New coach Rich Scangerello has praise for Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz’s mental approach

Eagles first-year senior offensive assistant Rich Scangerello was asked Tuesday whether he saw any similarities between Carson Wentz and the two quarterbacks he worked with last season as Denver’s offensive coordinator, Joe Flacco and Drew Lock.

The short answer: No. But Scangerello did make an interesting Wentz comparison.

“It’s interesting in the league, now that I’ve been around a little more and had to work with a number of guys the last few years. I think I would compare Carson more mentally to like a Matt Ryan,” Scangerello said.

“I wasn’t in the room with Matt,” Scangerello said, but he worked in San Francisco with Kyle Shanahan, previously Atlanta’s offensive coordinator. “I have a great deal of respect for Matt as a player and his mental ability.

“Carson, he’s an elite processor, in my opinion, both pre-snap and post-snap. He’s able to do a lot of things because of it. That’s what separates him, to me, from a lot of people in this league. He, in my opinion, has all the qualities it takes to be one of the top guys in this league for a long time.”

Hassan Ridgeway is one of the few defensive tackles to have personal experience facing Jason Peters since the 38-year-old moved from left tackle to right guard.

Ridgeway has been matched up against the veteran often through training camp, and he has been surprised by how quickly Peters has settled in at the foreign position.

“I’ve been impressed by JP,” Ridgeway said. “Moving in from tackle and moving to guard and how he’s been able to respond to that, that’s been impressive to me. That’s a difficult position to change.”

Peters had been playing left tackle in the NFL since Ridgeway was in grade school, but after 16 seasons on the blindside, he’s back with the Eagles, filling in at right guard for Brandon Brooks. Brooks tore his left Achilles tendon in the offseason and will miss significant time, though there seems to be an outside chance he won’t miss the entire season.

Peters not only had to switch from tackle to guard, but from the left side to the right side of the offensive line. Still, Ridgeway said the two-time All-Pro veteran’s ability translated quickly.

“JP is JP,” he said. “He’s a great player; he’s not going to forget how to play football.”

Center Jason Kelce, who has an even better perspective on Peters’ transition, echoed Ridgeway’s sentiment this week.

“To be able to be with him in his transition to an entirely new position has been very fun throughout this whole training camp,” Kelce said. “Not that we’re ever at this point amazed at Jason Peters or anything he does, but I thought he played lights out in [Friday’s] scrimmage against Fletcher [Cox], Malik [Jackson], whoever [he was up against]. Those are two of the best guys we’re going to see, ever, as a guard, and for him to go out there and execute against those guys is proof enough that he’s going to be able to make this transition.”

The Eagles signed free-agent tight end Tyrone Swoopes to the active roster.

Swoopes, a former University of Texas quarterback, was on the field for Tuesday’s practice, which was more of a walk-through without helmets or pads.

Swoopes spent the last three seasons on the Seattle Seahawks after going undrafted in 2017. He played in seven games over that time and started two games for Seattle last season, catching one pass for five yards.

Swoopes’ addition comes two days after tight end Josh Perkins was listed as “out indefinitely” with an upper-body injury. Perkins played five games toward the end of last season after being promoted from the practice squad.

Reporters watching practice were impressed with rookie linebacker Shaun Bradley’s physicality early on, even in workouts that were designated “thud,” where blows are struck with pads but without tackling or full-speed contact.

That might have been a bit of a misconception, Bradley said Tuesday. Practices at Temple were always live, full-speed, he said. He carried that mindset into training camp, and the “old heads” told him, “You gotta relax a little bit, take it a little bit easier.”

“I was happy to get the pads on that first day. … I was excited,” he said.