Each year before the start of training camp, I publish a list of 25 things to watch. Now that camp is over (or at least the parts that the media is allowed to watch), let's republish the list of 25 things I was looking for, and I'll provide updates on each.
1) The Eagles' 2023 late-season collapse was something of a perfect storm of awfulness. One could blame any number of things for why things went badly, and they might all be correct. Jalen Hurts was part of the problem, as he did not play well down the stretch, and his leadership skills — always thought to be the biggest checkmark in his favor — came into question.
Hurts was given the chance to say some nice things about Nick Sirianni during locker room clean out day after the team's embarrassing playoff loss to the Buccaneers, when Sirianni's status as the team's head coach was still in peril. He didn't. He was given another chance during spring practices, and again, nothing. He also stated that the offense, which will now be some nebulous combination of Sirianni's old playbook and new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore's ideas, is "95 percent new."
(Sirianni disagreed with that assertion.)
Hurts did not look sharp in spring practices, which may or may not be meaningful. It would ease some anxiety within the Eagles' organization if Hurts had a good training camp. The pressure is on.
How effectively will he pick up Moore's scheme? How is he interacting with teammates, and his coaches? Is he making quick reads and getting the ball out quickly instead of looking to extend plays at the first sign of pressure? Those questions — and plenty of others — will be under the microscope this summer.
UPDATE: Hurts had the best camp of his career, in my opinion. Hell, the guy went 15 practices without throwing an interception. But beyond the lack of obvious mistakes, his deep throws looked pretty, the timing on his short game with A.J. Brown — especially on slants and quick outs — was on point, and he looked fast as a runner.
2) The Eagles made a surprise trade for Kenny Pickett this offseason. It is assumed that he'll be the No. 2 quarterback this season, but he may have legitimate competition in second-year pro Tanner McKee, who has played well in preseason games and media-attended practices, but has not yet appeared in a regular season game.
That is something of an under-discussed camp battle, since the backup quarterback can become the most important player on the team in a heartbeat.
UPDATE: If you're reading this, I'll assume you saw the Eagles' preseason game against the Patriots, when McKee was on fire and Pickett checked it down all night when he wasn't holding onto it too long. McKee is better, but Pickett for some reason remains the No. 2.
3) Saquon Barkley was always going to attract the locals' eyes this summer after signing with the team away from the Giants this offseason, but as the biggest storyline in HBO's offseason version of Hard Knocks, he'll garner more than his share of national attention as well.
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On the field, while not as explosive as he was earlier in his career, Barkley is still a complete back, who can elude tacklers with his quickness, break tackles with his power, catch passes out of the backfield, and pass protect.
In Philadelphia, Barkley will have a chance to run behind a good offensive line for the first time in his career. Can he bring the Eagles' rushing attack to the next level?
UPDATE: Barkley caught the ball well and he is pretty clearly the best Eagles back in pass protection. There were also times where you can see that he has juice as a runner. However, he wasn't always obviously noticeable throughout camp. There weren't many "wow" plays from him.
In fairness, it's tough to properly evaluate backs in camp because they're "down" when they get two-hand touched. Because Barkley rightfully didn't play in the preseason games, we never got to see defenders try to actually tackle him, so there's still some level of mystery of what he will be as a player, whereas we got a better look at newcomers at other positions.
4) A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are awesome. We already know that. Thereafter, the Eagles have a collection of Day 3 rookies (Ainias Smith and Johnny Wilson), disappointing veterans trying to find success later in their careers (Parris Campbell and John Ross), a punt returner who hasn't gotten on the field much in the regular offense (Britain Covey), and a some other miscellaneous UDFAs and guys signed to futures contracts.
In spring practices, Campbell seemed to be at the top of the WR3 totem pole above the others. He blazed a 4.31 40 at the 2019 NFL Combine, but for such a fast player he has had an oddly low 9.3 yards per catch average over his career. In 2023 with the Giants, a team with trash at receiver, he finished eighth (!) in receiving yards, and he had an almost impossibly low 5.2 yards per catch.
Will one of the above receivers emerge and separate from the pack, or will the Eagles have to deal for a wide receiver?
UPDATE: It became clear that the Eagles needed a legitimate WR3 to complement Brown and Smith, and sure enough, they traded for Jahan Dotson.
Wilson and Covey are locks to make the team, and I believe Smith will also survive. Campbell and Ross are likely done.
5) Speaking of trades, Howie Roseman has made 18 of them in between the start of training camp and the start of the regular season since he stepped back into the GM chair in 2016.
