Less than a week after the conclusion of the 2025 NFL Draft, the Eagles kicked off their two-day rookie minicamp on Friday afternoon.
There was some sun and a touch of rain as Eagles rookies, select vets and tryout players took the field at the NovaCare Complex.
This rookie camp runs through Saturday and the full team won’t be together for OTAs until May 27. The Eagles hold OTAs May 27-28, May 30, June 2-3, June 5. And they will have one day of mandatory minicamp on June 10.
Before Friday’s practice, four draft picks (LB Smael Mondon Jr., QB Kyle McCord, OT Myles Hinton and OLB Antwaun Powell-Ryland) signed their rookie contracts. And the Eagles also announced all of the jersey numbers for this draft class:
Here are a few quick notes from a brief viewing window of Friday’s rookie minicamp practice:
1. First-round pick Jihaad Campbell was on the field wearing his No. 30 jersey but he did not have a helmet and was not participating in practice. Campbell is recovering from shoulder surgery in March and the Eagles have resisted putting a timeline on the No. 31 overall pick.
Campbell, 21, fell to the Eagles at the bottom of the first round because of injury concerns. But the Eagles trust their medical staff and their evaluation. They don’t want to rush Campbell; they think he has the chance to be with the team for a very long time.
While Campbell wasn’t practicing, he did go through early team stretch and was then a spectator for the rest of the window of practice open to reporters. It’s worth noting that when the Eagles broke off into position drills, Campbell went with the off-ball linebackers. After the Eagles drafted Campbell, they talked up his pass-rush ability off the edge, but it appears like they’re going to start him off in the linebacker room. During those position drills, Campbell took shadow reps about 10 yards behind the players who were actually practicing.
2. We got our first glimpse of the Eagles’ three Day 3 offensive linemen on Friday: C/G Drew Kendall, OT Myles Hinton and OT Cameron Williams:
When the first offensive line took their positions, here’s how they lined up:
LT: Myles Hinton
LG: Laekin Vakalahi
C: Drew Kendall
RG: Hollin Pierce
RT: Cameron Williams
Hinton played both left tackle and right tackle during his college career and seems to have the background to be an eventual swing tackle in the NFL because of his comfort level on both sides. Williams played exclusively right tackle at Texas (although he said he played on the left side in practice) and got his first reps there. And Pierce, an UDFA out of Rutgers, played right tackle and left tackle in college. He was at right guard on this day. (He’s a big man at 6-8, 341 pounds.)
3. We saw only a handful of throws from rookie sixth-round pick Kyle McCord, who is the only quarterback at this rookie camp. Not much to go on, but the ball came out with some zip on these throws to running backs.
Obviously, a long way to go with a rookie quarterback and it’s impossible to draw any conclusions from a few passes in a non-padded practice on May 2. But over the last decade, it has been pretty easy to figure out early on if Eagles young quarterbacks have the ability to stick at this level. Can’t say for sure that McCord has it … but nothing has disqualified him so far.
4. Reporters got a chance to chat with most of the draft picks before practice but not the first-round pick Campbell or the second-round pick Drew Mukuba. But we did see Mukuba on the field for the first time wearing No. 24. Mukuba is listed at 5-11, 186 pounds, and that’s definitely undersized for a safety. But he doesn’t seem too bothered by his size. Take a look for yourself:
The other physical characteristic I noticed on Friday was just how broad rookie DT Ty Robinson’s shoulders are. It explains how he was in the 15th percentile for arm length but the 68th percentile in wingspan. Robinson’s broad shoulders reminded me a bit of Fletcher Cox, although Cox’s arms were significantly longer. One more: Smael Mondon Jr. is jacked and is probably going to be a special teams ace.
5. There are 52 players on the roster for minicamp. Just Campbell and OL Marcus Tate appeared to be not practicing.
The breakdown of those 52:
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