Eagles Notes: Kelly On Injuries, QB Competition And WR Depth

Spirits are high at the NovaCare Complex where the Eagles are resuming practice after their preseason win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Here is a quick rundown of what Chip Kelly had to say about the game and a few key injuries during his press conference.

• Kiko Alonso will be back at practice today after missing the last two weeks with a concussion. Kelly said he doesn’t expect Alonso to be a full participant today, but he will gradually get back in the swing of things over the course of this week.

“I think mentally, he’s good, but he has been out for two weeks,” Kelly said. “So he’ll go through agilities, individual drills and maybe a little seven on seven, I don’t know if they’ll put him in during team [drills], but he should be good to go by the end of the week.”

Only three players will be missing practice today: Zach Ertz, DeMeco Ryans and Earl Wolff. Ertz had surgery just last week and isn’t expected to be back until the end of the preseason, and Kelly said he expects Ryans to start practicing with the team tomorrow.

As for Wolff and his lingering knee injury, Kelly said: “He says he can’t run on it.”

• Kelly also gave his thoughts on how he thought Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow looked on Sunday during their extended playing time.

“I thought both of them played well, but I think in both of their [situations], there were a couple miscommunications where some things broke down where it wasn’t their fault, so they have to make some adjustments from it, but they both–when they had time–threw the ball very well,” he explained. “[They] were accurate with their throws. Matt got a little bit more throws than Timmy had just in terms of play-calling, but that wasn’t by design, it was just how the game was expressing itself, but I thought both of them took advantage of their opportunities.”

• Another thing that impressed Kelly on Sunday was the depth of his wide receivers and he thinks there could be a rotation worked out so that everyone is able to stay fresh throughout the season.

“We would like to and our plan is to have more depth there so a guy doesn’t have to play 60-70 snaps at one position, whether it be running back or receiver, but that was kind of our thoughts, to spread it around because we ask our guys to run so much, you need more bodies,” Kelly said. “So barring injury, that’s what we’re looking forward to rotating a little bit more at the receiver spot because I think we have upgraded the bottom part of the receiver spot.”