May 28, 2026
The Philadelphia Eagles had a full-team practice Wednesday, the first of its kind this season that the media was able to watch. Team periods were short and rain forced the action inside the practice bubble, but there were still some observations to be made.
• As a reminder, OTAs are voluntary. Players not in attendance (in alphabetical order):
The Eagles did have perfect attendance on Tuesday, with the exception of one unnamed player. Spoiler: It was A.J.
Rookie S Cole Wisniewski was present but did not practice.
• Heading into OTAs, there were four players rehabbing injuries: C Cam Jurgens, LG Landon Dickerson, S Andrew Mukuba, and LB Jihaad Campbell. Jurgens, Dickerson, and Mukuba all practiced, and participated in team drills. That's a great sign, especially for Jurgens and Dickerson.
• The offensive line depth chart was interesting:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Jordan Mailata | Landon Dickerson | Cam Jurgens | Tyler Steen | Markel Bell |
| Fred Johnson | Myles Hinton | Jake Majors | Drew Kendall | John Ojukwu |
| Hollin Pierce | Jaeden Roberts | Willie Lampkin | Micah Morris | Cameron Williams |
O-line notes:
• Tanner McKee and Andy Dalton have been splitting second-team reps during OTAs. I get that, I suppose, even if McKee is obviously better at this stage of their respective careers. He's certainly the more valuable player. But Dalton is entering his 16th NFL season and has started 173 career games. I can understand sparing him the indignity of feeling like a 38-year-old third stringer. But also, it makes sense for both guys to get second-team reps in case McKee is traded.
Dalton had a rough day. A lot of his passes hit the ground, and one that didn't was intercepted by free agent cornerback Jonathan Jones, who weaved his way through the offense for a pick-six. Jones also had a nice pass breakup in trail coverage on a throw over the middle. He had a very good day.
• Rookie QB Cole Payton had a nice initial showing. He threw a ball on the money on a corner route to undrafted rookie TE Dae'Quan Wright. He also made nice throws down the field to Elijah Moore and (fill in your receiver of choice because I forgot to write it down). I thought the throws to Moore and the other guy were a little late, but the accuracy was there.
(Side note: There will be Eagles beat reporters laying claim to Dae'Quan Wright as "their guy." Just know for the record that I profiled him in October last year.)
• Rookie WR Makai Lemon's best trait coming out of USC was that he catches everything. Great hands. But on his second target of the day, a shallow crosser, mmmmm drrrrop. He did make a number of other catches from Jalen Hurts, mostly in the middle of the field. Rookie second round tight end Eli Stowers didn't do anything notable.
• The Eagles showed a significant amount of plays from under center. It's clear that there's going to be a lot of that this season. They also showed quite a bit of motion. Saquon Barkley had some thoughts on some of the advantages for running backs when the quarterback is under center.
I thought it was interesting that Barkley is watching film of former NFL RB Todd Gurley, who had some monster seasons playing for Sean McVay a while back. Barkley looked fast in practice, by the way.
• On the "body change" front, BLG and I agreed that Nolan Smith was bulked up. Here he is standing next to 306-pound Uar Bernard (93).
I don't know if that's good or not. But he's definitely bigger.
• I watched Bernard for a bit during individual drills. He was being coached up by Clint Hurtt on some basics. Long way to go. It'll be fun tracking his progress over time.
• New Eagles CB Riq Woolen is tall. Like, really tall. I mean, obviously he is 6'4, but somehow he looks even taller than that. He towers over the other corners. He had a pass breakup on an underthrown Hurts deep ball to DeVonta Smith that hit him in the back.
Hurts did lean on Smith as his primary target, unsurprisingly. Smith caught a bunch of balls, as he will all season. I thought Hurts had a decent day, the underthrown deep ball aside.
• Hurts seems to be bought in on Sean Mannion and his scheme:
Of course, Hurts was also asked about his soon-to-be former teammate A.J. Brown, and he gave a cordial answer.
Hurts and Brown used to be besties. But, as he revealed above, Hurts hasn't spoken to Brown since the end of the season, and didn't attend his wedding.
• Maybe a dumb observation, maybe not (probably dumb): Jake Elliott had a black shoe on his kicking foot. That's new. Maybe that'll fix his kicking woes.
• The Eagles will have one more practice this week, on Friday. We're not invited, so there won't be practice notes. They'll also have three OTA practices next week. We'll get to watch one of those.
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