• 2016: 3
• 2017: 5
• 2018: 1
• 2019: 2
• 2020 (COVID): 0
• 2021: 2
• 2022: 4
• 2023: 1
You can re-live those here. After making only one training camp trade a year ago, we'll see if Roseman has an itchier trigger finger this year.
UPDATE: As noted above, he traded for Dotson. That feels like the only trade he'll make this camp, but we'll see.
6) Dallas Goedert had a fantastic camp last year, but then had a down season. It would be encouraging to see him dominate in camp once again, even if that didn't lead to a dominant regular season.
UPDATE: Goedert was quieter this camp than he was a year ago, and he missed the last practice of camp with an oblique injury.
The news that emerged from camp is that Grant Calcaterra is the TE2. Beyond that the Eagles don't have much at the position.
7) Cam Jurgens has the impossible task of replacing Jason Kelce, even if he had the advantage of apprenticing under Kelce during his rookie season in 2022, and then playing next to him at RG in 2023. No slight to Jurgens here, but there is going to be a dropoff in play at center. It's just a matter of how much, and in what ways. It's silly to expect anything else.
Like Kelce, Jurgens is an undersized, athletic center, and Philly fans might be more excited about his skill set if he weren't replacing arguably the most athletic center ever. But perhaps more important than his physical skills is how well he picks up the mental side of the position. Is he making the right line calls, and putting the Eagles' line in the best position to handle opposing pass rushes? That will probably be his biggest challenge in replacing the legendary Kelce.
UPDATE: There's no question whatsoever about Jurgens' athleticism. The Eagles will still be able to execute a lot of the same run and screen concepts that require the center to get to the second level, out on the perimeter, or down the field that they did with Kelce.
The line call dynamic will change some this season, as Jalen Hurts will have more pre-snap say than he did previously. We probably won't know how well that is going until the real games begin.
8) There will be a camp battle for the starting RG job. Second-year pro Tyler Steen is the favorite, and his (literally) biggest competition will be the ginormous Mekhi Becton. There are other guys in the mix, like Matt Hennessy or maybe even rookie Trevor Keegan, but they're longshots.
Steen, a four-year tackle in college, looked uncomfortable as a rookie at guard during 2023 camp and quickly lost a camp battle for the starting RG job to Jurgens. How much difference did a year make in adapting to the interior?
UPDATE: Steen injured his ankle in the third practice, and missed four practices thereafter, with Becton taking over as the first-team RG. When Steen returned, he was with the second-team offensive line and Becton stayed with the 1's, even though Becton hadn't really done anything special in Steen's absence.
Becton remained with the first-team offense for the remainder of camp, and Steen added further injury to insult when he once again injured his ankle in the second preseason game against the Patriots.
The Eagles will field one of the biggest offensive lines ever in 2024:
• LT Jordan Mailata: 6'8, 365
• LG Landon Dickerson: 6'6, 332
• C Cam Jurgens: 6'3, 303
• RG Mekhi Becton: 6'7, 363
• RT Lane Johnson: 6'6, 325
Average height/weight: 6'6, 338 lbs.
9) Haason Reddick is gone. His replacement will be Bryce Huff, who was an explosive situational pass rusher for the Jets, but who was not a three-down player because he has not yet proven that he can be a stout run stopper. At $17 million per year, Huff will be expected to play more than just situational pass rusher snaps. How will he look against the run?
UPDATE: Again, like with Barkley above, it's tough to properly evaluate run plays without the benefit of seeing how well guys are tackling. That said, even Vic Fangio said early in camp that he did not think Huff was ready yet to be a three-down player, an interesting and surprising bit of honesty.
As a pass rusher, Huff was quiet for most of camp, which is understandable given that he was going up against Lane Johnson every day. When the Eagles practiced with the Patriots, he made more noise getting after the quarterback.
10) After disappearing during the second half of the 2023 season, Josh Sweat was on the trade block this offseason before eventually taking a pay cut. He has a lot to prove in a contract year, but curiously skipped OTAs in the spring. As usual, it will be fun watching his battles with Jordan Mailata.
UPDATE: Sweat won some against Mailata, lost some. I thought he was fine.
11) 2023 first-round pick Nolan Smith barely got on the field as a rookie despite the defense playing an abnormally high number of snaps during some November games, and even after the team cut ties with Derek Barnett. Why didn't Smith play more? Will the defensive staff have a defined role for him? Can he play? Hard to know. If he's not getting his share of first-team reps in some kind of capacity that could be cause for concern.
