September 02, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley will soon be leading an entirely new Eagles offensive scheme.
Each year before the start of training camp, I publish a list of 25-30 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 things I was looking for (30 this year), and I'll provide updates on each.
Hurts will be working with yet another new offensive coordinator this year, Sean Mannion, his 10th OC setup in 11 seasons going back to college:
• 2016: Lane Kiffin
• 2017: Brian Daboll
• 2018: Mike Locksley
• 2019: Lincoln Riley's offense (co-coordinated by Cale Gundy and Bill Bedenbaugh)
• 2020: Doug Pederson
• 2021-2022: Shane Steichen
• 2023: Brian Johnson
• 2024: Kellen Moore
• 2025: Kevin Patullo
• 2026: Sean Mannion
Mannion is a disciple of the Shanahan coaching tree having served under Matt LeFleur. He has also played for a lot of recognizable offensive minds, like Sean McVay, LaFleur, Zac Taylor, Gary Kubiak, Kevin Stefanski, Klint Kubiak, Dave Canales, and Grant Udinski.
From Hurts' perspective, there wasn't wholesale change from one coordinator to the next in some of those years noted above, but the offense should look significantly different with Mannion running the show.
We already saw during spring practices that the Eagles will be operating more under center than they have, as Hurts has mostly worked out of shotgun throughout his career. We will also likely see significantly more purposeful pre-snap motion, designed to provide tells for what looks the defense is in.
Hurts seems to be welcoming these changes, but we'll see how well he adjusts to that style of play. But that's not all we'll be watching from Hurts this summer. Additionally:
• The Shanahan offense also often requires quarterbacks to throw on the run via misdirection play action. Hurts has sometimes looked uncomfortable rolling to his left and throwing on the run, so that could be something the Eagles work on this summer.
• The Eagles got to the line slower than any team in the NFL last season. I would imagine that correcting that has to be a point of emphasis this season. I would put the Eagles' struggles on that front way more on Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni than I would on Hurts, but it will interesting to see if that gets fixed, and if Hurts has more time to make checks at the line, which he often didn't in 2025.
• One big talking point with Hurts this offseason has been his avoidance of the middle of the field. The contention here is that he has already proven in the past that he can throw efficiently over the middle of the field, but there's no debating that he rarely did the last two seasons, whether that was a product of the scheme or his own aversion to it. His usage of the middle of the field in camp will be worth watching.
• Over the last four years Hurts threw a ton to A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert. He did not seem comfortable throwing to other receivers. With Brown gone, Smith and Goedert can't get every target, right? So, we'll see if Hurts can develop rapport quickly with newcomers like first-round pick Makai Lemon, trade acquisition Dontayvion Wicks, and free agent acquisition Hollywood Brown, among others.
UPDATE: At a minimum, the offense will get to the line way faster than they did in 2025, as several offensive linemen praised that aspect of the new scheme.
As for Hurts, he threw to the middle of the field throughout the entire summer, he threw on the run a lot (though he did so a lot more to his right than to his left), and he had no other choice than to throw to other receivers since DeVonta Smith missed most of camp with a hamstring injury. We also saw under center snaps and pre-snap motion in abundance.
By my count, Hurts threw 8 INTs this summer. Last summer, he didn't throw any until the final day of camp. Of course, his near-perfection on the INT front in 2025 ending up being a sneak peek into the painfully conservative offense the Eagles were about to run all season. There will be more risks taken in this new offense. That should lead to more big plays. It'll also lead to more mistakes.
My guess is that the offense will be far less predictable than it was a year ago, but that mastering the timing and rhythm of the offense is going to take some time. It could be rocky for a while. Fortunately for the Eagles, they start the season off against two bad teams in the Commanders and Titans. Thereafter it gets a lot harder.
Tanner McKee has quietly gone about his business as a backup quarterback for the Eagles for three full years, diligently preparing as if he's the starter. And when he has gotten his opportunities — with the exception of one game last season during which he played with the second-team offensive line and backups at the skill positions — he has mostly looked the part of a player who could earn a starting job at some point, even if with another team.
And yet, despite his continued progression as a pro quarterback, he was competing for the QB2 job this spring with a 38-year-old Andy Dalton, who the team acquired via a mere seventh-round pick this offseason. Weird.
McKee pretty clearly outplayed Dalton during the spring, at least during the media-attended practices, but it's interesting that the team felt that he should have to earn the QB2 spot, which in my opinion, he already has the last three-plus years.
UPDATE: The Eagles bungled this entire situation. They tried to present Dalton and McKee as co-QB2s, though Dalton got more reps with the second-team offense in practice.
McKee had the best training camp of his career in 2025. He had the worst one of his career in 2026, at least relative to expectations. Did the Eagles mess with his confidence? Did he not receive enough reps? I dunno, but he wasn't the same guy. And yet, in my opinion, his body of work was still better than Dalton's this summer anyway.
Dalton started one game last season for the Panthers, and his tape from that performance was tough to watch. I can't fathom how the Eagles watched that game and thought, "Hey let's bring this guy in and take reps away from McKee."
