With spring practices in the rear view mirror, we are entering the darkest period of the NFL calendar. Let's do a mailbag or two to pass the time, shall we? And as always thanks for doing half the work for me.

Question from @AsaMinor12: Are we sure DeVonta is ready to be a full-fledged WR1? I love DeVonta, he’s been my guy since he got drafted. But remember they traded for A.J. Brown because while DeVonta was good, he was not dominant. A.J. Brown was dominant.

When the Eagles traded for Brown, DeVonta was all they had at receiver, and he had only played one season. Their No. 2 was either Quez Watkins or Jalen Reagor, depending on how you look at it. You need more than just one guy, so the Eagles brought another receiver in. They just happened to seize an opportunity to go big.

But also, this won't be the first time that Smith will go from "complementary guy" to "the guy." In college at Alabama, he produced his first three seasons while playing among future first round NFL receivers in Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy, Jaylen Waddle, and Henry Ruggs. But in his senior season, with Ridley, Jeudy, and Ruggs off to the NFL — and Waddle suffering a season-ending injury — Smith had an all-time great season as the unquestioned focal point of the passing attack. He won a Heisman Trophy and led Bama to a National Championship.

But also also, DeVonta was a better football player than A.J. Brown last season. I don't even think that's a debate. Can he replace what Brown gave them the last two seasons? In my opinion, yes, he's an awesome player with a killer mentality and he is ready for this moment.

Will he be what A.J. Brown was in 2022 and 2023? Very likely not. That version of Brown was a top 3 guy who just physically beat up opposing corners. That's not DeVonta's game, and he's not at that level within the NFL's receiver hierarchy. Can he be a top 10 type of receiver? In my opinion, yes. I certainly expect him to be highly productive this season.

DeVonta Smith is a player I'll bet on with confidence.

Question from @NathanRufo: Between DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown this year, who has more: receptions, yards, touchdowns, games played, passive-aggressive comments made, wins, playoff wins?

• Passive-aggressive comments: Brown, obviously. DeVonta just goes about his business, and if he has something to say, he says it directly.

• Wins: DeVonta. The Eagles are better team, and the Patriots have a far, faaaar harder schedule than they did a year ago.

• Playoff wins: DeVonta. See "wins" above.

• Games played: DeVonta. Brown has the more concerning injury history.

Those are the easy answers. As for receptions/yards/TDs, both players are going to be their respective teams' focal point of the passing offense. But I think the Pats are going to throw it significantly more than the Eagles will in 2026, so I'll give the edge here to A.J.

Question from @SideQuestPhilly: Will A.J. Brown have a better year than Makai Lemon, Dontayvion Wicks, and Hollywood Brown combined? I say yes.

Better as in he'll have more receptions/yards/TDs than those three guys combined? I think that'll be close, but yeah, I'll take A.J. too.

Question from @RealEthanGruber: Is part of the rationale for the Pats' 2028 first-round pick that this season might be rocky, and then A.J. becomes a malcontent and destroys their 2028 season with drama + old age?

The Eagles would have much preferred the Pats' 2027 first-round pick over their 2028 pick. The Pats were adamant that they were not going to give up that pick.

But certainly, the Eagles viewed the 2028 pick as more attractive than the 31st pick in a bad 2026 draft.

Pats' 2027 1 > Pat's 2028 1 > Pats' 2026 1.

Question from @juthere4birds: Do you think there's any validity to the idea that the Eagles got more for A.J. Brown from the Patriots so the Patriots could avoid a potential tampering issue?

Nope.

Question from @mktprof (via Bluesky): Last season three out of 5 offensive line starters were either missing games or missing blocks. What happens this season if history repeats? At tackle they have Fred Johnson and Markel Bell. Who do the Eagles have on the interior that can play and not hurt the offense if they have to use backups?

I agree they're thin on interior offensive line depth. The guy who is primed for a bigger role in 2026 is Drew Kendall. This will be an important training camp and preseason for him.

