We’re in the last part of the offseason, where things are actually happening before we hit the long stretch of darkness between mandatory minicamp and training camp. That’s really just six weeks, but it feels like a year.
The Philadelphia Eagles have OTAs (that stands for Organized Team Activities, not Optional Team Activities) on May 27th, 28th, 30th, and June 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. That's six sessions of sevens-on-sevens and no contact, but given some of the holes in the Eagles' defense, it can give us a little bit of an idea of what we might see in the fall.
It’s a big two weeks for Mukuba, Brown, and Ringo
Seven-on-seven practices mean we probably won’t learn anything about what’s going on with the competition for the starting right guard. It’s just passing practices, and there’s no real contact allowed, so blocking is going to be a relative afterthought.
We’re hoping that someone takes a step forward and makes some headway for the starting safety and cornerback jobs. It’s not just the Eagles that we’re looking at here; we want other teams to have some missteps.
One small step for safeties:
Vic Fangio’s whole thing is that the only way to tell if someone is good is for them to get practice. The more someone sets themselves ahead in the next couple of weeks, the more time they’ll have during training camp. That can happen one of two ways: Someone can ball out, or someone can be an absolute dingdong and knock themselves out of the running.
The Eagles have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the number of guys who could be C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s replacement. Right now, we’re looking at Sydney Brown, Drew Mukuba, Lewis Cine, Tristan McCollum, Andre’ Sam, and Maxen Hook.
It’d be great if one of those guys has some growth and gets a majority of the reps at the position. I imagine we can rule out Hook because he’s a UDFA, and Sam because he didn’t get any playing time last season.
That leaves Brown, Mukuba, Cine, and McCollum: all guys who have a very limited amount of playing time and/or not very good tape. If Brown is the guy, that’s great because he’s a lot of fun to watch. If it’s Mukuba, that’s perfect because you want second round draft picks to get meaningful reps ASAP. If it’s McCollum… the Eagles should make signing Justin Simmons a priority.
One giant leap for Kelle Ringo:
We’re going to see a semblance of what Fangio’s plan is for the cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell. The best case scenario is that it’s Kelee Ringo the entire way; from the start of the OTAs to the end of training camp.
The other option is that Cooper DeJean could bounce from the slot to the outside. He’d probably do great there, but he’s already amazing as the Nickel corner, so it seems like it’d be bad to take him away from there.
If Ringo can flat out be the guy wire-to-wire, that's great for the team and for everyone’s mentals. It’d give me less to write about in the fall, but I’m cool with taking one for the team.
The worst case scenario is that Adoree’ Jackson gets reps with the starters. The Eagles picked him up for cheap in free agency, and that’s for good reason: he’s not good.
Challengers crashing and burning:
Howie Roseman is going to make a trade between now and September 4th. That’s just what he does. There are a few specific players and teams that he could target for that trade, and those are the ones whose OTAs aren't going according to plan. Right now, that team is the Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons are in the business of making terrible trades. During the draft they traded a future first round pick for the 26th overall pick. It was really really boneheaded.
On top of that, it was reported that their criminally underused tight end Kyle Pitts didn’t attend their first day of OTAs. Now, that happens with players from time to time, so it’s not all that damning, but it’s also not nothing.
The Eagles could use a young tight end. Sure, they figured something out with Dallas Goedert for the 2025 season, but he’s probably going to be gone afterward. Pitts is turning 25 in October, so he’s still got plenty of good football left in his body.
If he doesn’t want to be with a team that doesn’t appreciate him, the Philly native would rock with his hometown team.
The Eagles have a buttload of draft picks, so sending a couple to Atlanta wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but there is a chance to get rid of Bryce Huff with this trade too.
Jeff Ulbricht is the Falcons' defensive coordinator. He was also the Jets' defensive coordinator when Huff was good. There’s no way this would be a player-for-player trade with no draft picks attached, but it’s still an opportunity there for the Eagles to send Huff to a coach that he did well with and net positive with getting a freak of nature weapon on offense.