We are deep into the darkest period of the NFL calendar. Hat tip to the World Cup for helping get us through it, even if we no-showed against Belgium. Let's do a mailbag or two to pass the time, shall we? And as always thanks for doing half the work for me. (Part I here.)

Question from @GenericHandleGuy (via Bluesky): If you had to do a prediction calendar of what the Eagles OL situation looks like over this year, through the draft and free agency next year, and then heading into the 2027 season, what do you think they’ll do? Really feels like a historical strength is increasingly precarious.

I agree that the Eagles' offensive line is looking increasingly precarious.

• LT Jordan Maialta: Turns 30 next offseason.

• LG Landon Dickerson: Trying to rebound from a bad, injury-plagued season.

• C Cam Jurgens: Trying to rebound from a bad, injury-plagued season.

• RG Tyler Steen: Encouraging first season as a starter in 2025, but a free agent next offseason.

• RT Lane Johnson: Turned 36 in May.

In recent years the Eagles could just head into seasons with little worry about their offensive line. There might be a nitpick here or there, but for the most part confident that it was either the best line in the league or close enough to it.

This is the first year in a while that there should be genuine concern that some players are either in decline and/or that their bodies won't cooperate with them.

And yet... If you were asked if you'd like to trade the Eagles' offensive line with other offensive lines around the league, how many are really better? (I took a quick peek, and I might take Denver's line, but I really had trouble making a great case for any others.)

• The Eagles still employ the best OT duo in the NFL in Johnson and Mailata.

• Steen has a chance to build on his good first year as a starter.

• Dickerson and Jurgens remain significant question marks, but it's a good sign that they were participating in 11-on-11's during the spring.

If some things go right, they can be dominant again. We'll see.

Long-term, we laid out how the Eagles' draft and financial resource allocation was going to shift this offseason. Over the last half decade or so, the team has been paying their established offensive players and going ultra-heavy on defense in the draft. But that this offseason, that was going to change, as the money would shift to the team's defensive stars and the draft would likely be offense-heavy.

And, well, they selected offensive players with each of their first five picks. I expect that to continue going forward, and although two of those picks were used on offensive linemen — Markel Bell in Round 3 and Micah Morris in Round 6 — they need keep filling the pipeline with more offensive line prospects.

Question from @WSJohnW: Is Tyler Steen the weak point of the offensive line? Or are there still legitimate concerns with the health of Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens? Do you think they’ll bring in Mekhi Becton at any point in camp?

Steen is the least decorated of the Eagles' offensive linemen, but he was a perfectly fine starter in 2025. He played better than Dickerson and Jurgens last season, in my opinion. (Obviously as noted above, Dickerson and Jurgens were hampered by season-long injuries.)

So, I think it's unfair to call him a weak point. He's going to start at RG, and the Eagles will hope that he continues to improve. I think they have to like the way he developed last season. There will be no competition there.

Becton had a good season in Philly in 2024, but he was a disastrous free agent signing for the Chargers last year. The Eagles do have shaky depth along the interior of their line, but if they were to have any interest in bringing Becton back, I think he would have to be OK being here in a backup role.

Question from @stephanuzzell (via Bluesky): I'm worried about Markel Bell as the backup OT especially now that the Eagles seem likely to be moving to a wide outside zone run blocking scheme. My impression from everything I've read is that he run blocks like he's wearing concrete shoes. I generally trust Howie (not that he hasn't had some misses) but...?

Bell is 6'9, 346, so he's not going to be flying around the field like Jason Kelce. But, in my opinion he does have better movement skills than you would expect of a guy his size, as shown below: 

So, I guess I'd disagree with the "concrete shoes" comment. He has nimble feet. We'll get a good look at him in camp and in the preseason games.

Question from @Sirius Li: Any sign yet of how losing Jeff Stoutland has affected the O-line?

It will be interesting to see how these guys play in the new scheme. Lane Johnson has mentioned that his assignments are going to be a lot easier than they have been over the bulk of his career. So I don't think the scheme will cause any of the starters to play worse. It might actually make their lives easier.

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But also, Johnson, Mailata, Dickerson, and Jurgens are seasoned vets. If healthy, they could play well for any OL coach.

My bigger concern with losing Stoutland is with the development of young linemen. His track record of getting players to reach their ceilings was outstanding.

Question from @mondorthebrazen: What do you think the odds are that the O-Line has four new starters next year?

Four? Like, less than 1 percent. I assume the lone returning starter in this scenario is Mailata? You'd have to have Johnson and Dickerson retire, Steen leave in free agency, and Jurgens become some kind of unplayable player.

Question from @abrad45: What are your expectations for Sean Mannion's offense? When should we expect the players to have a feel for it? Are we likely to drop any early games (partially) due to offensive miscues?