That said, if three of the Eagles' starting offensive linemen are missing / playing well below their standard, it doesn't really matter who their backups are. Their offense just isn't going to be very good.

Question from @StevenMcNabb (via Bluesky): Assuming the offense gets more aggressive/riskier this season and this results in more turnovers, how many passing yards and TDs would Hurts need to have to justify a higher INT total in your eyes (say, 10)?

So, the part of this question that interests me is the part where you're assuming that the offense will be more aggressive/riskier this season. And I'm just not so sure that's going to be the case.

Nick Sirianni was asked a version of this question last week.

"As far as interceptions, I don't look at it that way," he said. "Jalen knows how important it is for us to take care of the football and we're going to continue to preach that. That doesn't mean interceptions don't happen. Of course they do. It's a part of the game. But no, as long as I'm the head coach here, we're going to be very diligent about winning that turnover battle and winning the explosive play battle. I know it's like, 'Okay, that sounds simple,' but there's an art to it because you've got to be able to create explosives in different ways and sometimes that puts the ball at risk, but at the end of the day, that ball is still the most important thing. 

"We'll know how to create explosives in that time, but taking care of the ball is the most important thing and we'll talk about this all the time, can we come out of a game with every drive ending in a kick? Whether that's an extra point, hopefully, whether that's a field goal or whether that's a punt. That's the mission of how we want to go about our fundamentals."

Oh no! Not the "End every drive with a kick" horseshit. 🤮

I certainly agree that ball security is a big deal, but the idea that punts are OK is not what you want to hear from the head coach.

Question from @DaveFash2: Do you believe that Andy Dalton’s second-team reps are an effort by the team to showcase and flip him?  I can't see him as QB3 and it makes no sense that McKee would be that much in the doghouse.

Dalton has been in the league for 16 years. Everyone in the NFL is familiar with his work. But also, other teams around the league can't watch Eagles practices. So, no, I don't think he's being showcased. 

I think the best explanation for why he's getting those reps is so that he's ready to play in case the team is able to trade McKee for a nice return and Dalton has to be the QB2.

However, (a) I don't think the Eagles are going to get an offer they can't turn down for McKee, and (b) after having watched Dalton's film from last season I'm not so sure that counting on him to be the QB2 is a good idea.

Question from bdetrick40 (via Threads): What is the expected plan for Eli Stowers? Do we think he’s going to line up more on the outside and be a receiving threat predominantly?

I think they'll use him as a "move TE," hoping to get him matched up against linebackers who can't handle his speed. He played all over the formation at Vanderbilt, and he likely will in the pros as well. But I think you're probably going to have to wait a while until he really carves out a significant role in the offense. As noted in our rookie role projections, Stowers is going to be more of a long-term play. I wouldn't expect much his rookie season.

Question from Anonymous (via DM): Where is the craziest place you've ever written an article?

My daughter is super into roller coasters, so I booked a trip to Busch Gardens Tampa and Universal Orlando, just before the start of free agency this offseason.

The Jordan Davis contract extension happened literally while we were on the Congo River Rapids at Busch Gardens, shown below:

(Side note: Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges at Universal puts the Congo River Rapids to shame.)

Anyway, that whole ride I was thinking about where I was going to post up and write that as soon as I got off the ride, and also how quickly I could do it so as not to ruin my daughter's fun.

Anyway, at the end of the ride (and the end of the video above), you can see that there's a conveyor belt that brings the tubes back up to the loading area. At the end of our ride, there was a bit of a traffic jam getting back up that thing. So, I started banging out my breaking Jordan Davis article on my phone while still sitting on the tube, drenched.

It took like 10-15 minutes to get off the ride from that point, and in that time I wrote the article, lol. So I can truthfully say that I wrote an article while on the Congo River Rapids at Busch Gardens. And yet, the Pulitzer committee continues to ignore my efforts.

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