When this offseason began, I felt good about McKee as the Eagles' QB2. Now? That position in general appears to be a significant concern heading into the season.
And, of course, the Eagles kept all four quarterbacks at 53-man cutdowns. They'll try like hell to trade Dalton, but I'm not sure exactly who would give anything up for him. We'll see if they stubbornly go into Week 1 with these four guys still on the roster.
During the spring, Payton got a few reps and showed off nice touch in the intermediate part of the field. I do have some concerns with his arm strength, but there have been plenty of quarterbacks in the NFL who have found success without possessing a Howitzer for an arm. If Payton can't rip throws into tight windows, he's going to have to offset that by throwing with anticipation, and that could be a multi-year learning process.
Because Payton is such a high-level athlete for a quarterback who actually played other positions as well as special teams while he was a backup quarterback at NDSU, I'm curious if the Eagles will try him at any other spots. My guess is no, for the record, since it's already hard enough for a rookie just trying to learn an NFL playbook fresh off an often grueling pre-draft process. The Eagles aren't hurting for impressive athletes, so I believe they'll just let Payton develop at quarterback, and if it makes sense to put more on his plate down the road, then fine.
Ultimately, Payton will have to show something throughout camp to justify his spot on the roster. The Eagles have cut drafted rookie quarterbacks in recent seasons, namely Thorson and McCord. Payton will at least have to be better than them, though that would be a low bar.
If indeed Payton shows anything throughout camp, the Eagles will have four roster-worthy quarterbacks. It'll be hard to keep them all on their 53. With both McKee and Dalton scheduled to be free agents next offseason, it will be interesting to see if trade offers come in for either player.
A trade scenario for McKee would be if some other team around the league suddenly lost their starter, Teddy Bridgewater-style. A trade scenario for Dalton would be if some team just isn't happy with how its QB2 looks, and would feel more comfortable with an extremely experienced player like Dalton.
UPDATE: Payton has talent, and he pretty clearly deserved a roster spot. He has good touch and accuracy to the intermediate areas of the field, and he has some ability as a runner. However, he also throws YOLO balls all over the yard, often to receivers who are blanketed. In my opinion, it's more ideal to have a young quarterback who is willing to let it rip and try to get him to chill out a bit than it is to try to coax some confidence out of a checkdown artist.
Unfortunately, because the Eagles were playing silly games all summer with Dalton and McKee, Payton only got 21 (!) snaps in the preseason games. The guy who could have used that work the most got virtually no action at all.
Barkley had one of the greatest running back seasons of all-time in 2024 when he broke the single-season rushing record (regular season + playoffs), carrying the Eagles' offense to a Super Bowl. However, he had an extremely heavy workload that season, and his production predictably fell off in 2025, when his yards per carry average plummeted from 5.8 to 4.1.
Factors outside of Barkley's control — mainly injuries and substandard play by the offensive line — contributed to Barkley's downtick in 2025, but in my opinion he was also not the ultra-explosive back he was the previous season. By that I mean, he was "regular explosive," not the supercharged beast he was in 2024.
Barkley's workload was not nearly as intense in 2025 as it was in 2024. His total touches were down from 482 to 346, a drastic decrease, but he still also had the sixth-most touches in the NFL.
Barkley insists that he feels just as good now as he did in 2024, but in my view, year-to-year fatigue is still a consideration this season, like it was last season.
As noted above, the Eagles' offense will have a lot more under center looks this season under new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. Barkley said during OTAs that he has been studying Todd Gurley, who produced some monster seasons running out of a similar scheme under Sean McVay in Los Angeles.
Our Geoff Mosher wrote a good article on what to expect from Barkley in Mannion's likely "wide zone" run scheme.
Running backs are typically factors as receivers in this type of scheme. Guys like Gurley and Christian McCaffrey, for example, posted huge receiving numbers playing in this scheme. The Eagles have hit on some big plays to Barkley in the passing game, mostly on wheel routes, but overall Barkley has not shown much as a back who can effectively run a full complement of routes. We'll see if that's an area of focus in improving his game this summer.
UPDATE: Barkley was more involved in the passing game than he has been in any of his three Eagles training camps, and it felt like the variety of his routes was expanded.
I also thought he showed some juice as a runner, and he was chippy as a competitor.
One of the many issues the Eagles' offensive staff had in 2025 was a misuse of their player personnel, and Tank Bigsby was a prime example. During a four-game stretch from Weeks 7 to 11, Bigsby proved to be an effective runner in the offense, carrying 17 times for 156 yards in those games, for an average of 9.2 yards per carry.
Thereafter, the Eagles just... didn't use him in meaningful games. He got 17 carries in garbage time in a blowout of the Raiders, and 16 carries in the Week 18 "resting starters" game against the Commanders. But in the five other games from Week 12 on, Bigsby only got 8 (!) carries, or 1.6 carries per game.
