The Eagles spent Tuesday’s training camp practice leaning into the run, and it showed. At the Jefferson Health Training Complex, the offense spent plenty of time in pistol and under-center looks, with Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, and Will Shipley all flashing in the ground game. Barkley and Bigsby, in particular, popped off several strong runs.
But camp work without live tackling can make the run game hard to judge in real time. What looks like a clean gain on the field can tell a very different story once the film gets pulled up. For the offensive line, the evaluation starts and ends with the details.
Left guard Landon Dickerson laid out how the group measures a run when defenders aren’t taking anyone to the turf.
“I mean, we watch the film,” Dickerson said. “We evaluate every play.
We do that every single day. And we go through, and it’s really making sure that is your alignment, assignment, technique correct?
Do you have good hat placement? Is everybody blocked up?
Did we point it right?"
When those boxes are checked, Dickerson said the rep usually grades out well.
“From there it’s it’s kind of easy to tell, right? If we have guys all doing their assignment, everybody’s got, the right alignment, their hat placement in the right place, and there’s a gap for the running back, then it was probably a good play,” Dickerson explained.
That’s the reality of camp in a no-contact setting. The whistle comes early, defenders aren’t finishing to the ground, and the yardage only tells part of the story.
Coaches and players are left to study each snap for the basics: alignment before the snap, assignment on the play, technique, and the hat placement Dickerson mentioned. In the run game, that helmet positioning helps control the defender and open or seal the lane.
If the blocking is clean and the back has a clear path, the rep gets marked as a win even if the runner doesn’t pile up much yardage before the play is blown dead. If a lane gets squeezed, a block is missed, or leverage breaks down, that shows up just as quickly on film and becomes a coaching point.
Tuesday’s heavy run emphasis also fits into the broader installation of Sean Mannion’s offense, which has leaned more into under-center looks and outside zone concepts. Barkley and Bigsby keep giving the Eagles reasons to be optimistic about a possible one-two punch, while the line keeps working on the details that will matter once the pads and live tackling make the picture much clearer.
The Eagles are back on the field Thursday before Saturday’s preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens, when the running game will get its first live test.
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