Key takeaways from the Eagles’ 2025 offseason workouts

We’ve entered the long dark. The Philadelphia Eagles have finished their OTAs and mandatory minicamp, and they won’t get back as a team until they report for training camp on July 22nd. That’s six weeks of relative nothingness, but for now, we can focus on everything we learned from what they did this spring. 

Over the past three weeks, the Eagles have had three practices that were open to the media. They’re only going to show so much during those sessions, and even then, they’re just wearing helmets and not pads. That means you have to take what you see with a grain of salt and make some reaching assumptions. 

The past three weeks set up the next six weeks

The internet is great, and when it’s used to keep everyone in touch with what the Eagles are doing in offseason workouts, it’s even better. Whenever there’s an open practice, X is going to tell you what’s going on. 

During OTAs, it’s hard not to be glued to your phone, looking at everything as it comes across the timeline and then spending the next hour after that watching press conferences … or maybe it is easy for you to not do that. 

Either way, this is a summary of the important things that happened during spring practices. There’s a big emphasis on the defensive backs, linebackers and the offensive line.

OTA - May 28th

The biggest takeaways from the Eagles' first open practice were about who was playing where, specifically in the defensive backfield.

It seems like one of the biggest stories of Philly's 2025 season is who replaces Darius Slay and how well they perform. That could realistically be Cooper DeJean, Kelee Ringo or Adoree’ Jackson.

Initially, Jackson was the starting cornerback opposite Quinyon Mitchell, but the bigger thing was that Mitchell wasn’t playing on the right side (where he played exclusively last season).

On top of that, DeJean was getting some reps at outside corner and safety as well. That’s kind of a bittersweet thing: On one hand, the defense is better when DeJean is on the field, and he was only on the field when the team was in nickel last season (which was a vast majority of the time). If the team isn’t in nickel, they need to find a way to make sure he's still out there.

On the other hand, the “Cooper DeJean is not a safety” song goes hard. If he plays safety, that song loses some merit. This whole thing is six of one, half dozen of the other. 

On offense, the only starting position up for grabs is right guard, and it seems like the battle will be between Tyler Steen and Kenyon Green. Steen was the one who came out with the first team. He also started during OTAs last season, but he ended up losing the job to Mekhi Becton, so this isn’t really a new thing for him. 

OTA - June 3rd

The highlight of this OTA wasn’t really the practice; it was more about Vic Fangio’s press conference. It was the first time we heard from our lovably curmudgeonly and straight-forward defensive savior this offseason. When he talks, he tells the truth, and you listen.

He talked about DeJean playing safety, how the Eagles actually only played a total of 160 snaps in base last season and how they need to make sure DeJean has a spot in base formations. It clears and affirms what everyone saw the week before. 

As far as whether DeJean would be at outside corner or safety in base, Fangio said, “I think a lot of it will end up depending upon how the rest of the guys develop and where we most need him.” I’m guessing that means that DeJean would take out the weakest link in that secondary.

He also talked about Jordan Davis a little bit. Fangio was asked about whether or not he was a factor in Davis getting his fifth-year option exercised.“I mean, I didn’t have anything to do with that decision. That’s Howie’s,” Fangio added. “But Jordan last year, I would say the last seven or eight games, including the playoffs, played very well down the stretch … I think he’s in the best shape that he’s ever been in, which he kind of got into late in the season last year, and he’s carried it over, so I think he’s going to do very well for us this year.”

Fangio didn’t offer any reason as to why, so reporters went to the source:

If the Eagles’ gamble pays off and Davis has a breakout season where his fitness and conditioning are never an issue, he should be the official ambassador of Peloton. You have to think Peloton is on Davis’ side after they saw the 53 million percent increase in sales for Inner Excellence last year.

One of the big things that Fangio was asked about was rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell, who is currently rehabbing from shoulder surgery. "Right now he’s working at ILB because there’s a lot more to learn there," Fangio said. "So that’s where we’ll start him. He won’t hit the practice field until sometime in August. So, we’re doing all we can. He’s doing all he can in meetings, we’re doing all we can with him on the field. I take him to the side and do an individual drill with him that’s suited to what he can do right now. So, he’s working good and trying to pick it up.”

Last season, DeJean missed a bunch of offseason stuff because of an injury, and it took Fangio until after the Week 5 bye week to be comfortable with him on the field as a starter. It sounds like Fangio is doing everything he can to make sure he and Campbell will be ready for Week 1.

If Campbell isn’t ready by then, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is getting set up to be Zack Baun’s partner, which is what everyone kind of expected.

On offense, Steen was getting first-team reps again. No pads are on or anything like that, so this whole thing could still be (and probably is) up in the air, but it’d be cool if Lane Johnson and Steen get to spend the entire summer next to each other. 

Mandatory Minicamp - June 10th

The Eagles had all 91 players on their roster come to their mandatory minicamp, which is pretty crazy. That means it was the first time that DeVonta Smith was with the team for spring practices.

If he’s still alive and still in midnight green, he’s going to be great. That’s just how it works. 

Apparently, one of the standout guys on defense was Jalyx Hunt, who was giving Jordan Mailata some trouble. Regardless of the level of physicality that happens in a minicamp, that’s a good thing to hear. The Eagles are relatively thin at edge rusher, and it’s going to be super helpful if Hunt is able to take some mondo-size steps this season. Getting after Jalen Hurts when Mailata is in your way is a good start. 

As for the defensive backs, Kelee Ringo was getting the starting reps on the first-team defense with Mitchell and DeJean. It still really feels like it’s his job to lose this offseason. Also, it’s notable that Sydney Brown and Drew Mukuba were rotating at safety.

In Fangio’s press conference the week before, he was asked about the safety competition between Brown and Mukuba. He said, “It’s a competition that is going to take a training camp and a few preseason games to sort out. And Tristin’s in that, too.” He went out of his way to bring up Tristin McCollum, but it sounds like McCollum didn’t get a whole lot of play this spring. Either way, we’re not going to find out what the Eagles plan on doing at safety until late August.

Nick Sirianni had a press conference before practice. He was asked about Steen getting all of the starting reps at the practices that the media was allowed to watch, and if he was also getting the reps during the closed practices.

Sirianni answered: "The evaluation of the offensive line comes in pads. That doesn’t mean we’re not evaluating them like crazy right now, but a big part of that’s going to come when we put the pads on.”

That’s a very Sirianni answer. He’ll never actually say what’s going to happen, and I imagine that he’ll keep that going until the start of the season … but he does have a point. If there are any two people to trust in the evaluation of players, it’s Vic Fangio for the defense and Jeff Stoutland for the offensive line. Luckily, those two guys are exactly who have to make decisions based on what happened this spring.