UPDATE: Smith remains an enigma. He was playing in preseason games deep into the third quarter, which is when you'll typically see third stringers. I like his motor and his athleticism, but I believe there are valid concerns about his pass rush repertoire, his ability to hold up against much bigger linemen in the run game, and his instincts. For example, he'll crash down on the line sometimes and give up the edge for big gains on misdirection plays. He might be a player who makes an occasional play, but is frustrating on others.
As long as we're on young edge rushers, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw from rookie Jalyx Hunt. He's fast and physical, and further along in his development than I was anticipating.
12) The Eagles spent a first-, a fourth- and two fifth-round selections (15th, 124th, 162nd and 166th overall) to get Jordan Davis in the 2022 NFL Draft, and so far they don't have much to show for it. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, defensive line coach Clint Hurtt, and Davis himself have all said this offseason that Davis' conditioning must improve.
During spring practices, a slimmed-down Davis was clearly in better shape than he was a year ago, and yet he still weighed around 350 pounds. Is he going to be playing 7, 8, 9 plays in a row during camp to prepare for those situations in the regular season, or will he be rotating in and out? I'm curious to see if the Eagles truly test his conditioning during camp.
UPDATE: I thought there were some moments early this summer where Davis clearly looked tired, but I noticed less of that as camp progressed. He has a high floor as a run stuffer, and he can push the pocket on passing downs, but I don't see much development of a pass rushing arsenal.
13) Jalen Carter also had conditioning concerns last season, but not to the same degree as Davis. He looked like star, All-Pro player for the first three months of the season, before fading down the stretch.
The Eagles need Carter to be the dominant player that Fletcher Cox was six or seven years ago. He has the talent. Again, it'll be interesting to see how the focus on Davis' and Carter's focus on conditioning actually shows up on the field during practices.
UPDATE: Carter was a beast, making plays in the backfield in pretty much every practice.
14) The linebackers are question marks, as always:
- Devin White has talent and has been an outstanding player at times during his career, but he has also been inconsistent and was benched in 2023.
- Zack Baun is an edge rusher / off-ball linebacker tweener who has played in sub-packages but has never had a steady starting role. He ran with the 1's during the spring.
- It's hard to know if Nakobe Dean is good player because he hasn't been able to stay healthy.
- Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. is a rookie.
White will likely start, while Baun and Dean are the top two contenders at the other spot. This group is more promising than what the Eagles entered 2023 camp with (low bar there), but it's still far from a settled position.
UPDATE: I am far less concerned about the linebackers than I was at the start of camp. White's physical abilities are obvious, Baun didn't look out of place as an off-ball linebacker, Dean had an outstanding finish to camp and was probably the most physical player on the team this summer, and Trotter made his share of plays in the run game, in coverage, and as a blitzer. Even Ben VanSumeren showed a lot of progress from his rookie year in 2023 to 2024. He might be the Eagles' most improved player.
There's certainly a possibility that when the real games begin training camp will have given us a false positive and the linebacker play stinks as usual, but I feel far better about this group than what the team rolled out at linebacker in 2023.
15) Cornerback is probably the most intriguing positional group this year for the Eagles heading into camp. There's a whole lot of promise, but also plenty of uncertainty:
- Quinyon Mitchell was the team's first-round pick out of Toledo. He's fast and feisty.
- Isaiah Rodgers was scooped up and stashed last season while he served a season-long suspension for gambling. He looked good during spring practices.
- Kelee Ringo also had a good spring. He has size and speed and could take on more responsibility in his second season.
- The versatile Cooper DeJean was the team's second-round pick, and he'll be competing for roles both on the outside and in the slot.
They'll all compete for the open starting CB2 job opposite Darius Slay.
UPDATE: Mitchell is going to start. It's just a matter of whether he's a starting slot corner only, or if he starts at CB2 and moves inside to the slot in nickel. My guess? It's the latter.
Thereafter, Rodgers seems to be ahead of Ringo, and DeJean still has some catching up to do after missing the first three weeks of camp with a hamstring injury.
16) The nickel spot is worth watching as well. That'll probably be DeJean vs. Avonte Maddox, and possibly also Mitchell if Mitchell is beaten out by Rodgers or Ringo on the outside. The Eagles have had poor depth in the slot in recent years, and it felt like the team sought to fix that this offseason.
UPDATE: Again, Mitchell will be the slot. It's only a matter of whether he also starts outside in base. Maddox will probably play more at safety, but will also have the ability to drop down and cover from the slot.
