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Eagles Starting To Get Answers To Big Training Camp Questions

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Author Bob Cooney
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - AUGUST 12: Head coach Nick Sirianni of the Philadelphia Eagles looks on during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium on August 12, 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The time of the year has come. We all look forward to Eagles training camp in the middle of the summer. From those who want to say goodbye to the hot and humid days that rule summers around here to those who need a distraction from the baseball season. Hopes, particularly this season, usually are higher than what they should be when the players are practicing without pads, aren’t hitting with any frequency and are giving few clues as to who they really are. 

But now, almost two full weeks into camp, a preseason game and a couple of controlled practices with the Cleveland Browns, the landscape of a football team comes more into focus as reality begins to settle in. And as far as I can tell for the Eagles, the theme so far is a positive one. 

For a team with such high expectations – and rightfully so – I always look at the question marks of the team to see how they are addressed. Because, as we all know, the weakest part of the team could very well be the difference between winning a Super Bowl and falling short. 

…

So far so good. The biggest wonder of this Eagles team in the offseason and perhaps still now is the safety position. Gone is C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who had a wonderful season in his lone one in the midnight green. The competition for both spots seemed to be an open one before camp started, but one already seems secured as the play of second-year and undrafted player Reed Blankenship seems to have vaulted him to be one of the starters back their. And rookie third-rounder Sydney Brown has made a really nice impression of himself with his super-revved engine. 

And perhaps the play of those two is being helped by another youngster in Jalen Carter. He has been tremendously disruptive in all stages of this preseason, and his constant pressure on whoever is under center no doubt helps the safeties when quarterbacks don’t have the time to scan the field with the massive Carter in their faces. 

Now the focus needs to move towards the linebacker situation. Nakobe Dean, who has been handed the reigns of the defense after a year of basically learning the league from the bench, needs to secure the faith of the fans – and his coaches – that he can be trusted at the position and who will become his running mate there. 

Questions still are all over. Answers are starting to round into shape. And that is what makes this such a great time of the sports year. 

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Eagles Stock Report After Week 1 of the Pre-Season

One week of Pre-Season is in the books. We barely saw any starters in game 1 vs the Ravens at all. And that is a trend Eagles fans should probably get used to. We would be lucky to see one series of Jalen Hurts and the first-team offense all together before they head to Foxborough in week 1 of the regular season. And the same goes for the defensive side of the ball, where none of the veterans got onto the field at all. 

But that does not mean there is nothing to take away from Saturday’s Pre-Season game. Because there are some important guys still competing for jobs. Who will be the lead back? Which two guys will be the starting safeties? Is Arryn Siposs’s job on the line? Is there even a competition at RG like we all assumed? Even if we don’t see the big names, there is still a reason to pay attention to both who is playing, and how they play. We also got our first glimpse at rookies like Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Sydney Brown, Tyler Steen, and Kelee Ringo.

Some guys came out and made a very strong first case to win a roster spot, or a larger role on the team. Others failed to stand out or even struggled. And there is also something to learn from the names who joined the starters on the bench.

So whose stock with the Eagles is on the rise? Who perhaps hurt their chances to make the team? And who did the Eagles suggest maybe already won the job by not playing them at all?  

Here are some of the players whose Eagles stock rose or fell the most after the first pre-season game: 

  • Stock Up- Jalen Carter

    Jalen Carter needed just 1 snap to make his presence felt. He tossed Ben Cleveland aside, to pressure the QB. It probably should have been intentional grounding. But the result doesn’t matter. what matters is how good Carter looked. Yes, it was vs a backup OG. But this is exactly what elite players, like we think Carter can be, do when they line up against backups. They make them look silly. Carter has a chance to be very special. We got a glimpse of that in game 1 and continued to see it in Joint Practice so far this week.  

  • Stock Down- Joseph Ngata

    Making the roster will be an uphill battle for Ngata and all the WRs on the bubble. At most there is one spot, and even that is not guaranteed. So guys like Ngata need to impress every opportunity they get. And while he has done that in practice, it was not the case in the game. He committed a penalty taking a big play of his own off the board. Beyond that, he had just 1 catch for 4 yards. Not enough if he is hoping to convince the Eagles to keep him as a 6th WR.  

  • Stock Up- Tanner McKee

    There is clearly a lot of work Tanner has to do. But just seeing him on the field, you can see the talent was there. Some of the throws he made were at a pro level. Zipping balls into tight windows, and putting good touch when it was needed. Yes, there were some overthrows. But if the Eagles keep a 3rd QB, it is going to be Tanner. 

  • Stock Down- Ian Book

    On the other hand, it is hard to look worse than Ian Book did. He had more sacks than he had completions. And one of those sacks was for 21 yards because he made the dumb mistake of trying to outrun a sack backwards. It feels like he has already lost the 3rd QB job. He has two more chances to try and win it back. But the gulf between him and Mckee is huge after game 1.  

