The regular season is still weeks away, but the mind games have already begun.
Philadelphia Eagles safety K'Von Wallace engaged in some trolling at Cam Newton's expense Tuesday, yelling "checkdown king" at the New England Patriots quarterback during a 7-on-7 drill at the teams' joint practice session.
Wallace appeared to be calling Newton out for his conservative approach after throwing several short passes to running backs, and the second-year safety confirmed as much after Tuesday's practice at the NovaCare Complex in Philly.
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"I'm just aggressive in my approach to the game, who I go against," Wallace told reporters, as seen in the video above. "I feel like whoever is the opposition, I'm gonna do my best to get in their head to say what I need to say and do what I need to do to beat them, to win.
"I felt like at the time, there were a lot of checkdowns going on. So, I had to let him know, 'Not only are you throwing checkdowns, but you're doing it over and over again. Like, you mastered it. You're the king of it.' So I had to let him know, 'You're the king of checkdowns.'"
Newton initially ignored Wallace's chirping, but according to NJ.com's Mike Kaye, the veteran quarterback later asked to work with the Patriots' second-team offense so he could face Wallace, who was running with the Eagles' second-team defense.
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"Any way you can get into a quarterback's head, that's the best approach: to say whatever and mean what you say, basically," Wallace added.
"... I like that type of energy. He’s a competitor and so am I. I feel like that level of competitiveness brings out the best in him and so does it for me. I appreciate that and respect the fact that he wanted to see what I was about."
While Newton may have acknowledged Wallace's trash-talk, the 32-year-old didn't let the trolling affect his play: He completed 11 of 12 passes in that 7-on-7 period, including five to running backs, per our Phil Perry.
The Patriots and Eagles will face off in preseason game action Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.