17) Chauncey Gardner-Johnson's energy (we'll call his inability to shut up "energy") will be a welcomed presence for us media types both during practice and during interview sessions. On the field, he'll bring versatility to the defense, as he's a good starter both on the back end and in the slot. It'll be interesting to see how Fangio deploys CJGJ as a chess piece.
Otherwise, Reed Blankenship will almost certainly start at the other safety spot. He was up and down in 2023, but is still a good player. He handled the disorganized mess when the team switched from Sean Desai to Matt Patricia better than plenty of other players.
UPDATE: CJGJ was a indeed fun to watch in camp, and I thought he brought a little added energy to the field. Blankenship made a ton of plays in camp a year ago, but was more quiet this year.
18) Sydney Brown showed promise as a rookie, playing at safety and also out of position at slot corner. He'll start training camp on the PUP list, but we'll monitor his progress while he works out on side fields.
UPDATE: I watched Brown sprint a number of times, and he's still fast. He was also constant presence during 11-on-11's standing way behind the action and taking mental reps. I have no inside info on whether he's likely to be activated off the PUP list before 53-man cutdowns, or if he'll remain on PUP and miss the first four games of the season.
19) There are a lot of recognizable veteran safeties available on the open market, most notably Justin Simmons, who played for Fangio in Denver. Will the Eagles bolster their safety depth? There's certainly room for more talent, especially given Gardner-Johnson's versatility.
UPDATE: Simmons signed with the Falcons, and some of the other available safeties signed elsewhere. Bringing in an outside safety does not feel like a priority.
20) I got to cover a punter battle last year, in Arryn Siposs vs. Ty Zentner. Both guys stunk in camp, Siposs continued to stink into the regular season, and he was replaced by Braden Mann, who had a good season and earned a nice new contract.
I'll keep an eye on Mann and I suppose I'll track Jake Elliott's kicks, as usual, but none of the specialists have competition this year.
UPDATE: I timed Mann's punts early in camp. His hangtime and distance were both fine. As camp progressed, the punting sessions were when I'd go refill on water.
21) The much more interesting angle to special teams this year will be how the team prepares for the NFL's new kickoff rules. Who will return kicks, and perhaps more importantly, what will be the Eagles' strategy when they're kicking off?
UPDATE: Kenny Gainwell and either Isaiah Rodgers or Will Shipley appear to be the top contenders at the two kick return spots. As for strategy, the Eagles didn't give much away in front of the media.
22) The Eagles' health-focused training camp and preseason approach won't change much in 2024, even after the team struggled out of the gate in 2023. Yes, they started 5-0, but they did not play well in their first two games and were lucky to escape with wins over non-playoff teams. It's fair to wonder if they're valuing results over process.
But also, with new coordinators on both sides of the ball, limiting time on the field feels illogical as the players try to learn new playbooks and schemes.
UPDATE: Practice times were up about 20 minutes per day, on average. It was a tougher camp than usual, at least during the Sirianni era. As you saw, the offensive starters sat out the preseason games.
23) Sirianni acknowledged that the offense became stale last season. Under Kellen Moore, will we see some motion? Perhaps even an occasional snap from under center? 😱
The Eagles purposely won't show a whole lot in front of the media, but we should still be able to ascertain whether the offense is going to have more creativity this season.
UPDATE: The offense should indeed be more creative. There will definitely be more pre-snap motion and likely more snaps from under center.
24) The Eagles have tried to run bootleg versions of Fangio's defense the last few years, and they have finally landed the original. Will Fangio be worth the wait, will the players respond to his "old school" approach, and will he publicly grumble about not getting enough time on the field to install his defense?
UPDATE: Fangio brings with him a base level of competency, and we're unlikely to see a defensive clown show like we saw at the end of last season.
25) And finally, what will Sirianni's new role as a "CEO coach" look like? Will he truly let Moore run the offense unfettered? Will Hurts bring himself to muster a kind word for him at some point? Can he get his players to put their nightmare finish to the 2023 season in the rearview mirror and believing in their chances to contend for a Super Bowl again? Are players still buying into his "core values," or have they also gotten stale from a messaging standpoint? Training camp will test Sirianni's leadership skills.
UPDATE: This is subjective, of course, but in my opinion the team's vibes were excellent this summer. Players practiced hard and seemed to embrace getting better (as opposed to just getting through camp), there was genuine camaraderie, and neither side of the ball obviously lagged behind the other. The best players played well, the rookie class did some encouraging things, and the newcomers seemed to fit into the culture well.
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