With the 2026 NFL free agency now in the rearview mirror, let's do an Eagles mailbag to handle all your questions. As always, thank you for doing half the work for me. Note: There were a lot of questions in this batch, so we may do a three-parter this time. 

Question from (Twitter DM from someone who wished to be anonymous): What players on the Patriots' roster make sense for the Eagles if one were to be included in the A.J. Brown trade?

Question from @GreaseThePoles: The safety position has not yet been meaningfully addressed via a draft or free agency, yet. There’s a rumor that Eagles may be receiving Craig Woodson back from the Pats in the A.J. Brown trade that will be spontaneously consummated on June 1st. Fan fiction or plausible?

Question from @NachosVegas: Why do Patriots fans think the Eagles would want Kayshon Boutte in an A.J. Brown trade?

We'll just lump all three of those above questions together.

To begin, what are the Eagles' roster holes?

1. Safety, for sure. 
2. And in my opinion they could probably use a competent veteran backup who can play all three interior offensive line spots.

Other than that, the roster is kinda set. 

I haven’t heard anything about Craig Woodson. That doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. But I’ll just say that the Patriots don’t exactly have a surplus of safeties, so Woodson is a player they're going to resist trading.

As for Boutte, I'm not super familiar with what Patriots fans think, but I agree that the Eagles shouldn't have much interest in the Patriots' mid receivers. The Eagles already added Makai Lemon, Dontayvion Wicks, and Marquise Brown. What would Boutte do? Compete for playing time with Wicks and Brown? That's not much of a value to the Eagles.

One player who I am certain is Howie Roseman's jam is slot CB Marcus Jones, who is simply a playmaker. In 2025, Jones had 65 tackles (8 for loss), 3 INTs (including a pick-six, plus another pick-six in the playoffs), 11 PBUs, 2 sacks, and he returned two punts for TDs. 

Of course, the Patriots would not want to lose him, obviously. But if you're a fanfic type, a secondary of Quinyon Mitchell, Riq Woolen, and Jones at corner, with Cooper DeJean and Andrew Mukuba at safety would be pretty nasty.

One thing I noticed when perusing the Pats' roster is that their QB2 is Tommy DeVito, AKA Tommy Cutlets of Giants fame. They can't go into the season with Tommy Cutlets as the QB2, right? I mean... right?! The Eagles currently have four quarterbacks, so that kinda feels like a match to me.

As long as we're on silly Patriots trade rumors, I got asked by a few different people a week ago if the Patriots selected first-rounder Caleb Lomu with the intent of including him in the A.J. deal. Apparently an Eagles content creator put that out there?

Anyway (looking at content creators), guys... come on. As the playoffs showed last season (especially in the Super Bowl), the Pats have an obvious need for offensive line help. Lomu was a very logical projection to them, especially with starting RT Morgan Moses playing in his age 35 season in 2026. 

But more importantly, the Pats traded up for him! If Lomu were selected with the intent of trading him to the Eagles, are we presuming that Howie Roseman worked together with the Patriots in trading up for him? Really? And then also, would the Eagles have taken another offensive tackle early in the third round if they were expecting Lomu to be sent to them in June? Respectfully, think things through for a minute before you put stuff out there. 

Anyway, if I'm guessing what the A.J. Brown trade looks like, put me down for a 1 in 2028, and maybe a 3 in 2027? Something like that. But I would lean toward no other players being included.

Question from @AnthonyPaparo: Where does A.J. Brown rank on the all-time Eagles WR list?

Statistically, fifth:

Brown didn't play in Philly as long as the others on this list, but he was probably the best player among them. If we're just talking "most talented," then Terrell Owens has to be in that mix, too. He had the best single season I ever saw an Eagles receiver have, in 2004. Of course, he also single-handedly torpedoed the 2005 season (whereas Brown was just kind of mopey throughout the 2025 season), so that probably has to factor in.

I think one question worth considering is whether DeVonta Smith can stamp his name onto that title in time.

Question from VPofWinning (via Bluesky): The Eagles have had skill and a little luck in the last few drafts. Stealing guys like Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Jihaad Campbell. This year felt different, like the board didn't fall the Eagles' way and they had to make due. Not that the picks were bad. Just not ideal. Agree?

There's no way that Carter, Mitchell, DeJean, or Campbell should have fallen to the spots where the Eagles picked them. I'll also throw in Nolan Smith here, too, as nobody expected that he'd last until pick 30. So, yes, the Eagles have gotten incredible value relative to consensus rankings with those picks.