On the one hand, yeah, I do think that there could be some growing pains with the new offense where it looks sluggish at times. Part of the appeal of this offense is that run/pass plays are designed to look the same. When teams like the Rams or 49ers are running it efficiently the opposing defense is late to recognize what is happening, and that little one second edge is really meaningful. But, like anything, it also take a whole lot of reps to get the timing right.

On the other hand, the Eagles' defense is going to have the advantage of being in Year 3 of Vic Fangio's tenure. We've seen the defense come out a little slow the last two seasons, but become a well-oiled machine by the end of the season. I don't think we'll see those growing pains on that side of the ball this year.

Question from @ElevationRadio: Any chance there is a training camp battle between Jeremiah Trotter and Jihaad Campbell?

Trotter had a very good spring, and last season Fangio favored the more savvy, experienced Nakobe Dean over the much more physically impressive Campbell. So I do see where this question is coming from. 

But, man, even if Trotter were to outplay Campbell in training camp — which in my opinion is a realistic possibility — it's really hard to imagine Howie Roseman not pulling every possible string to get his first-round pick on the field instead.

Question from @jayb773 (via Bluesky): Are you surprised that nobody has met the asking price to this point for Tanner McKee or Andy Dalton?

Nah. The Eagles reportedly have a very high asking price for McKee, as they should. But also there just aren't many logical landing spots for McKee at this point in the offseason. 

And even if a quarterback were to suffer some sort of Teddy Bridgewater-like injury, there are other backup quarterbacks around the league — Mac Jones and Davis Mills, to name two examples — who did some nice things last season and would also make sense as starters for a suddenly quarterback-desperate team. So it's not as if the Eagles would even be in a position to squeeze some other team for more than he's worth, like they did with A.J. Brown.

As for Dalton, I don't know that there even is an asking price at this time, though certainly I could see the Eagles trying to unload him for something if they still have four quarterbacks worthy of a roster spot at the end of camp. 

Question from @SeanTalksEagles: Do you think the Eagles will make a trade for a safety before Week 1? Similar to CJGJ trade.

Aside from re-signing Marcus Epps, the Eagles didn't add a starting-caliber safety in free agency, and they didn't use an early draft pick on a safety. They did add other guys like J.T. Gray (FA) and Cole Wisniewski (7th round draft pick).

At a minimum, Epps is a solid backup at this stage of his career. He knows where he needs to be, and he seems to have Fangio's trust. 

However, he isn't going to provide much in the way of splash plays. He hasn't had an INT since 2021, and in seven NFL seasons, he has just 3 career INTs and 2 forced fumbles.

Epps could certainly be "fine," but "fine" is also probably his ceiling.

My assumption earlier this offseason was that the Eagles would trade for a starting-caliber safety sometime after June 1. However, after Fangio revealed that he is moving Cooper DeJean to safety in the base defense — along with some praise for Epps — it became a better bet that if the Eagles trade for a safety it'll be during training camp if/when they aren't fully sold on what they're seeing at that position as a whole.

Personally, I think they should trade for a safety regardless. They could use an upgrade on Epps, but even if you're sold on Epps it's hard to expect Andrew Mukuba to stay healthy after he was forced to miss chunks of training camp and the regular season last year with shoulder, hamstring, and fibula injuries.

Question from @bdbd20: With the league intent on visiting every country, any ones you’d like to visit? Other than the normal ones?

Ideally the Commanders will just move to Bora Bora. I'm doubtful PhillyVoice would let me expense one of those over-water huts, though.

Question from @TheRonLongley (via Bluesky): There's more and more chatter regarding plans for a new stadium and the topic of dome vs. no dome. As an Eagles fan "raised" in the Vet and that has generally enjoyed the Linc, I am curious to hear Jimmy's take on that somewhat controversial topic. TIA 🦅🧐

Around this time last year we reported on focus groups that were being held about "the new stadium." From that report:

The attendee noted that the focus group presenter said that the city could pursue hosting major sporting events, like the Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four, as well as other big non-sporting events. And, well, spoiler: Philly isn't going to be awarded a Super Bowl at an outdoor-only stadium, and the NCAA isn't going to be playing Final Four games outside in the cold and wind and rain.

Maybe they'll build a stadium with a retractable roof so Eagles games can still be played outside? But, again, you can be certain that any new stadium will have indoor capabilities.

As for where I stand on dome vs. outdoor stadium, I've always considered myself something of a purist, in that I love outdoor football. I certainly would rather watch outdoor football over indoor football when it's on my television. The outdoor aesthetics are part of what make football fun.

Buuuuut also, as someone who has watched an Eagles game in every NFL stadium, if you were to ask me to name my five favorites, at least four of them would be indoor stadiums. I think people would hate an indoor stadium in Philly initially, but once they started going to games in December and January I think most would eventually/reluctantly conclude, "Eh, this 70 degree environment isn't so bad."

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