‘Older’ Avonte Maddox is one of a few Eagles showing off positional versatility in minicamp

Twenty-eight does not make one an old man, but in NFL years, Eagles defensive back Avonte Maddox is no puppy.

Maddox knows this, too, as he enters his seventh season with the team that drafted him in the fourth round in 2018. He has played 13 games over the last two seasons, toe and pectoral injuries limiting his time on the field. Maddox initially was released by the Eagles in early March but was brought back on a one-year deal less than a month later.

Maddox said he wasn’t sweating the few weeks when he was a free agent. He was enjoying time with his family and knew returning to the Eagles was in the cards. Maddox has spent the last two months “attacking my body and making sure I come back as healthy as possible,” he said. That doesn’t mean just extra time in the gym. Maddox wears an Oura Ring and WHOOP watch to track his sleep and physical activity. Before Tuesday’s minicamp workout, Maddox said he was at 88% recovered from Monday night’s sleep.

“I’m in bed at 9 o’clock,” he said. “I’m doing a lot of other things that can save me a little bit longer and help me out with the injuries.”

The injury list has been long. Maddox has played just one full season in the NFL, and before the toe injury in 2022, he missed time with injuries to his ankles, knees, hamstring, and a three-game absence in 2018 because of a concussion.

Maddox mostly has played nickel cornerback, and that’s where he was during first-team reps Tuesday, the first of a three-day mandatory minicamp at the NovaCare Complex. Darius Slay and Kelee Ringo manned the outside spots, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Reed Blankenship were the first-team safeties. But Maddox remained on the field with the second team to take some snaps at safety himself.

“I know the nickel spot really well, and I feel like something that’s going to help me in my career is to learn the safety spot,” Maddox said. “When you get older, you get a little bit slower.”

Maddox is one of many players on the Eagles defense with positional versatility. Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean can play corner and safety. Linebacker Zack Baun can play off the ball or rush the passer. The Eagles even planned to look at cornerback James Bradberry at safety on Tuesday, but Bradberry appeared to be injured early in practice and did not participate in seven-on-seven or 11-on-11 activity.

At one point during Tuesday’s practice, the Eagles showed a look in dime coverage that had Slay, Ringo, Maddox, and rookie corner Quinyon Mitchell on the field at the same time.

“We’ll throw a lot at them in training camp to see what best fits for them, what they’re good at, and then try and whittle it down, but always keeping some stuff in the bank in case we need it at some point during the season,” new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said last month.

“We have a system that is versatile, we like to think. It needs to be versatile because every week you’re facing different strengths of an offense, different schemes. So what you play in one week 10, 15 times, you may not play at all the next week. You have to have a versatile system for the offenses today in the NFL. What we’ll eventually do is learn what our guys are best at.”

That process is underway, beginning last week during voluntary organized team activities and continuing this week during mandatory minicamp.

As for Maddox, he said the biggest adjustment, and what he’s working on most right now, is the footwork. And the whole getting released thing? That wasn’t a blow to his ego, he said.

“I know who I am. I know what I can do,” Maddox said. “I know how I can play on the field.

“I’m here to compete and have fun and win a Super Bowl.”

Baun, whom the Eagles signed to a one-year deal in free agency, is another player with versatility as far as where he plays. The former member of the New Orleans Saints has played mostly special teams and — when he did get a chance to play on defense — outside linebacker. According to Pro Football Focus, Baun had 252 snaps on the edge compared to just 33 as an off-ball linebacker and primarily was used as a pass rusher rather than dropping into coverage.

But with the Eagles, it appears that Baun, a third-round pick in 2020 out of Wisconsin, is tracking as an off-ball linebacker. He took first-team reps there Tuesday next to Devin White.

“That’s where Vic sees me,” Baun said. “He’s seen my film. … If he thinks that’s a good spot for me, that’s where I’ll be.”

Baun said he wasn’t surprised by being assigned a role on the inside. He said it didn’t come up during free agency discussions, and he was just looking for an opportunity to play.

“In Vic’s scheme, there’s always opportunities to rush the passer from the inside and do a bunch of different cool stuff,” Baun said. “I’m a football player. I’m just going to play.”

Baun said he planned to reach out to Andrew Van Ginkel, a similarly versatile linebacker who shined under Fangio in Miami last season. Baun also has been spending extra time after practices working on his pass-rushing, too, “just in case,” he said.

“I don’t know where this is going, but I’m just here to compete and get better,” he said.

Left guard Landon Dickerson was the only player not in attendance at Tuesday’s practice. Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said it was an “excused absence,” a “personal” issue that Dickerson informed the team about previously. ... With Dickerson missing, new lineman Mekhi Becton took first-team snaps at guard next to Jordan Mailata. ... Safety Sydney Brown (ACL) did not participate in practice, and neither did offensive lineman Le’Raven Clark (injured reserve) or wide receiver Jacob Harris (unknown).