Will Shipley is not a very big man.
The Eagles’ fourth-round running back is listed at 5-foot-11 and 209 pounds and has taken some pretty big hits during training camp, but each time, the same thing happened.
Shipley rose to his feet with great speed.
“It’s always like that. Yeah,” Shipley said. “It’s fun to come out here and just get pushed around by your guys a little bit. That’s what the game is about. This is football. I don’t come out here expecting to get touched with two hands. I’m a professional football player. That’s part of the game. Anytime I get taken down, I like to get up as quickly as I can and let them know it didn’t hurt. I keep coming at it. I love that. I love the intensity.”
Shipley, 21, a Clemson native, had a strong freshman training camp, flashing some ability both as a receiver and a runner out of the backfield. Shipley also improved in pass protection as the summer progressed.
But one of Shipley’s most impressive intangible qualities was his toughness, which was evident every time he took a big hit.
“The more they attack me, the harder it is for me to attack,” Shipley said. “And it gets my adrenaline going and keeps me competitive and that feeds me. I love the little things like that to give me a boost. When practice isn’t going well, when I’m not feeling great, when I’m not feeling energized, it’s those plays that motivate me and keep me true to what I have to do every day.”
Advice from Dad
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is carving out his own career in the NFL, but he’s still happy to take plenty of tips from the original “Axeman.”
“I still watch film with my dad after practice,” Trotter Jr. said. “He gives me advice and tells me what he saw in the game, so I have another coach, another resource in that sense, but as a dad, he just checks in with me to see how the day went and stuff like that. At the end of the day, he’s my dad. He tries to make sure I’m OK mentally too.”
Trotter Jr. showed up well in his first training camp, and what stands out most about his play are his instincts. He looks like a kid who grew up surrounded by the game.
Both Trotter brothers are linebackers, but the game has obviously changed a lot since the early 2000s. Trotter Sr. played the position at 260 pounds, while Trotter Jr. is 225 and needs to play in space in the modern NFL.
“Even though he’s retired, he always loved watching football,” said Trotter Jr. “He loves watching today’s games and watching the guys play. He knows the game has evolved and it’s more about playing in space. He always talks about how in his day you didn’t have to defend RPOs, but now you have to defend RPOs and you have to defend the run and the pass. He’s really changed his mind and is trying to coach on that as well.”
Devin White vs. Saquon Barkley
The most entertaining parts of training camp practices are the one-on-one battles — everyone seems to focus on the WR vs. DB or OL vs. DL matchups — but the pass protection drills between linebackers and running backs are fun, too.
And one of the best matchups of the summer was White vs. Saquon, a matchup of a linebacker known for his blitz ability against a running back with the quads of a folk hero.
“He’s OK,” White said of Barkley. “I think I’m better than him. But we’re really competitive in those practices. But I definitely think I’m better than him. Ask him when he comes out. I have the film. I’m not gonna lie.”
A few days later, Barkley held a press conference.
So… I asked him.
“He started out well,” Barkley admitted of White. “I had a terrible hand. I think I’ve caught up a little bit. We’re pretty even. I struggled at first because he started out well, but there were days when I beat anybody. I beat anybody.”
“But it’s a good job. That’s what you want. We’ll talk trash on each other, we’ll run into each other. He’s a great player in this league and he’s done great things in this league. Not just him, but the whole linebacker corps. I think everybody has a different challenge when it comes to blitzes. It’s going to be different with Dev, it’s going to be different with Zach (Baun), it’s going to be different with Kobe (Dean), everybody. It’s fun. It’s been a lot of fun.”
Kenny G’s biggest fan
With Barkley facing a load-management day on the final day of training camp, Kenny Gainwell became the Eagles’ top running back.
Gainwell made the most of it.
“The funny thing is we had that drive,” Jalen Hurts said, “I think it was a two-minute drive and he literally caught every ball and then he made an unbelievable catch on the corner.”
That incredible catch resulted in a touchdown to cap off the drive.
Gainwell, 25, is in his fourth NFL season and remains a key piece of the offense despite the offseason addition of Barkley, and he has the confidence of coach Hurts, who is a big fan of Gainwell.
“He’s improving,” Hurts said. “When you look back and think, ‘Oh, Kenny’s in his fourth year,’ it doesn’t seem real. I’ve been able to watch him come in and develop to this point. He’s a great player. Just the epitome of a team-first guy, embracing his role and working hard at it. I’m excited to see what kind of year he has.”
From teammate to coach
Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is a new face to many in the Eagles locker room, but not to Darius Slay.
Slay and Moore were actually teammates in Detroit in 2013-14.
“He understands,” Slay said this week, “Obviously, he played the quarterback position so he knows how tough it is. He was a scout team quarterback a lot so he’s given me a lot of advice.” [Matt Stafford]”He was crushing our defense because he’s so precise and makes such smart decisions. He was always giving me little tidbits, little hints about why he does this or why he does that, and I could see him conveying that on the field.”
“So I told the higher-ups [hand] “I know what he’s thinking here, so I’m going to put the pressure on him. That’s why I had a great game against Dallas, because I know him a little bit.”
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