SEC alums Derek Barnett, Jalen Carter and Anthony Richardson involved in joint practice scuffle between Eagles-Colts
A fight centered around Derek Barnett, Jalen Carter and Anthony Richardson broke out at the Eagles-Colts joint practice Tuesday. The two teams are scheduled to play each other in a preseason finale this week.
Barnett, based on observations, was a little feisty with the Colts’ rookie quarterback. He attempted to swipe the ball and then all of a sudden, the Colts didn’t like the move by the Eagles’ veteran.
Then chaos ensued and it included prized Eagles’ rookie Carter.
“FIGHT! Looked like Barnett might have hit Richardson to get the ball out,” WIP’s Eliot Shorr-Parks wrote on Twitter. “Colts didn’t like it Barnett gets into a fight, tons of Eagles run over, including Jalen Carter, who had to be held back Practice getting feisty.”
The competition never ends between professionals but the joint practices certainly seem to get more heated than games this summer.
It didn’t end there either. Eagles running back Kenny Gainwell was hit late by an unnamed Colts defender and center Jason Kelce blindsided that defender after the play, per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane.
From there, the benches cleared.
“And that appears to have ended a very chippy Eagles-Colts joint practice,” McLane wrote on Twitter. “Players still jawing at each other as they are separated.”
The Eagles and Colts play each other Thursday and Richardson is slated to start the game, per head coach Shane Steichen. Steichen is quite familiar with Philadelphia, considering he left his offensive coordinator job there for the Indianapolis head coaching gig this offseason.
As far as the other SEC alums involved in the initial fight, Barnett goes into his seventh season with the Eagles. The former first-round pick out of Tennessee hasn’t quite lived up to his billing due to inconsistencies and injuries.
However, he recovered a fumble late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LII to help Philadelphia win it all.
Carter, if he plays for the Eagles against the Colts as a final tune up, could wreak havoc. He detailed his biggest improvements over the course of the summer.
“My strength,” Carter said via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “Just firing off the ball and using my strength first. Coming out of college, I was using a lot of finesse and all that. Now, I’m bringing it back to my strength and my power. Because you use strength and then you surprise them with finesse. And now they don’t know what’s coming next.”