On the season, Bigsby carried 58 times for 344 yards and 2 TDs. His 5.9 yards per carry average was almost two yards per carry better than Saquon Barkley's 4.1 yards per carry. Had the Eagles used Bigsby more, they probably would have gotten some positive runs out of him, while also keeping Barkley's usage down a bit. Everyone likely would have benefited, but, again, for no good reason they just didn't use him.
He's clearly a player worthy of being on the field more than he was in 2025. To be determined if Mannion will also see it that way.
UPDATE: Bigsby got a whole lot of first-team reps this summer, and he looked good as a runner and receiver. The Eagles could have a very good 1-2 punch at running back, if they're used effectively.
It is still to be determined if Bigsby's usage in camp is what we can expect to see during the 2026 season, or if it was more to keep Barkley on a pitch count this summer to ensure he's fresh for the games that matter.
A.J. Brown isn't on the team anymore, in case you missed that. The Eagles traded him. They will see Brown again during joint practices in August in Foxboro, so that'll be fun.
A huge part of the equation for the Eagles' willingness to trade Brown was that they believe that DeVonta Smith is primed for stardom. Smith has averaged more than 1,000 receiving yards per season despite serving as a complementary piece to Brown. He is wired for big moments and big roles, and feels more than ready to become the focal point of the Eagles' passing game. He will almost certainly dominate targets in 2026 as long as he stays healthy.
Obviously, this will be an important camp for Smith, but the Eagles also have to be smart about his maintenance. They're going to need him to carry the passing offense for 17-plus games, so they won't want to wear him out during the summer. Still, it'll be fun watching him battle Quinyon Mitchell, Riq Woolen, and Cooper DeJean all summer.
UPDATE: As noted above, Smith missed most of camp with a hamstring injury. When he practiced in full, he was pretty clearly the best wide receiver on the field. But we already knew that.
I'd have liked to have seen him battle the Eagles' stellar corners all summer, but I also believe the Eagles took the correct approach allowing him to fully heal before putting him back on the field. He's too important to the team's success this season.
Nabbing Makai Lemon at 20th overall was a value pick for the Eagles, albeit in a weak draft. But he was also a little bit of a departure for the way the Eagles draft, in that he doesn't have impressive physical measurables. He is short and light with short arms and small hands. He also isn't a blazer by any stretch, as he ran a 4.50 40 at USC's pro day.
The Eagles did not draft Lemon to develop his traits over time. They drafted him because they think he's a good football player, right now. He catches everything, he runs good routes, he gets yards after the catch, he's a fierce competitor, and he had a productive college career.
He is going to start for the Eagles this season in the slot. Or perhaps better stated, if he doesn't start, that would be highly alarming since he in no way fits the description of a developmental player.
We did not get a good look at Lemon competing against the the Eagles' elite corners in spring practices, as Lemon was nursing a hamstring injury. He is expected to be good to go for training camp, and the Eagles will hope he shines immediately, since, you know, they kind of need him to.
UPDATE: The answer to the question posed here is no, Lemon did not earn a starting role. He missed most of camp with a hamstring injury, and when he did practice he didn't stand out. Also, his lone preseason game was a dud, as he had 3 catches for 3 yards on 5 targets, including a drop that led to an INT, and a muffed punt.
That said, he might start anyway. Smith will be the WR1, and Dontayvion Wicks will be the WR2. When Lemon was ready to practice after a long period of being out, he was inserted right back into the starting lineup. Many of the other wide receivers had better camps than Lemon, but not to the degree that they should be no-brainer starters. So, we'll see. My guess is that the Eagles will shoehorn him into the starting lineup Week 1, as the WR3.
The Eagles traded a pair of Day 3 picks for Dontayvion Wicks this offseason. Shortly thereafter, we published a film review of Wicks' game. He does a lot of things well. He runs good routes, and unlike former WR3 Jahan Dotson, he knows how to beat press coverage. He is also pretty clearly a competitive player who is willing to do some of the dirty work stuff. He is a very willing and good blocker.
The downside is that Wicks has had issues with drops throughout his career, which is perhaps at least partly why the Packers were willing to trade him. Wicks will have to prove that he can consistently catch the football this summer.
UPDATE: Wicks further proved to be an excellent route runner, and yes, he caught the ball very well.
Like Wicks above, we published a film review of Brown's game.
Brown ran a 4.27 40 time at his pro day in 2019, and is a player known for his speed, however, he has averaged just 11.6 yards per catch over his career. Still, the Eagles view him as a down-the-field threat.
After watching all of his targets in 2025, I concluded that Brown's average yards per catch were affected by a Chiefs offense that has become increasingly dink and dunk over the last few years, as opposing defenses have sought to keep everything underneath and make them drive the field. Brown made a lot of catches immediately after the snap near the line of scrimmage, which obviously hurt those numbers. It certainly didn't help when the Chiefs lost Patrick Mahomes with a torn ACL at the end of their miserable season, and Brown was trying to catch passes from Gardner Minshew, Chris Oladokun, and Shane Buechele.