  • Stock Up- Reed Blankenship

    Reed Blankenship did not play. He was not banged up. The Eagles just sat him alongside all of the starters. That tells you a ton about what they think about him. It tells you that he has one of those two starter spots at Safety locked up. Terrell Edmunds, Sydney Brown, K’Von Wallace, and Justin Evans all had to go out there and still play. Reed got to sit next to Jalen Hurts and Jason Kelce on the bench. A 2nd-year UDFA, and he has that type of job security. That may be the biggest win of the night.  

    Plus apparently, he has been showing off in Joint Practice vs the Browns.

  • Stock Up- Cam Jurgens

    Like Reed Blankenship, Cam Jurgens did not play. And that is the best thing for him. If it was a real battle at RG, he would be playing. Instead, he sat on the bench. The RG battle is over. It may have never existed, to begin with. They have the utmost trust in Cam Jurgens as the starting RG for the Eagles. Tyler Steen played really well when on the field as well. But he will have to settle for being a backup this season, even if he is a very good backup.

  • Stock Down- Marcus Mariota

    Mariota’s job as the primary backup is likely not in any danger. As good as McKee looked, I doubt it is to the point they would trust him backing up Hurts. That said, he didn’t do himself any favors vs the Ravens. He was way better than Book, but that is not saying much. Mariota made some big plays with his legs, but there were too many bad throws to be comfortable with what he showed us.   

  • Stock Up- Eli Ricks

    I don’t know if there is a job for Eli Ricks to win. Cornerback is already so deep. Darius Slay, James Bradberry, Avonte Maddox, Kelee Ringo, and Josh Jobe feel like locks at this point. Zech McPhearson is a near lock. So if any of these other guys, like Greedy Williams, Mario Goodrich, or Eli Ricks want a job, they need to play well enough to convince them to keep 7 Corners. But getting a pick 6, a pass deflection, and playing tight coverage like Ricks did all night is a good first step to making the argument for a 7th corner.  

  • Stock Down- Trey Sermon

    Like at corner, it will be tough for any RB outside the top 4 to crack the roster. And Sermon didn’t make a good case for that in game 1. He did not make a huge impact in the return game and averaged under 3 yards per carry. That is not the production of a guy so good you need to keep 5 running backs. I know they like Sermon. They were giving him a chance to return kicks because they want to find a role for him. When asked to stay in and block he held up well. Plus he did get into the endzone once. There are reasons to like him as an RB. But the overall performance was not enough to make the case as a 5th RB yet. 

  • Stock Up- Tyrie Cleveland

    Another guy who probably won’t have a spot. But unlike Ngata, he did at least make a good case for it in the game. Cleveland early in the game felt like he was making every play, along with Greg Ward. The 3-year Vet had 5 catches for 68 yards, including some highlight reel caliber catches. If he continues to play like that, he maybe could convince them to keep a 6th WR. But it is an uphill battle, and even after Saturday night, he is probably not at the front of the pack yet to win that job if it exists. But it was a good first step for him.

  • Stock Down- Arryn Siposs

    The Eagles did not do a ton of punting. Siposs got just 2 chances, and neither of them went all that well. The first one was a prime chance to pin them behind the 10-yard line. He punted it just 33 yards from the 44 to the 11. That is the type of spot where a good punter could have had the other team lining up in their own end zone. I suppose it at least was not a touchback. The next chance came from the 30, giving him a chance to show off his leg, and it went just 42 yards. Siposs failed to show both finesse and power. 

    Arryn Siposs #8 of the Philadelphia Eagles warms up prior to playing the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium on February 12, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona.

    (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

     

  • Stock Up- Ty Zentner

    Zentner on the other hand got just one chance. He pinned the Ravens at the 6-yard line. A good solid punt. It is hard to call it a win for him since it was just one punt. But he stood out in contrast to Siposs who struggled on both punts.  

    Eagles UDFAs

    (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

  • Stock Up- D'Andre Swift

    We already knew Swift was good, so it is not a big surprise that he was one of the standouts in the first game. But it was nice to see him doing it wearing an Eagles jersey. He broke off a 22-yard run, and then we never saw him again. That was all he needed to show. The only thing we didn’t see was him getting involved in the passing game. But we might not see much more of Swift at all until the regular season now.  

  • Stock Up- Sydney Brown

    It was nothing we didn’t already know, but Brown was very active once he got onto the field. He led the Eagles with 9 tackles. It felt like he was involved in every play. He may not start this season, but there should be a role for a guy like Brown who is so willing to hit.  

Bob Cooney has been a part of the Philadelphia sports scene for more years than he wants to admit after 25 years in print media, and now in his seventh year at The Fanatic. Throughout the years, he has covered all sports from the World Series, multiple Final Fours and Regional Finals in men’s college basketball, to the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club and the 76ers. He takes his sports media knowledge and background to a new level by joining a conversation with the passionate fans of this great city. He writes about the Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, and Phillies for the Fanatic.

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