After a long dead period over the last couple of months, Philadelphia Eagles training camp is finally here, as the team will report to the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday and hold its first practice Wednesday morning. Here are 25 things I'll be watching this summer.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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