But Brown did also have seven receptions of 20+ yards and three receptions of 40+ yards. So I don't necessarily believe the Eagles are wrong to view him as a deep threat, despite his unimpressive yards per catch average.
I should note here that I did not watch his targets in prior seasons, so I can't speak on his relatively low yards per target averages with other teams.
It does make sense that offenses tried to get the ball in Brown's hands quickly after the snap. He isn't going to break many tackles, but one thing that showed up consistently on his tape is the ability to make the first guy miss immediately after he makes a catch, even when he doesn't get much separation. He is also a sideline toe-tap master with reliable hands.
In the past the Eagles have taken fliers on sub-4.3 speed guys like Parris Campbell and John Ross. However, unlike those guys, Brown is a legitimate NFL wide receiver, and his speed really showed up during spring practices. He might be getting slept on a bit, in my opinion.
UPDATE: Meh. Brown picked it up a bit after a slow start to camp, and I think he'll have a role as a field-stretching wide receiver who (in theory) can open up areas of the intermediate parts of the field. But I also thought there was opportunity for him to earn a bigger role and he didn't capitalize on it.
It appears that Johnny Wilson and Darius Cooper will be competing for the designated "dirty work" role this summer. Cooper was a camp darling last summer, and he snuck onto the roster after Wilson suffered season-ending knee/ankle injuries.
In the spring, Wilson got a lot of targets in the middle of the field, and seems to be fully healed. He had a better spring than Cooper, who made a boneheaded play in the Eagles' Week 18 loss last season to the Commanders, when he taunted then-Commanders CB Jonathan Jones after making a catch in the red zone.
That'll be sort of an "undercard" camp battle to watch. And then there are guys like free agent Elijah Moore and Danny Gray who have a chance to make the team with great summers.
UPDATE: Cooper won this competition in a landslide. He had a great first 10 or so practices of camp, and although he cooled off a bit he had already clearly done enough to earn a roster spot, and possibly also an elevated role in the offense.
Over the years, Hurts has proven that he truly trusts throwing to three players — Brown, Smith, and Goedert. Brown is gone. By my math, Hurts is now down to two players that he definitively trusts in Smith and Goedert. As noted above, Smith is going to be the focal point of the Eagles' passing offense this season. But Goedert could see an uptick in targets as well. Unfortunately, that comes at a time when Goedert might not be the same player that he was in his prime.
Goedert has dominated in training camp in the past. I'm not anticipating that this year against the Eagles' stellar defense, but it'll be interesting to see if he is invigorated by Sean Mannion's new offensive scheme.
UPDATE: Goedert is the best tight end on the roster and it isn't close, but he also had kind of an underwhelming camp.
Stowers was the Eagles' second-round pick in the draft this year. He was a high school quarterback who moved to tight end in college. The appeal is that he is an elite athlete who ran a 4.51 40, vertical leaped 45 1/2", and broad jumped 135".
The downside is that Stowers is probably more of a big receiver at this point than he is a tight end. He has a long way to go as a blocker in the NFL. Blocking aside, as a general rule of thumb, it usually takes tight ends a few years before they get their NFL sea legs.
And so, it could be a little bit of a waiting game with Stowers. Along the way, it would be encouraging if he could make some occasional impressive plays throughout camp to provide optimism for what he might eventually become. We should also maybe note that Stowers was quiet during spring practices, and even seemed limited in practice due to an injury. (He had a sleeve on his leg.)
UPDATE: We covered Stowers' disappointing camp in more detail in our rookie progress reports, but the Cliff's Notes version is that he did not make occasional impressive plays in the passing game throughout camp, and he has a long way to go as a blocker. He will very likely be among the Eagles' inactives on gamedays.
Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata seem to be fans of the new scheme Sean Mannion is installing. Mailata referred to Mannion as an "evil genius." He clarified that that's a good thing, that he "knows ball." Appearing on the Fitz and Whit podcast, Johnson noted that his job might be a little easier in the new scheme.
For the entirety of the Doug Pederson era through the Nick Sirianni era, the Eagles have asked Johnson to single-block the league's best pass rushers, game after game, and he shut them down every week. But, even as a still-elite pass protector, the Eagles could slow Johnson's eventual decline if they start giving him some occasional help. (Not that he even needs it yet, in my opinion.)
Scheme aside, Johnson and Mailata have previously only had one offensive line coach, Jeff Stoutland. The transition from Stoutland to Chris Kuper will be interesting.
UPDATE: We’re stretching the defense a lot more than we did in the past," Mailata said. "That’s not a knock on past schemes or past coaches, but we get to stretch the defense and it kind of stresses them a little more. They don’t know if it’s a pass or a run, and the play action game being married (to the run) is pretty key to the scheme, and it’s been fun so far. But it’s still in the early days, so we just have to keep stacking days and continuing there."
"Our offense what we’re doing is completely different," Johnson said. "Under center, play action, wide zone, consistent with that… What I like about this is that everything looks very complex to the defense. To the offense it’s pretty simplified. We have to pick it up with communication and cadence and stuff, but it’s very O-line friendly, compared to maybe some past years I’ve been involved in. I’m looking forward to it, looking forward to the offense.
