The Philadelphia Eagles kicked off a two-day mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, and had a long, nearly two-hour practice. As always, we have notes.

• The defense dominated today. And, well, that makes sense, for a number of reasons:

1. Generally speaking, the defense is ahead of the offense this time of year. It's typically easier for the defense to shake off rust than it is for the offense.
2. This year's version of the Eagles' offense is installing a new scheme under newcomer Sean Mannion. The defense is in its third year under Vic Fangio, and players are able to play fast without having to think too much.
3. The defense is awesome.

Still, as noted in the headline above, the offense is way behind the defense.

• During the opening 7-on-7 session, Andy Dalton was picked off by Jalyx Hunt, who had 3 INTs during a breakout season in 2025. He has a chance to be a really good, unique edge defender with legitimate cover skills.

Dalton was also nearly picked off by Jonathan Jones on a deep sideline throw, and by Chance Campbell in the end zone during a red zone period. He had a shaky day, but also had some good throws over the middle to Johnny Wilson, who has seemed to get a lot a reps so far this spring.

• More importantly than how the backup quarterbacks looked on Tuesday is how many more reps Dalton is getting than Tanner McKee. I've been hesitant to sound any alarms that Dalton might currently be the QB2 over McKee, but I'm beginning to believe that he is. 

I'll explain. The Eagles have already had two sets of OTAs, with three practices during each set. The media was allowed to attend practice No. 2 during both sets of OTAs. A visual, with media-attended practices bolded:

In the first media-attended practice on May 27, Dalton was the QB2 over McKee, however, the team noted that Dalton and McKee were splitting second-team reps. So, OK, sure, that makes sense. Presumably, McKee got the bulk of the second-team reps during the first practice of the spring on May 26, which was not open to the media.

But then on June 2, Dalton got the bulk of the second-team reps again in front of the media. Hmm.. If it went McKee-Dalton-McKee-Dalton-McKee, then June 2 -- the fifth practice of the spring should logically be McKee's day, right? Or maybe with each new set of OTAs, the Eagles just reset the order. Like OTA session No. 1 went McKee-Dalton-McKee, and then OTA session No. 2 also went McKee-Dalton-McKee. That could explain why the media saw Dalton get the bulk of the reps twice, since we were allowed to attend the middle practice each time? 

So I was highly interested in who would get the reps on the first day of minicamp.

And, (drumroll)... Dalton got pretty much all the second-team reps once again. No matter which pattern explained above was in place during OTAs, the first day of minicamp should have been a McKee day, right? But it was Dalton. So maybe Dalton is just the QB2. Which is nuts to me, but that's what it looks like.

At a minimum, this appears to be a camp battle to watch in training camp, whereas my previous assumption was that McKee was the unquestioned QB2.

• I thought McKee had a good day, at least in the limited snaps he got. He threw red zone TD passes to Samori Toure and Hollywood Brown, plus a two-point conversion to Toure.

• We should probably note the QB1 as well, right? Jalen Hurts didn't have a great day. He missed DeVonta Smith streaking across the middle of the field with Riq Woolen in close pursuit. He was also "sacked" a couple of times, notably by Jalyx Hunt and Moro Ojomo during a red zone session.

More generally, the Eagles ran a lot of hurry-up, end-of-game red zone situations, and the first-team offense repeatedly failed to get into the end zone. But a lot of that was simply the defense making plays. For example:

1) Hurts looked to Smith on a fade route to the end zone, but Quinyon Mitchell was all over Smith. Hurts had to look elsewhere, but Dontayvion Wicks had already been pushed out the back of the end zone by Woolen. And then Smith got pushed out of the end zone by Mitchell on the same play. Hurts was basically looking around for receivers, and two of them had stopped running routes because they had already gone out of bounds.

2) Mitchell was once again all over Smith in the red zone, and a Hurts pass to Smith had no chance.

3) Saquon Barkley caught a pass near the sideline, and tried to make a play, but Cooper DeJean forced him out of bounds going backwards, so the clock kept running. Great play by DeJean, and probably not such a great play by Barkley.

4) On a similar play, Dallas Goedert caught a ball in the flat near the sideline and Andrew Mukuba made sure Goedert was going backwards when he went out of bounds so the clock would keep ticking. Nice play by Mukuba.

The Eagles' starting cornerbacks have been stellar so far in the three practices we have seen, and the backups have played well, too.

• Cole Payton didn't get many reps, and he was nearly picked off on successive plays by Jeremiah Trotter and Tariq Castro-Fields.

• I've been impressed so far by Hollywood Brown. His speed is obvious, but he has also made some difficult catches. He made a catch low and away from his body in traffic. It was only a short gain, but it was impressive that he even got his hands down in time to meet the pass, much less less bring it in.

• One under-the-radar player who has been around a while who had a really nice day was TE E.J. Jenkins, who caught three passes in the intermediate area of the field, including a one-hander down the seam.

• The offense showed a couple of two-back sets, with Barkley and Tank Bigsby both on the field.

• I had a chance to watch Uar Bernard closely, working against the third-string O-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.

• Undrafted rookie free agent S Maximus Pulley had a nice PBU, and he collected a bunch of head slaps from his defensive teammates thereafter. Pulley has some ball skills. Fun highlight reel. He stalks quarterbacks' eyes and anticipates where the ball is going.

• Braden Mann had a punting session, and he was hitting bombs. I timed his hang times:

1. 4.49 💣
2. 4.83
3. 4.73
4. 4.71 💣
5. 4.21
6. 4.23

I didn't have the best angle for distance, but the two 💣's noted above looked like they traveled at least 60 yards in the air. Mann isn't the best "pin deep" punter, but when he has a long open field he gets good distance.

• The Eagles last two first-round picks -- LB Jihaad Campbell and WR Makai Lemon -- are both still watching from the sidelines with injuries, though they should both be good to go for training camp. Lemon could use the reps now more than Campbell, obviously.

• Lane Johnson and Jalen Carter skipped voluntary OTAs, but they were present at this mandatory minicamp.

With Johnson out during OTAs, rookie Markel Bell filled in with the starters at RT. With Johnson playing RT, Bell was the second-team LT. Bell almost exclusively played LT in college at Miami, so that was nothing new for him. But it appears that OL coach Chris Kuper wants Bell to be ready to play both sides of the line. Kuper noted on Tuesday that he wants to prioritize cross-training his backups.

Carter didn't participate in team drills. Vic Fangio had previous said that he liked the work Carter has put into getting stronger in the weight room this offseason, and said he is healthier than he was last year. Perhaps Carter is making sure his contract extension gets done before participating fully in practice? There's certainly a whole lot of money at stake.

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