In a month or so, I don’t think anyone will still care what A.J. Brown said or did during these joint training camp practices between the Eagles and the Patriots. I doubt anyone will still be referencing anything Jalen Hurts or Devonta Smith had to say about Brown, on an August day in Foxborough, Mass.
Someone did say something Wednesday that might matter in a month, though. It was Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. He was asked about Jonathan Greenard, the former Vikings edge rusher the Eagles traded for this offseason, then signed to a $98 million contract extension. Greenard was the Eagles’ biggest offseason move, the reason many fans and observers felt good about an edge rush that wasn’t nearly as good in 2025 as it had been a year earlier.
Greenard had shoulder surgery early in the offseason. Then, on the first day of training camp, the Eagles told us he had suffered a pec strain, and wouldn’t be ready to practice.
General manager Howie Roseman told reporters he wasn’t worried.
“When you have a guy like that who prepares the way he does, who has the experience in the NFL the way he does, you know he’s going to be ready to play when we start the season,” Roseman said.
That was on July 29th. Wednesday was three weeks later, to the day. Here is what Fangio said in Foxboro:
“I don’t know when Greenard will be back. That injury he got in our weight room is going to take some time to heal.”
(Footnote: wonder why Fangio explicitly said Greenard was injured in the Eagles’ weight room? If you get injured working out on your own, you go on the NFI or non-football injury list. Does Uncle Vic want to make sure we all know that isn’t the case? I dunno.)
The regular season starts Sept. 13, at home against Washington. It doesn’t sound like Fangio is as certain as Roseman was that he will have Greenard for that game. (Of course, we also don’t know that Roseman still feels the way he felt three weeks ago.)
I have no idea if Greenard will be ready Week 1. But I know my ears pricked up back on July 29 at the mention of a pec strain. A strain is a minor tear. NFL linemen who suffer more than minor tears in that area usually have surgery and are done for the season. We assume that Greenard does not have more than a minor tear and does not need surgery. Lots of times, though, minor pec strains don’t heal completely, and eventually become major tears.
If Greenard does miss regular-season time, the edge rush picture might not look as bleak as it seemed back before Greenard arrived, when the team was reeling after Jaelan Phillips signed with Carolina instead of coming back to the Eagles. The Eagles eventually added A.J. Epenesa, who seemed pretty spry in Saturday’s preseason opener. Jalyx Hunt is having a really good camp, by all accounts. We are still allowed to hope for the 2024 playoffs version of Nolan Smith.
“Yeah, I’m very happy with Nolan and Jalyx,” Fangio said Wednesday. AK (Arnold Ebiketie) is coming along. The other guys are coming along, but we need our third and fourth until Greenard gets back to really solidify their positions.”
Again, though, Greenard is projected as a starter, a difference-maker. If the Eagles are going to get back to the Super Bowl, he’ll need to be every bit of that.
Fangio also said something I really liked about joint practices. I really hate the way they’ve become about who “won” this or that. I can promise you the Eagles didn’t travel to New England to prove they can best Brown or any other of their former players. (In your face, Milton Williams! Take that, Kevin Byard!)
“I love doing these things. I think these things are great. I wish we would do another one,” Fangio said. “It’s great to go against a new team, new schemes, new players. You learn things. You’re going to get unscouted looks and plays, and see how people react. These things are tremendous … can’t get enough of it.”
In other words, you’re kind of hoping to see a player put in a position where he isn’t sure what to do, which you know is likely to happen when the games matter. If he does X when he should have done Y, you can explain to him what he should have done. When this scenario repeats two months from now, maybe he remembers what you said. (Unless he’s Kelee Ringo, or something.)
If you’ve read all this and you’re still really concerned about which team “won” the first joint practice, I will refer you to something Hurts said Wednesday:
“I think we’re still putting in a lot of different things. Our offense isn’t in (fully),” Hurts said, in response to a question about how Saquon Barkley might be used in the new scheme. “Came out here, didn’t necessarily game plan for the team, more so treated it like a regular practice. I think it was cool to see some of the raw and unscouted looks, if you will.
“I think he’s going to show up in every facet of the offense. Ultimately, we’re just trying to figure out our identity, and what exactly we want that to look like. Obviously, it starts with the outside zone and the run game.”