"A lot of it is under center, so as far as defenses being able to pick up on reads, I believe it’s more difficult. And for me, I always have the presence of a guard in pass protection, where I have inside help. I’ve never had inside help in my entire career in pass protection here. A lot of games are different here for me and Jordan compared to other offenses.
"We have a lot of inside help, and when we’re under center it’s a lot harder for the defense to really tell if it’s a run or a play action. So getting off the ball now (from the defense’s perspective) there’s a lot more hesitation, a lot more reading from them, so I believe this offense does a good job of setting us up for success."
With Johnson sitting out OTAs, Bell, a third-round rookie, got to play with the starters at RT, when it would have been easy to just insert Fred Johnson in there. And then when Lane showed up for minicamp, Bell played LT with the second-team offense. Obviously the team hopes that Bell can develop long-term, but it also appears that they are trying to prepare him for an immediate role as a key backup this season.
There's only so much you can tell in spring practices without pads and very limited contact, but Bell is a massive 6'9, 346-pound OT, and in my opinion he moved well. He also didn't look unnatural at RT, which is noteworthy considering he really only played LT in college in games, though Bell did note during rookie minicamp that he was cross-trained during practices at Miami at RT. Some guys can easily move back and forth between LT and RT. Some guys (cough, Andre Dillard) can't.
The Eagles' hope is that Bell can develop into a legitimate successor for Johnson. And if so, that's a future first-round pick that can be used to address some other position. This camp will be the first true look at what Bell can be.
UPDATE: As noted in our rookie progress reports, Bell was the Eagles' most impressive rookie this summer, by far. He's 6'9, 346 pounds, with long arms. His length alone will make it difficult for opposing edge rushers to get around him in pass protection, but I was also impressed with his nimble feet.
But what perhaps surprised me about Bell's game was how physical and strong he was in the run game. He was tossing guys around in the Eagles' second preseason game against the Patriots, as show in this thread:
The Eagles' second-team O-line was awesome Saturday night in New England. A thread... 🧵
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) August 23, 2026
There's a lot to get excited about with Bell and his chances of being Lane Johnson's successor at RT.
Both Dickerson and Jurgens participated in voluntary OTAs as well as mandatory minicamp, not just in individual drills, but also in 11-on-11s. Their mere presence throughout the spring is an encouraging step forward.
After playing through a back injury during the Eagles' Super Bowl run in 2024, Jurgens had a procedure last February to alleviate nerve pain. He missed most of training camp, and acknowledged during the regular season that he wasn't fully recovered from that procedure. It showed on the field, as Jurgens did not play to his standard, despite being voted into the Pro Bowl.
Dickerson battled through an assortment of injuries in 2025, some known, like an August meniscus injury that required "a minor procedure," and some that he kept to himself. Dickerson has only played five NFL seasons and he is still only 27 years old, but there were questions about whether he would retire this offseason, as his body has accumulated a lot of wear and tear. He took a pay cut this offseason, and a year was lopped off of his contract, which now runs through the 2027 season.
This winter, Jurgens and Dickerson each went to Colombia to get stem cell treatments. It's alarming that their bodies felt badly enough that they deemed that necessary. To be determined if it will help them play better on the field.
UPDATE: Jurgens looked a lot more like he did in 2024 than he did in 2025. I thought Dickerson looked more like 2025 than 2024. But even if Dickerson isn't the Pro Bowl-level player he was, he is still a lot healthier to begin this season than he was a year ago, when he probably shouldn't have been playing.
I'll also mention here that Tyler Steen had a great camp and appears poised to make a leap in his second full season as the starting RG.
The first guy off the bench along the interior of the offensive line a year ago was Brett Toth, who was a key backup. Toth started four games, he played at least 30 snaps in six games, and he played at least 10 snaps in 10 games. In total, Toth played 199 snaps at LG, and 164 snaps at C. Toth is gone.
This year, Drew Kendall is expected to step into that role, and it's an important one given the concerns about Jurgens' and Dickerson's health. Kendall played exclusively at center in college, but he said that he cross-trained at guard in practice throughout the 2025 season, in addition to his primary position at center.
Earlier this offseason, we reviewed his performance in the Eagles' Week 18 game against the Commanders last season. Based upon what I watched — with the disclaimer that it was a small sample size — I liked what I saw from him.
Here are the career snaps of the backup interior offensive linemen currently on the depth chart above:
• Michael Jordan: 3537
• Drew Kendall: 89
• Micah Morris, Willie Lampkin, Jaeden Roberts, and Jake Majors: 0 each
If the Eagles feel that they need more help on the interior, they could look to trade for a vet.
UPDATE: The Eagles have to be thrilled with the way a trio of their iOL backups performed this summer.
• Kendall looks to me like a future starter. He made a big jump from Year 1 to Year 2. This season, he'll probably be the first guy off the bench at all three interior offensive line spots, which is kind of a big role. He's going to play meaningful snaps this season.
