Eagles Practice Observations: Actual tackle football; Bradford way ahead; Don’t sleep on Dillon Gordon

The Eagles held their ninth practice of training camp on Wednesday. Here's what I saw:

-- For the first time in four years, the Eagles held a practice with live hitting and tackling to the ground. It is football, after all. Chip Kelly had a different philosophy on contact. He thought it led to injuries and was unnecessay because there are four preseason games. Many other coaches feel the same. Doug Pederson does not. "Injuries are part of the game," he said. "I'm not going to shy away from tackling."

The Eagle had two live periods – during short yardage and the hurry up. On the first team offense's second play of short yardage, Sam Bradford feathered a perfect pass to Kenjon Barner after a play-action fake (remember those?). Barner took it to the house vs. the second team defense. A play later, cornerback Eric Rowe came up and tackled receiver Rueben Randle after a short gain. Rowe has struggled in man coverage at times, but tackling is a strength. When the first team defense had its turn vs. the second team offense, safety Malcolm Jenkins blitzed off the corner and skied high to tip a Chase Daniel pass. Safety Rodney McLeod caught the floater for an interception.

Goal line was intense – it's always intense. The players were juiced up. Barner turned the corner for the first team offense's first score. Bradford hit Barner again off play-action, although defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz seemed to want a holding penalty. On the next play, Bradford rolled left off play-action and had three options streaking to the corner. He connected with tight end Zach Ertz in the back of the end zone for the touchdown. Barner was stood up in the backfield by Joe Walker on his last carry. The first team defense dominated the first two plays of their series. Defensive end Vinny Curry raced into the backfield for back-to-back tackles for loss. Defensive end Brandon Graham assisted on the second.

Daniel had the second team offense moving against the first team defense during hurry up. He tossed a strike deep to Ertz. McLeod hit him fairly hard, but low. Ertz told reporters that he thought he went too low. It looked like maybe McLoed eased up some rather than pop him high. Cornerback Nolan Carroll made two tackles during the series. The ankle didn't appear to be bothering him in the least bit. The drive stalled when defensive end Connor Barwin sacked Daniel.

-- Depth chart notes: Graham took most of the left defensive end repetitions with the first team in place of Curry. Mike Martin was in for Bennie Logan at defensive tackle. The top three at end – Curry, Barwin and Graham – and tackle – Fletcher Cox, Logan and Martin – appear to be essentially set. Martin had a solid day. He mugged running back Byron Marshall in the backfield during goal line. He may have gotten away with a facemask. During one-on-one drills, he bull rushed over guard Malcolm Bunche and slipped by guard Allen Barbre with a slap move.

-- Bradford is ahead of where he was this time last year – not only because of his health, but also because of his comfort in the offense. It isn't as much his ease in the West Coast as it's being able to have the playbook at the line of scrimmage. Bradford likes to direct traffic and prefers to have the ability to check out of plays. He killed an early play and went to Barner with a handoff that resulted in a short gain. Aside from the aforementioned throws, he had a number of strong throws. He hit rookie receiver Paul Turner downfield before the live periods. During hurry up, he completed 5 of 7 passes – and even kept on a zone read (!) during an 11-play touchdown drive. Barner, who took a ton of snaps with Ryan Mathews (ankle) still out and rookie Wendell Smallwood (quadriceps strain) now sidelined, finished the series off with a run up the middle.

-- Anyone that is pushing the Wentz-could-beat-out-Bradford narrative should be disqualified from covering the Eagles. That isn't to say Wentz won't be good or that Bradford will be the NFL MVP this season. But it's become increasingly clear that the rookie isn't ready and won't be close to it for some time – as the team had expected. Wentz looks great one moment, completely lost the next – like a rookie quarterback. On his first team drill throw, he completely overthrow receiver T.J. Graham. When Wentz is way off it's because his mechanics are way off. He tends to have a slight loop in his backswing. He did it again later and sailed a pass high and wide of Graham. During goal line, he threw low to a wide-open Trey Burton after a short route and had a pass to receiver Jordan Matthews tipped away by safety Chris Maragos. Ertz was alone in the back of the end zone waving his hand.

But Wentz has promising moments, too. He tossed a sweet back shoulder to receiver David Watford.

-- Burton has had a strong camp thus far. He took out Barwin as the lead blocker on an early Darren Sproles run. He caught a Daniel pass in the corner of the end zone over linebacker Mychal Kendricks. Somehow, he got both feet inbounds. On a short pass against the prevent defense, Burton laid the wood on corner Ron Brooks. The cornerback looked shook up and needed a moment to get up.

-- Undrafted rookie Dillon Gordon was the star of offensive-defensive line one-on-ones. He owned defensive end Marcus Smith during one pass rush. He just kept pushing Smith away from getting closer to the objective – a towel on the ground. Smith got frustrated and after he finally touched the towel he gave Gordon another push. Gordon did the same to rookie defensive tackle Aziz Shittu. During early team drills, Gordon was at left guard and he mauled Logan with a trap block. By the end of practice he was at left tackle. Gordon played tight end at LSU. At 6-foot-4, 322 pounds, he was primarily a blocking tight end. Could he possibly follow in Jason Peters' footsteps as a tight end that makes the successful transition to the offensive line?

-- And a few notes … Kicker competition update: I couldn't see the exact distances because I was in the end zone, but Caleb Sturgis was 5 for 5 on all five of his attempts, while Cody Parkey was 4 of 5. He was well short and right on a 45ish-yard kick. Overall in camp, Sturgis is 15 of 15 and Parkey is 11 of 15. … Rookie receiver Cayleb Jones had the catch of the day when he one-handed a deep Daniel pass in the end zone. … Running back Cedric O'Neal fumbled an exchange with Wentz.