Only one more of these and we can all get on with our lives.<\/p>\n
The Eagles lost to the Patriots 24-21 Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., in their second of three preseason games. They finish the preseason Friday night at the Linc against the Bengals.<\/p>\n
No starters got on the field, and they won\u2019t play Friday either. That\u2019s just the way it\u2019s always going to be under Nick Sirianni. And it works.<\/p>\n
The Patriots won the game with 57 seconds left on a 37-yard touchdown pass from rookie Behren Morton to Nick DeGennaro, who beat corner Isaiah Bolden, who has been an Eagle for five days.<\/p>\n
Unlike the opener in Baltimore last weekend, there were plenty of positives. Here\u2019s our 10 Instant Observations as we slog through the preseason with opening day three weeks away.<\/p>\n
1. So much for that quarterback competition. If this game was any indication, Tanner McKee has to be the Eagles\u2019 backup quarterback. Andy Dalton just isn\u2019t very good. He had a couple nice completions to Darius Cooper Saturday night \u2013 25 yards out to midfield on a 2nd-and-7 and 13 yards to Cooper on a 4th-and-1 on the Eagles\u2019 first touchdown drive. But after an ineffective 3-for-6 for 20 yards against the Ravens last week, he finished 3-for-10 for 44 yards in New England, with all his completions going to Cooper. That leaves him 6-for-16 for 64 yards on nine drives this preseason with a miserable passer rating of 50.0. Dalton hasn\u2019t been terrible in practice, but in the two games he just hasn\u2019t brought any juice to the offense and has looked all of his 38 years. Tanner McKee needs to be the Eagles\u2019 No. 2 QB, and he was sharp and decisive Saturday, going 16-for-22 for 173 yards with two touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 125.8 passer rating before giving way to rookie Cole Payton with 57 seconds left. And remember, Dalton was out there with the 2\u2019s and McKee mainly with the 3\u2019s. Maybe Howie can find a taker for Dalton for a bottom of the draft pick, but McKee needs to be Jalen Hurts\u2019 backup.<\/p>\n
2. As miserable as the offense looked last week in Baltimore in Sean Mannion\u2019s debut as a play caller, they looked sharp and crisp for the most part Saturday night in Foxborough, and I thought Mannion really did a nice job calling plays, keeping the Patriots off-balance, mixing things up and getting the offense into a rhythm on drives of 77, 62, 56 and 52 yards, the third of which stalled at the Patriots\u2019 9-yard-line. It wasn\u2019t a masterpiece, but it was a significant upgrade over what we saw last weekend in Baltimore. And Mannion was doing it with backup quarterbacks throwing to Carson Steele, Cam Latu, Britain Covey and Stone Smartt. Get Mannion calling plays for DeVonta Smith, Dontayvion Wicks, Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley and I think the Eagles may be onto something. Now, keep in mind the Eagles aren\u2019t game planning for preseason games and they\u2019re not dipping into the playbook that they\u2019ll use once the games count. Now, this offense is still a work in progress. Joint practices were evidence of that. It wouldn\u2019t be surprising if it takes the offense a few weeks to really get going this fall, but with the skill guys they have, the o-line they have and the quarterback they have \u2013 as well as the play caller they have \u2013 they\u2019re ultimately going to be very good.<\/p>\n
3. Let\u2019s talk about Ty Robinson. Two weeks ago, he wouldn\u2019t have been on anybody\u2019s projected 53-man roster, but something just clicked with him and after a monster performance against the Ravens and two really good days of joint practices, he showed up again Saturday night, beating a double team to sack Tommy DeVito for a nine-yard loss on a 3rd-and-7 in the first quarter and then adding a second sack of DeVito for 12 yards in the second quarter. He also had three quarterback hits, two tackles for loss and three tackles. If there were an NFC Defensive Player of the Week in the preseason, Robinson would have it locked up. Vic Fangio was hilarious during the week when asked about Robinson: \u201cYeah, he came to life. He’s been on life support since he’s been here, but he came to life and hopefully that will continue.\u201d It continued Saturday night, and now Howie Roseman will have some interesting decisions to make at defensive tackle. Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo are the locks, Gabe Hall, Byron Young and Robinson are the next group and there\u2019s Uar Bernard to probably protect from the waiver wire. Hall made some plays Saturday night, but right now he\u2019s the odd man out thanks to the way Robinson has performed. He\u2019s been fantastic.<\/p>\n
4. Ya know, I really like that Will Shipley. I\u2019m not sure what sort of role he\u2019ll have during the regular season behind Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby, but the kid runs hard and the first defender never tackles him. Shipley keeps his legs moving, moves the pile and really understands how to hit the hole decisively. Shipley ran 11 times for 56 yards with a five-yard touchdown run and four first downs playing only two drives. When the Eagles brought in a couple veteran running backs with decent resumes \u2013 former 49er Elijah Mitchell, who ran for 963 yards as a rookie, and former Texan Dameon Pierce, who ran for 939 yards as a rookie \u2013 I wondered if the Eagles were trying to upgrade their running back depth behind Barkley and Bigsby. But they both got hurt, Shipley continued to impress in camp and both preseason games so far and there may have been some question about his spot on the 53 a few weeks ago but certainly not any more. Solid special teamer, good kick returner and has a flair for making plays at running back. No way he\u2019s not making the 53.<\/p>\n