• Lampkin had a consistently good camp from start to finish, overcoming his diminutive size and relying on leverage, strength, and tenacity to beat opposing interior linemen. Fun player!
• Morris showed in his first camp as a rookie that he is worth further development. He was sort of a raw "traits prospect," but he did not look overwhelmed in ways that those guys usually do.
Greenard battled through a shoulder injury in 2025 with the Vikings, which eventually ended his season and required surgery. He'll get a fresh start in Philly after the Eagles traded a pair of third-round picks for him while also agreeing to a new deal worth $84 million.
That's a pretty bold bet on a player who just turned 29 in May, but the Eagles obviously believe that Greenard will return to his 2023 and 2024 form, when he had a combined 24.5 sacks. He'll be going up against Mailata and Johnson all throughout camp. In the past we've seen free agent acquisitions (cough, Bryce Huff, cough) get dominated by Mailata and Johnson. The Eagles would probably like to see Greenard at least get his share of wins against those guys.
UPDATE: We wrote this before it was revealed that Greenard suffered a pec strain while lifting. He missed the entirety of training camp.
Jalyx Hunt and Nolan Smith will both get their share of playing time this season, but one guy will be on the field to start games, and one probably won't.
Hunt had a breakout season in 2025, as he improved as a pass rusher and put his safety background to good use, making some huge plays in coverage. Hunt was considered a project player coming out of college, but he has very quickly made an impact in the NFL, and has a chance to take another step forward in 2026. He is in line to start this season opposite Greenard.
Last year's top edge defender heading into camp was Smith, who was coming off a breakout season of his own in 2024.
However, he did not have the season that he or the Eagles were hoping for, as he missed five games after aggravating a triceps injury that he suffered in the previous year's Super Bowl. He was also on a pitch count upon his return.
Smith is an undersized edge defender and he plays a rugged brand of football. His hard-nosed style of play is what is appealing about his game, but it is also detrimental to his health and durability. During the spring, Smith looked a little bulked up. He was not made available to the media during spring camps, so we weren't able to ask about his seemingly added heft, or, you know, his arrest for being clocked at 135 MPH this offseason.
If Smith did indeed add some weight, that could theoretically help him absorb / dish out contact with less risk of injury, but could also negatively affect his impressive athleticism.
The 2026 season is an important one for Smith and his long-term standing with the team, and he has to prove himself again.
UPDATE: Hunt was a beast this summer, improving as a pass rusher and run defender. He also flashed his already impressive playmaking ability in coverage.
Vic Fangio revealed that Smith showed up to spring practices over his ideal weight. Smith also had a slow start to camp, however, he really turned it on late in the summer, and put himself back in position to start this season, opposite Hunt.
Hunt and Smith will likely start, and we'll see what Greenard's role will be whenever he is ready to play.
After an outstanding season in 2024, Jalen Carter had a disappointing follow-up season in 2025, with just 33 tackles, three sacks, and seven batted passes in 11 games.
Carter had shoulder issues throughout the 2025 season. He was a late Week 6 scratch in a game the Eagles' defense got bullied, by the Giants of all teams. And then later, after a game in which he played poorly and the Eagles' defense got bullied again against the Bears, he had a procedure on both shoulders. In fairness, he did block two kicks in games the Eagles might have otherwise lost.
As we noted in our Eagles dumpster fire last year, Carter led all NFL interior defensive linemen with 1,068 snaps played in 2024. Much like a heavy workload probably caught up to Saquon Barkley on the offensive side of the ball in 2025, the same thing may have happened to Carter on defense.
This offseason was the first that Carter was eligible for a contract extension, and nothing has gotten done yet. He skipped voluntary OTAs, and was present at a mandatory minicamp but did not participate in team drills.
Nick Sirianni was asked if that was injury and/or contract related, and he declined to answer.
Unlike a lot of other teams around the NFL, the Eagles have largely avoided contract drama during training camp. Carter is a "hold in" candidate. (In case you're unfamiliar what "hold in" means, a common thing players with contract beefs have done in recent years is show up to camp so they don't get fined, but they don't participate.)
The Eagles have plenty of star players on defense, but Carter is the guy who stirs the drink. We know what the defense looks like when Carter is at his best, and we saw at times last season that it's not as scary without him.
It will be very interesting to see if Carter is a full participant in camp, and how the Eagles handle the situation if not.
UPDATE: Oh yeah, I almost forgot that this was a major storyline to watch. Carter inked a new deal a day before the start of camp, and was praised by the coaching staff for being in outstanding shape. Carter has a chance to dominate again after an injury-riddled season in 2025.
Carter, Jordan Davis, and Moro Ojomo might be the best interior defensive line trio in the NFL. But the Eagles' depth there is shaky.
Byron Young played in every Eagles game in 2025, logging 338 snaps during the regular season and 12 in the playoffs. He had previously played just 99 snaps in his first two seasons after the Raiders selected him in the third round of the 2023 draft.
