The Philadelphia Eagles are two games into the regular season, and you'd never know it just by hearing people talk about the team, but they're 2-0. 😂

Still, the concerns are real, so let's discuss. Part I of this mailbag series will focus on the offensive line. I would also like to note that at least a third of the questions centered around the O-line, which I'll assume only happens in Philly. (I mean this in the most complimentary way possible.)

Question from @RealMamaEagle: Do you think the offensive staff gives the OL a few more weeks to build continuity in their changed positions?

Obviously Cam Jurgens didn't play well after switching positions and Drew Kendall was making his first "real" NFL start. And to compound the difficulty of the offensive line juggling, they were facing an absolute menace of a player in Jeffery Simmons.

In some ways, their struggles were to be expected. As Kendall gets more reps in real games and Jurgens gets more reps at LG, it's reasonable to assume they'll both get better.

Which brings us to the next question...

Question from @TheCreativeJC: If the Eagles thought Drew Kendall was best at C, why not also cross train Jurgens at LG during the offseason? It just seems so confusing and overly complicated the way they went about it last week.

This was pretty clearly a failure in preparation. Throughout training camp, Jurgens played exclusively at C. He got precisely zero reps at guard. Kendall repped at both spots. If the plan — or even just one possibility — was for Jurgens to move to guard and Kendall to fill in at C in the highly likely event that Landon Dickerson got hurt, then Jurgens should have been repping at guard at times throughout camp.

If they didn't identify that Kendall at C and Jurgens at LG was a possible contingency plan until camp was over, then that is alarming in a different way.

Question from @m3uwont: I’ve been seeing a lot of “This is why you keep Jeff Stoutland” comments in regards to the Eagles' offensive line issues. Do you think that carries any actual weight given their struggles last year and Dickerson’s continued injury woes?

I can't recall Stoutland putting one of his players in a position to fail like the Eagles did with Jurgens on Sunday.

Question from @jjapostolico (via Bluesky): Do Jurgens' and Dickerson’s health make them less viable than the young guys like Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin?

Dickerson has been a great player for the last half decade for the Eagles. He was a first-round talent who they got in Round 2 because he had major injury concerns. I think that when they drafted him they knew he wasn't going to have some sort of 12-year career, and they got a bunch of Pro Bowl seasons out of him. But it does feel like the end is near, and we could kind of see it in training camp, even before he performed poorly Week 1 against the Commanders. The younger guys are more viable options than him at this point.

Jurgens has kind of gotten lumped in with Dickerson because he had injury issues all last season and both guys went to Colombia for stem cell treatments during the offseason. But to me, Jurgens looked fine in training camp, at least compared to Dickerson. In Week 1, Jurgens had a couple of penalties in the first quarter, but I thought he played well enough otherwise. Obviously, he had a terrible game Week 2 against Simmons after he was forced into a new role. But I'm not yet ready to say that he's a candidate for replacement in the starting lineup.

Question from @daruz51: How much of Dickerson going on IR was him really being “hurt” and how much of it was Howie and coaching staff realizing that he’s just cooked?

Did one specific injury — a "bone bruise" — land Dickerson on IR? I don't know. But I do think that this is a fair question.

Question from @JigginJalen: How much do you think Howie regrets running it back with Jurgens and Dickerson?

With Dickerson, that's really hard to say without knowing the full scope of his injuries. Hell, the Eagles may not even know the full scope if Dickerson doesn't report every ailment to them. But after seeing how far from a player Dickerson is from what he was in his prime, I do think it's fair to conclude that they made a mistake in hoping that he would be substantially better this season than he was in 2025.

Bringing Jurgens back was a no-brainer, from a contract standpoint alone, but also (a) because his health situation isn't remotely as dire as Dickerson's, and (b) replacing offensive line starters isn't super easy even if the Eagles have been successful doing it for so long.

Question from @Lepe02: Before the season started one of your predictions was the Eagles would make a significant trade in-season. Your best guess was WR. With the way Dontayvion Wicks looks do you think it may be OL or S?

The Eagles have to be thrilled with what they've gotten so far from Wicks. He is a legit WR2. The Eagles did a nice job identifying him as an undervalued player, and Wicks has done a great job building rapport with Jalen Hurts and very quickly becoming a go-to target. Otherwise: 

1. The Eagles are going to continue to get Makai Lemon some playing time.
2. Darius Cooper was a factor Week 2.
3. They still have other vets like Hollywood Brown and Elijah Moore on the bench.
4. They added Zach Ertz, who isn't a wide receiver, but is a pass-catching specialist and chain mover.

We can probably eliminate WR as a trade deadline option, for now (barring injury).

I agree that the two spots where they can use added help are along the interior of their offensive line, and at safety.

• Interior offensive line: What I think you're probably referring to is a starter. Unfortunately, good starters are rarely dealt in-season. The last big name in-season trade I can recall is when the Texans traded Duane Brown to the Seahawks, and that was in 2017. And even that trade was out of the ordinary, because it was fueled by Brown's (rightful) critical response to late Texans owner Bob McNair's comment saying, "We can't have the inmates running the prison" in reference to player demonstrations during the national anthem. (Source: ESPN)

So, even if the Eagles want to trade for good offensive line help, teams around the league aren't typically keen giving them up, even when their season is over. Could the Eagles add more depth? Sure.

• Safety: Following the Eagles' win in Tennessee, I suggested that the Eagles need to trade for a safety.

Some of the responses to that tweet seemed to indicate that I was saying Andrew Mukuba needed to be replaced. And certainly, Mukuba's casual jog across the field was kind of unacceptable. But to be clear, I was referring to Epps' terrible angle and flailing tackle attempt. 

Of course, the idea of trading for a safety is nothing new. Safety was an obvious concern spot all offseason. However, a sentiment that Marcus Epps is "fine" as a starting safety grew, and to some degree, I understood it. Epps is a solid, smart safety who knows where he should be on the field and he seemed to have Vic Fangio's trust. He can be a competent starter. But I also thought that "fine" was also probably his ceiling, since 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 since 2023! 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 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 the Eagles' elite cornerback trio of Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Riq Woolen, and Epps cannot capitalize in the same way.

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