With the Philadelphia Eagles' Week 1 opener against the Dallas Cowboys just six days away, let's open up the mailbag. As always, thank you for doing half the work for me. This will be Part I of a two-part mailbag.

Question from @EaglesXsandOs: What’s an underrated strength and weakness of the team?

Every jabroni with a keyboard puts out quarterback rankings these days, and it's fascinating to me how little credit Jalen Hurts gets for how good the Eagles' rushing attack is.

Let's look at the divisional round against the Rams, for example. First quarter, zone read, Jared Verse is going to be all over Saquon Barkley, so Hurts keeps it and runs for a 44-yard TD.

We know Hurts can make plays with his legs. But because of that, he also puts Barkley in favorable positions to break off long runs, like he did all season long. 

For example, later in the game against the Rams, here's another zone read. Verse is purposely left unblocked and he respects the possibility of Hurts keeping the ball. Hurts gives to Barkley, and Verse is now eliminated from the play by the threat of a Hurts keeper. The Eagles get hat-on-hat blocking across the board up front, including a pancake by Mekhi Becton, and all Barkley has to do is beat the safety for a 62-yard TD run:

This is pretty basic stuff. Yes, the run game helps Hurts as a passer. But also, Hurts is a major reason why the run game works in the first place. Contrast that with the Eagles' Week 16 loss in Washington. After Hurts left with a concussion, the Commanders respected the threat of Kenny Pickett keeping the ball on zone reads for a handful of plays initially, but when they realized he wasn't a threat to keep it, they ignored him. Like here:   

And here:

If this is Hurts, he keeps the ball and scores easily:

And here:

There were also several plays in that game in which the Eagles had 3rd or 4th and 1 in critical situations, and opted to run something other than their cheat code Tush Push with Pickett in the game.

Anyway, in these QB rankings, you'll see over and over again that Hurts only has to throw like 25 times per game because the Eagles' rushing attack is so good, which is true. But also, you never hear that Hurts is a major reason why the rushing attack is as dominant as it is. So give me Hurts' contributions to the run game as an underrated strength.

As for an underrated weakness, I would say it's the team's depth. They have excellent depth at some positions, namely quarterback and linebacker, but generally speaking, this roster is nowhere near as deep as the 2024 version.

Question via wgordon711 (via Bluesky): What's the most overblown concern fans have right now?

While not among the strengths of the team, the safety position is fine. Blankenship is an above average starter, and I thought Sydney Brown had an encouraging training camp and preseason from the perspective of not making obvious mistakes, and generally being where he was supposed to be. We also saw Andrew Mukuba make plays in the preseason, and in my opinion there's little doubt that Cooper DeJean will play well there if Vic Fangio opts to play him on the back end in the base defense.

Question from @xtinathegreat (via Bluesky): Because Reed Blankenship didn’t get an extension this offseason (and Howie doesn’t often extend players in-season), what’s the likelihood that he walks next year?

An astute observation on the timing of Eagles contract extensions!

We covered this in another recent mailbag, but last year, the Eagles got offseason contract extensions done with six players. They were all finished relatively early in the offseason:

1. Landon Dickerson (March 11)
2. Jake Elliott (March 13)
3. Reed Blankenship (April 1)
4. Jordan Mailata (April 4)
5. DeVonta Smith (April 15)
6. A.J. Brown (April 25)

Blankenship's extension was just for one year. He otherwise would have been a restricted free agent this offseason.

This offseason, the Eagles got extensions done with three players, and again, all early in the offseason:

1. Saquon Barkley (March 4)
2. Lane Johnson (March 18)
3. Cam Jurgens (April 21)

The remaining player this offseason who makes the most sense for an extension is Blankenship, who is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason. I'm certainly not saying that a deal can't or won't happen before the start of the season, but given the above history of early extensions, it feels like it would have already happened if it were going to happen. We'll see.

The assumption was that the Mukuba selection in the second round was made because the team traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson. But maybe it was also with the thinking in mind that the team might lose Blankenship next year.

Question from @silverdj7: Thoughts on the fourth safety? Marcus Epps > Justin Simmons? Age, experience with team, and willingness to play special teams coupled with Simmons wanting more money the difference?

I don't know how much money Simmons is asking for, but it is obviously more than teams around the league want to pay or he'd be on a team. I also can't claim to know exactly what Simmons wants from a fit perspective, but I imagine that he feels like he's a starter. The Eagles probably don't want to commit to him as a full-time starter, since they invested a second-round pick in a high-IQ rookie in Mukuba, who profiles as a player ready to contribute in Year 1.

I hadn't considered the special teams angle, but you're probably right there, too. He only played 82 special teams snaps the last three seasons combined, and I'm not sure how much he'd want to do that in his tenth season at almost 32 years of age.