Young finished the season with 37 tackles and 2.5 sacks, and he has one inexpensive season left on his contract. He's an acceptable rotational interior defensive lineman who Vic Fangio seems to like, and he still has a chance to improve. He's presently the first guy off the bench along the interior D-line.
The Eagles selected Ty Robinson with one of the first picks on Day 3 of the 2025 draft. If you watched Robinson's college highlight reel, you saw a quick, agile bully with a great motor.
Unfortunately, as we showed in a film breakdown of Robinson this offseason, he looked nothing like that guy as a rookie. Sometimes rookies are thinking too much, and not just playing. Maybe that's what happened with Robinson his rookie season? Sometimes when guys go long stretches without playing in real games they're out of rhythm. Maybe that played a part? Whatever the case, he looked tentative, unconfident, and overmatched.
It's not uncommon for interior defensive linemen to take a few years to get their NFL "sea legs." But as an older prospect coming out of college, there was hope that Robinson's transition to the NFL would be a little easier. It didn't play out that way, and Robinson should be expected to show drastic improvement in camp this year.
UPDATE: Young was disruptive and a lot more noticeable this summer than he was in 2025 camp. The light also seemed to come on a bit for Robinson, who had three sacks in the first two preseason games, after he struggled through his rookie season a year ago.
Late in the seventh round of the 2026 draft, the Eagles took a flier on Bernard, an absolutely jacked prospect from a small village in Nigeria with similar physical measurables to Myles Garrett. Of course, Bernard has never played football. If you're reading this, you all know that story already, so we won't rehash it all here.
However, during minicamp in June, I had a chance to watch Bernard closely, working against the third-string offensive line. He got handled with ease, which is perhaps to be expected. However, I thought that what he might show right off the bat because of his pure athletic measurables was an explosive first step off the ball at the snap. But that's just not there yet.
It's going to be a long process for Bernard, and my expectation is that he will have a rough camp. It doesn't matter if he's 6'4, 306 and chiseled. He is going to get bounced around because the guys he's going up against have some level of learned technique, and he is starting from scratch. I remember years ago when Jordan Mailata got dominated every day by Joe Ostman. Remember him? And Mailata at least had impressive highlights playing a football-adjacent sport. Bernard doesn't.
However, it'll be fun to watch if Bernard can have some occasional moments where he looks like a football player who can make some plays in the future.
Ditto that for Joshua Weru, an undrafted rookie edge defender this Eagles signed this offseason who is in a similar situation as Bernard.
UPDATE: Bernard improved through the summer, and even made a few run stops in the preseason games. Weru was more impressive, as he showed serious athleticism off the edge.
But both guys are "light years" away, as Fangio put it, and neither guy made the team. Both are back on the practice squad. (I thought Weru was intriguing enough that he might get claimed, but, nope.)
This time last offseason, it was expected that Jihaad Campbell wouldn't be ready to participate in training camp at least until sometime in August, per Fangio. However, on the first day of camp, Campbell was pretty much a full participant, significantly beating his recovery timeline. Campbell looked the part immediately, with his impressive size and athleticism, and throughout camp it became clear that he was going to start Week 1.
In the Eagles' first seven games, Campbell had 43 tackles, an INT, a forced fumble, and a couple of pass breakups. But when Nakobe Dean returned to the field from his patellar tendon tear, Campbell was demoted to make room for him.
Campbell did get to play on the edge a bit as well, but was mostly ineffective there. He has a ways to go as a pass rusher, if the Eagles intend on using him in some sort of edge/LB hybrid role going forward. Spoiler: They will allow him to focus fully on being an off-ball linebacker this offseason, since he'll be an unquestioned starter there this year.
If he had started the whole season as a rookie, Campbell likely would have accumulated stats that would have competed with some of the other rookie finalists for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. But beyond his play on the field, I was impressed by his maturity after he lost his starting job. He didn't complain, and he was prepared to play again when Dean got hurt later in the season.
Campbell missed the entire spring after he had another procedure on his shoulder, but he is expected to be ready for the start of training camp. The test for Campbell this year will be whether he can master the subtleties of Fangio's defense from a mental perspective.
Oh, and he also changed his jersey number from 30 to 11, a major upgrade. 📈
UPDATE: Fangio isn't completely satisfied yet with the mental side of Campbell's play, and even had him playing in the first preseason game. (He was the only defensive starter to play in any preseason game.)
But certainly, Campbell has prototype size and speed for the position, and he'll be focusing solely on being an off-ball linebacker this season, when he was cross-training on the edge as a rookie.
The Eagles probably have the best trio of starting cornerbacks in the NFL in Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Riq Woolen.
Mitchell and DeJean both earned All-Pro honors in 2025. Woolen was a Pro Bowl corner as a fifth-round rookie back in 2022, and his performance during the spring received rave reviews.
Mitchell and DeJean will be eligible for contract extensions next offseason, and Woolen is scheduled to be a free agent. They should all be hungry.
UPDATE: Woolen had a great spring, a quiet start to camp, and he finished with a bang. This trio is going to be awesome.