5. What was a huge concern at the start of training camp \u2013 offensive line depth \u2013 is now starting to look awfully promising. Markel Bell continues to impress as a backup swing tackle and Lane Johnson\u2019s hand-picked successor at right tackle, Willie Lampkin has been a beast at guard and center, Drew Kendall is much improved over his rookie year and Jake Majors has come out of nowhere to put together an impressive camp. Those guys battered the Patriots\u2019 defensive front on the Will Shipley touchdown drive, and it\u2019s encouraging that all the Eagles\u2019 starting offensive linemen are healthy three weeks before opening day, but after watching these guys practice all summer and especially against the Patriots Saturday night you have to feel a lot more comfortable with the backups than a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
6. How about that Joshua Weru? Are you kidding me? This is a rugby player from Kenya who never put on shoulder pads until three weeks ago and never played in a football game on any level until last weekend, And all he did Saturday night was pick up a sack on Patriots QB Behren Morton in the third quarter to go with a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit. Weru is fast and strong and he\u2019s clearly still a long-term project, but he\u2019s a long-term project who already looks like a legit prospect. Which is insane considering his background. Uar Bernard has gotten more attention and picked up the first two tackles of his life Saturday night in the fourth quarter, and he\u2019s sure fun to watch too, but out of the Eagles\u2019 two International Pathway Program rookies, Weru looks closer to being a functional NFL player at this point. Howie Roseman deserves so much credit for finding players in places where most GMs don\u2019t even look for them.<\/p>\n
7. Deontae Lawson \u2013 that\u2019s No. 47 on defense \u2013 has put together a couple impressive games and I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever talked about the Eagles having too many decent linebackers, but I think Lawson can play. He\u2019s a 6-foot-3, 225-pound backer from Alabama, a 2nd-team all-SEC player and an undrafted rookie, but he\u2019s had a nice summer and shown up in both preseason games. He had five tackles in Baltimore and three in New England and just plays fast and physical. The Eagles\u2019 linebacker depth is impressive, led by Jeremiah Trotter and Smael Mondon supported by Chance Campbell and Lawson. Campbell can play as well and has also had a good summer. Howie will probably keep five backers, and behind Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell, Trotter is No. 3 and Mondon will probably be No. 4. Campbell and Lawson will both be on the practice squad, assuming they get through waivers.<\/p>\n
8. Steele, who rushed for over 1,500 yards at Ball State as a sophomore, isn\u2019t going to make the 53, but, wow, he looked terrific Saturday night, with six catches for 84 yards, including a 14-yarder where he hurdled Patriots corner Brandon Crossley and a 28-yard touchdown where he hurdled Patriots safety Eric Butler. Was that Carson Steele or Devon Allen? Steele is another promising young undrafted kid who keeps making plays, and he finished Saturday night with 117 scrimmage yards. Best-case scenario is a practice squad spot. I don\u2019t know if Steele will ever play an NFL snap, but he\u2019s got a real flair in the receiving game and has earned a spot on the practice squad with a nice summer.<\/p>\n
9. Shaun Wade isn\u2019t a kid. He\u2019s a 28-year-old corner from Ohio State who\u2019s bounced around from the Ravens to the Patriots to the Chargers to the Bears to the Dallas Renegades of the UFL to the Eagles and hasn\u2019t played in a regular-season game since 2023. But Wade has shown up in both preseason games, forcing a fumble in each one and also recording a nice pass breakup in Baltimore. There isn\u2019t a roster spot for him and honestly he hasn\u2019t played great other than those handful of big plays. But when a guy who hasn\u2019t played a regular-season snap in three years forces fumbles in back-to-back games, that gets you noticed.<\/p>\n
10. If you don\u2019t like the fact that Nick Sirianni never plays starters in the preseason, you have to consider that no NFL team since 2021 has started out seasons better than the Eagles. They are always ready, and you can\u2019t ask for better evidence that resting the starters makes sense than their record early in seasons under Sirianni. This team is always prepared when the games matter. The Eagles are 5-0 on opening day under Sirianni, winning by an average of nine points, and they have the best September record in the NFL since 2021 at 13-4. It\u2019s easy to just assume that the starters are going to be rusty if they don\u2019t play in the preseason games, but that just hasn\u2019t been the case. This system works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only one more of these and we can all get on with our lives. The Eagles lost to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6107,69,71,70,6444],"class_list":["post-270609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eagles-blog","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-roobs-observations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}