MORE: Recapping the Eagles' many roster moves

Question from @thecalfdaddy: Stoutland U is highly regarded. How about Hurtt U? The defensive line has seen MASSIVE improvements under him. Moro Ojomo, Gabe Hall, Milton Williams when he was here. Do you think the Eagles will lose him to a defensive coordinator role in the offseason?

D-line coach Clint Hurtt, defensive backs coach Christian Parker, off-ball linebackers coach Bobby King, and edge rushers coach Jeremiah Washburn all saw players under their watch make major strides in 2024. You mentioned the guys under Hurtt already, but also:

• Christian Parker: Two rookies were finalists for Defensive Rookie of the Year, and Darius Slay had one of his best seasons.

• Bobby King: Zack Baun came out of nowhere to become a Defensive Player of the Year finalist, and Nakobe Dean made a major leap. Even a guy like Oren Burks played well when he was needed.

• Jeremiah Washburn: Nolan Smith made a huge leap, and Jalyx Hunt was a significant contributor down the stretch, when it was assumed that 2024 would be a redshirt season for him.

It's really quite incredible that the Eagles' defense had so many players elevate their games and be as productive as they were as a unit, and they were still able to keep their defensive staff in place. But to answer your question, it's going to be very difficult to pull that trick again if the defense plays anywhere near as well as it did a year ago.

Question from @birdgang0000: Why has the Eagles player development been so much better than the previous coaching staffs under Dougie Pederson and Chip Kelly?

I was listening to a national podcast earlier this summer, and they were ranking head coaches. Nick Sirianni came in at 15th, which is absolutely laughable, obviously, seeing as he has been to the playoffs every year of his tenure, he has two Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl win, and he's currently fifth all-time among qualified head coaches in winning percentage. But, sure, 14 other head coaches are better.

Sirianni often gets dinged because he doesn't call plays, and he has a great roster. He is essentially getting the Jalen Hurts treatment in that respect, but to an even more ridiculous degree. Also maybe people just don't like him because of his sideline antics? 🤷‍♂️

But I think Sirianni does two things really well that outsiders can't see:

1. He puts out personality fires behind the scenes, and has done an outstanding job cultivating a winning culture.
2. He is a teacher, particularly of the fundamentals of football, and he expects his staff to be teachers as well. And I think that a lot of that constant emphasis has shown up on gameday.

Anyway, as noted above, a lot of the Eagles' positional coaches have done a very good job developing their players, but I also think that a lot of that starts at the top.

Question from @RJankowich: Season Over/Under?

Ben VanSumeren carries 1.5
Ben VanSumeren receptions 2.5
Sirianni yelling at the road fans 0.5
Sirianni yelling at the home fans 0.5
AJ Brown sideline books 1.5
Jordan Davis sacks 2.5
Jahan Dotson receptions 24.5

VanSumeren over 2.5 receptions is easy. And yes, I do think he'll also get a very small handful of carries this year. They repped that early in training camp, and he looked pretty natural running with the ball. So give me the over on 1.5 carries.

I'll take the over on Sirianni yelling at road fans. He can't help himself on that, but I think he learned a lesson last year yelling at home fans, even if it was friendly.

Davis is going to have more than 2.5 sacks this year, and Dotson will have 25+ catches.

Under on A.J.'s sideline reading.

MORE: Eagles' depth will be a concern headed into NFL season

Question from @BillSnowa: With all the stud LB’s, what kind of hybrid defenses could Vic play with? 2-5-4? Something that’s never been seen to get the best 11 on the field?

I like where your head is at. I'm always up for weird, exotic looks. But that won't happen. Vic was asked if he intended on playing three off-ball linebackers at all this season, and he more or less said no.

Question from @kjensen82: Is Howie claiming Willie Lampkin the start of Howie's revenge tour against teams that voted to ban the tush push (especially considering the reports of Howie's and Sean McVay's "heated" discussions at the owners meetings). If so, I'm here for it.

I saw some scuttlebutt on Twitter that it's an "unwritten rule" that teams don't claim players waived with an injury designation, as Lampkin was by the Eagles.

It’s certainly rare to claim a guy who was waived with an injury designation, but I’ve never heard of that being an “unwritten rule.” If they really wanted to keep Lampkin that badly, the Rams could have just placed him on injured reserve and other teams wouldn’t have had a chance to claim him.

So, if you're a Rams fan and you're upset that Lampkin got sniped by the Eagles, blame your team's front office for choosing the wrong roster move, not the Eagles for capitalizing on their mistake.

Question from @definetlyclam: The Phillies are hopeless against the Mets right now. What is the Eagles equivalent, now or since you started writing?

For some weird reason, they just can't beat the Seahawks. The Seahawks have beaten them eight times in a row.

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