson (9), Jordan Mailata (7), Mack Hollins (5), Stefen Wisniewski (4) |
| 2020 | Sidney Jones (11) |
Robinson had one of the worst starts to camp that I’ve ever seen, but he got better as the summer progressed and ended up becoming one of the best slot corners in the NFL that season, making a HUGE play in the NFC Championship Game along the way.
MORE: Reading way too much into Eagles’ first ‘unofficial’ depth chart of preseason | Mailbag: What is your prediction for the Eagles’ 2021 record?
Otherwise, our stock down picks have been very predictive of bad seasons.
- Shelton Gibson played in five games as a rookie, catching two passes.
- Corey Nelson got cut before the end of camp.
- Isaac Seumalo got benched Week 2.
- Chance Warmack actually got into nine games in 2018. He didn’t wreck any games, but he wasn’t good, either.
- Clayton Thorson was a fifth-round pick who got cut.
- Jordan Mailata didn’t appear in any games in 2019.
- Mack Hollins was useless as a receiver in 2019 before the team dropped him in-season.
- Stefen Wisniewski got cut. (He did go on to start for the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs).
- Sidney Jones got cut.
So, for the most part, like most Philadelphians, we can identify a struggling player when we see one, which is a bad sign for the Eagles’ first-round picks in 2019 and 2020.
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