DeJean will split time between cornerback and safety this year, after Vic Fangio announced in May that DeJean would be playing safety in the base defense. He'll continue to play in the slot in nickel, which is the Eagles' most common defensive look, by far.
Fangio recently appeared on DeJean's and Reed Blankenship's podcast, and said to DeJean, "Your days at corner hopefully are over." Some took that to mean that DeJean was moving to safety full-time. To clarify, in Fangio vernacular, "corner" = "outside corner." "Nickel" = "slot corner." So Fangio was really saying that his days at outside corner were hopefully over. He'll still spend most of his time in the slot.
Still, although DeJean has practiced at times at safety in the past, we'll get an extended look at him there this summer.
UPDATE: He seemed fine.
Safety is easily the worst starting positional group on the team. Whatever position is next is a distant second. And so, there are some who believe the Eagles should trade for a safety.
The top safety heading into this season is Mukuba, a second-year player who was a second-round pick a year ago. During his rookie season, Mukuba compiled 46 tackles, two INTs, and three pass breakups. His biggest play of the season came in Week 2, when he picked off a Patrick Mahomes pass intended for Travis Kelce deep in Eagles territory, and returned it 41 yards. That was also easily the biggest play in that game.
Mukuba was up and down in the games he played, but was beginning to earn Vic Fangio's trust before he suffered a broken fibula Week 12 in Dallas. That ended his season.
Mukuba should be a better player in 2026. We'll see. But the bigger concern is his durability, since, you know, he had shoulder, hamstring, and fibula injuries last season. Mukuba measured in at 5'11, 186 at the 2025 NFL Combine, and his ability to stay on the field was a potential knock on scouting reports. Well, we saw that his rookie season.
The idea of trading for a safety isn't just because the starting spot opposite Mukuba is in question. It's also because relying on Mukuba to play 17 games is a dicey proposition.
UPDATE: Mukuba made it through camp as a full participant every day, a huge step forward for him. I also thought he looked improved from a year ago.
DeJean will play safety in the semi-rare occasions the Eagles are in their base defense. They'll have to figure out who will start there in sub-packages.
Marcus Epps is a solid, smart safety who knows where he should be on the field and he seems to have Fangio's trust. There's a sentiment that Epps is "fine" as a starting safety, and to some degree, I agree. He can be a competent starter. But "fine" is also probably his ceiling, and he has not proven to have takeaways skills over his seven-year career. He has three career INTs and two career forced fumbles.
He also only has 18 career pass breakups, and none in 2025. By comparison, the departed Reed Blankenship had 11 in one season in 2023. C.J. Gardner-Johnson had 12 in 2024. Epps simply doesn't get his hands on many footballs. He is a comfortable target for opposing quarterbacks because they know the downside is low.
In my opinion, a safety with some legitimate ball skills could absolutely eat playing behind Mitchell, DeJean, and Woolen, and I'm not so sure Epps can capitalize in the same way. Maybe he can make some plays in camp?
And then there's Michael Carter, who is primarily a slot corner, but played some safety for the Eagles last season. In my opinion, Carter could start in the slot for a decent number of teams. He will be a versatile backup for the Eagles, with a chance to beat out Epps for a starting safety job.
UPDATE: This is an ongoing battle, but Epps remains the favorite. Personally, I think Carter is the better player, but he has two things working against him.
So it'll probably be Epps.
After a near-automatic season in 2023, Elliott signed a four-year contract extension worth $24 million, making him one of the highest-paid kickers in football.
But that season, concerns started creeping up, as Elliott dropped to a 77.8 field goal percentage and struggled especially on kicks from 50-plus yards out (he was 1-for-7 on them during the regular season). The Eagles winning the Super Bowl heavily masked that, but 2025 left nowhere to hide. Elliott's field-goal percentage dropped further to 74.1, going 4-for-8 on kicks from 50-plus yards and 7-for-10 on attempts from 40-49 yards.
In several games late in the season – all losses to Dallas, Chicago, the L.A. Chargers, and then in the playoffs to the 49ers – Elliott missed kicks that ended up being crucial points left off the board for the Eagles.
This offseason, the Eagles restructured Elliott's contract, reducing his base pay from $6 million down to $5 million, but guaranteeing all of it for 2026. They probably should have just gotten a new kicker, but are letting past achievements cloud what he is as a player currently.
We'll be charting Elliott's kicks in camp. If he is not playing well, the Eagles may have to bring in a kicker to compete with him.
UPDATE: Elliott finished 28 of 31 in practices. In the preseason games, he was 5/5 on PATs, and 2/2 on field goals, with makes of 45 and 56 yards.
Submitted without commentary:
UPDATE: Guys who had encouraging camps: Trotter, Shipley, Lampkin (as noted already).
Again, submitted without commentary
What really matters more than anything, as always, is just making it to the season without losing an important player. The Eagles have traditionally valued regular season health over having hard camps, and I can't imagine that'll be any different this summer.
UPDATE: Mission accomplished.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
