July 30, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
General manager Howie Roseman of the Philadelphia Eagles speaks in a press conference during training camp at the Jefferson Health Training Complex on July 29, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Before the players hit the field for the first day of Philadelphia Eagles training camp, Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni took questions from the media. Here are my five takeaways from their interview session.
Roseman: "When I think about the timeline with Jalen Carter, we went into the offseason looking to extend him, looking to extend obviously Jordan Davis and kind of keep the strength of our team.
"That position group, not only with those two guys, I mean Moro Ojomo, unbelievable player, unbelievable person for our team. Byron Young took a lot of steps and we've got a young group behind that that we're really excited about. We felt like that was one of the strengths of our team and we wanted that to be one of the strengths of our team going forward.
"The defensive tackle position in the league, in college football, it's a deficient position. It's hard to find guys like that and we feel like it was a priority."
#JimmySays: In the 2026 draft, there were no projected first-round interior defensive linemen, although two — Caleb Banks (18th to the Vikings) and Peter Woods (29th to the Chiefs) — got pushed up the board into the first round.
The Eagles spent premium resources on Carter and Davis. They traded up to pick 9 for Carter in 2023, and they traded a handful of picks to the 13th overall spot in 2022 to get Davis. And now they have paid both players handsomely. Add in that they struck gold in the seventh round of the 2023 draft when they selected Moro Ojomo and they pretty clearly have the best iDL trio in the NFL, when many other teams around the league don't field two legitimate starting-caliber players.
Roseman: "I don't know what off-field concerns. Since Jalen's been here, he's put his head down, he's worked hard, and he's made huge impact plays for this organization, for this team. Last year, he wasn't 100%. He tried to fight through that and play through that. We understand that.
"Like anyone, when you're 25 years old, you're still growing as a person and as a player. I saw Zack Baun yesterday and he made a great comment. He said to me, 'When I signed my contract, someone told me you don't pay me for what I did, you're paying me for what I'm going to do.' And that's why we do these deals. We don't do anything based on retroactive performance; we're doing things based on future performance.
"We were trying to sign Jalen in March, understood it was unique because of where the market was and where he thought and Drew Rosenhaus thought it was going, but it was always positive and we were always trying to get him extended."
#JimmySays: I mean, Carter's off-field concerns are pretty well documented. But it could also be true that he has been fine in the locker room as a person and teammate.
That answer was in response to a question about a report from Sports Illustrated that the Eagles were hesitant to do a new deal with Carter, which obviously doesn't seem to be the case.
Sirianni: "Everything is a competition. We'll continue to rotate with those guys with what we're doing. Andy has played a lot of football and Andy's played a lot of good football. That doesn't say anything about what we feel about Tanner. Tanner has been here for four years and has played some really good moments, played some really good games, so consistent at practice with what he does and the type of player he is.
"So we're really excited about that, but we also know that competition brings out the best in everybody. To be able to have a guy like Andy and Tanner working together and working to push each other to get better, that's only going to make our team better. Again, can't say how much I appreciate having Tanner and all the things that he's done and the type of player that we continue to think that he can be. So, we're excited about that room."
#JimmySays: Competition is fine, I guess, but McKee is clearly better at this stage of their respective careers.
Roseman: "One of the things that we know about Greenard is he's going to be ready to play. Training camp is so important, practice is so important, but when you have a guy like that who prepares the way he does, who has the experience in the NFL the way he does, you know he's going to be ready to play when we start the season. We want to be smart with all our guys and get them ready, but at the same time, acknowledge the process that they have to take to make sure that they are 100% when they come back.
"This is not a long-term injury. This is nothing we're concerned about, but when we can, we're going to make sure that we take care of our guys and put them in the best position to have a great year."
#JimmySays: On the one hand, yeah, a vet like Greenard will theoretically be more well-positioned to be ready to play well Week 1 of the regular season if they were to miss all of camp, than, say, a rookie would. On the other hand, a big part of training camp isn't just learning the scheme and the plays and such. It's getting your body back into football shape, which is kind of a big deal for a vet like Greenard.
Roseman: "The roster's always a work in progress. Every day we're coming in, we're trying to find ways to get better. We're communicating with every team in the league to try to find fits, to see if there's opportunities to make ourselves better.
"It's certainly incomplete at this time. It will be incomplete throughout the course of the season. Any opportunity we have, and you look at our roster, it reminds me of just all the rooms that we have that evolve over the course of time. That's not a reflection of how we feel about our players now, excited about it, can't wait to see them out there, but any time we have a chance to get better, to improve our team, we're going to look at that."
#JimmySays: That was in response to a question that pointed out that he made five trades during camp last year, and whether he felt this year's roster needed similar tweaks. As always, Howie has an itchy trigger finger with trades.
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