And they did this year too with Lemon, who was widely expected to land in the top 15. But I do hear what you're saying. The reality is that this just wasn't a very good draft. It feels like the majority of Eagles fans are happy with the selection of Lemon, but would they be in a better draft class? 

A lot of teams' drafts felt underwhelming. For example, the Giants' draft has almost unanimously been praised, but ultimately, as noted in our review of their draft, they selected an off-ball linebacker and a guard with a pair of top 10 picks. In any other year they'd probably get crushed for ending up with the players they picked. In this one, "A+," lol.

Question from @xtinatheegreat (via Bluesky): On a scale of 1-10, what are the odds Vic stays past this upcoming season? If he retires, what are your thoughts with regard to potential candidates? Letting Christian Parker out of the building was odd to me but perhaps they’re grooming Clint Hurtt to take over.

Part I is probably an unanswerable question for me, as I don't know what Vic will feel like after this season.

As for Parker, the only way the Eagles really had a chance of keeping him was to make him their own defensive coordinator, which wasn't going to happen as long as they were confident Vic was going to return. Otherwise, because it was a promotion the Cowboys were offering, the Eagles couldn't block him from leaving for a better job.

As we reported back in February, the Eagles were at least planning to check on the availability of Jim Schwartz, who resigned from the Browns' defensive coordinator job after he was passed over for their open head coaching position. The Browns reportedly hold Schwartz's rights until after the 2026 season. Certainly there's familiarity there, but it would be a pretty big shift in defensive scheme if the Eagles went from Fangio to Schwartz.

If they hired from within, I agree that Hurtt would be the most obvious choice, since he already has some defensive coordinator experience.

Question from @IrishEagles (via Bluesky): What's a reasonable expectation, stats wise, for Lemon's and Stowers' rookie season?

We covered rookie first-year projected roles on Tuesday, but I did not guess rookie season stats. So, here you go:

• Lemon: 64 catches, 749 yards, 4 TDs.

• Stowers: 21 catches, 252 yards, 3 TDs.

Question from @twistajones: Any chance they traded up for Monroe Freeling and pivoted to Makai Lemon?

No. They wouldn't do that. But also, video released by the Cowboys showed that they were on the clock at pick 20 when the trade was completed.

Question from @mcilvadk (via Bluesky): Will there be a kicker competition in camp?

It doesn't appear so. Jake Elliott is going to be the kicker in 2026. Having a competition in which the outcome is pretty much already known probably doesn't have any value, so I kind of get why they wouldn't bring a second kicker in. But certainly, Elliott is coming off two consecutive bad seasons, and if he has a third he likely won't be back in 2027.

Question from @rtoddb (via Bluesky): Always appreciate your facts and insights, Jimmy K. Question: how would you rank the players most likely to return punts for 26/27? Tucker Large? Makai Lemon? Britain Covey? Thanks.

First, thanks! This question didn't age well, as the Tucker Large era in Philly is already over 😂. (He was a UDFA the Eagles signed, but was waived with an injury designation a couple days ago, after I solicited questions for this mailbag.)

Lemon returned kicks in college, but he only had 6 career punt returns. 

Cooper DeJean can return punts, but I don't think the Eagles want to screw around and get him hurt on a cheap shot.

Covey remains the team's best punt returner, and probably by a wide margin if we're excluding DeJean. But the question with him, as always, is whether the Eagles want to use a roster spot on him. Maybe he'll be a practice squad guy / gameday callup?

Question from @Francis78176532: How do you grade yourself on your Eagles draft predictions?  I followed your “board” very closely and, except for Lemon, it looked like you did pretty well.

Thanks! The Lemon pick annoyed me on the draft board front. I profiled him during the season in my prospects series, and usually if I profile a guy there, he'll make my board. I just assumed he wouldn't be available at pick 23, and I didn't think the Eagles would trade up for any position other than OT, or maybe EDGE. So he should have made it, but I made incorrect assumptions. Oops!

But I did have something written on him already, as I did with Eli Stowers, Markel Bell, Cole Payton, Micah Morris, and Uar Bernard. I didn't have anything prewritten on Cole Wisniewski or Keyshawn James-Newby. So, yes, on the "identifying guys they'll probably like" front, I did OK. I was due after my atrocious record picking games in 2025.

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