The last time we saw the Philadelphia Eagles playing a football game was when they beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-6 in Super Bowl LIX, 179 days ago. Since then, we’ve had free agency, the draft, OTAs, and a couple weeks of training camp.
But today? Today, we get to see our guys wearing Midnight Green, playing 60 minutes of (more-or-less real) football at Lincoln Financial Stadium against the Cincinnati Bengals. Today is a good day.
A real-ish football game in August
The Bengals are in a really, really, really bad spot right now. With Joe Burrow, the Bengals have lost three of their four Week 1 games, so to try to start their season faster, their head coach, Zac Taylor, said the offensive starters are going to play “several series.”
There are two ways to think about it: with a football guy brain, and with a rational brain. The football guy brain says, ‘Hell yeah. Let the boys play. Starters used to play all but the last preseason game. Let’s get back to that.’
The rational brain says, ‘Uhh… That’s a bad idea, Zac. Are you trying to get fired? It seems like you’re trying to get fired.’
Their offense has been bad in the Week 1s, but it’s kind of wild to think that’s because they’re not in a rhythm and ignoring the whole part where Joe Burrow was a rookie, or coming off an annihilated knee, or coming off appendix surgery, or coming off a calf injury, or coming off a wrist surgery…
But yeah, definitely throw him out there to take meaningless preseason snaps where the risk HIGHLY outweighs the reward. That’s not dumb at all.
But it’s not just going to be Burrow out there risking it. If you have your franchise quarterback out there, then you also have to make sure that he stays protected, which means you have to have all of your starting offensive linemen out there, too. You also have to assume wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, and running back Chase Brown, are also going to be out there as well.
By the way, Taylor also said that he’s going to play his starters even more in the second preseason game against the Commanders. It’s crazy what desperate teams do and risk, just to try to be competitive…
But who cares about them? They’re one of those irrelevant franchises in the grand scheme of things. This is about the Eagles, who are well built, well trained, and well run. The Eagles' defense is going to have a whole bunch of new starters, so some of these guys getting reps against one of the best offenses in the league is going to be one hell of a test, and that’s a good thing.
These are the things we want to see from the Eagles in their first preseason game.
Standout rookies:
Reports are saying that cornerback Mac McWilliams (fifth-round, University of Central Florida) and linebacker Smael Mondon Jr. (fifth-round, Georgia) have been having awesome camps, and they’re going to have their hands full with Burrow, Chase, and/or Higgins. Anything positive that we see from either of these guys in coverage doesn’t need to be taken with a grain of salt; it’s going to be downright impressive.
It’ll be a little different for defensive tackle Ty Robinson (fourth-round, Nebraska). The Bengals’ starting offensive line is a below-average unit. The Eagles traded defensive tackle Thomas Booker on Monday, which is essentially a vote of confidence for Robinson. Since he’s going to have a bigger role on the defense, it would be great to see him win some reps.
The biggest performance we need to see will be from linebacker Jihaad Campbell (first-round, Alabama). He’s been lighting it up in camp so far, and it’s kind of been a problem. We’ve heard both Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert talk about how he needs to tone his physicality down when he’s playing against his own team… which is a good problem to have.
He’ll finally be able to unleash everything on Thursday night, and he’s going to be able to do it against some of the best playmakers in the world. If we can see him blow up some of the best playmakers in the world and be a menace against the pass-heaviest offense, it’ll be super sick.
Brown on Brown:
The biggest storyline going into Super Bowl LVII was that Jason and Travis Kelce were playing against each other. It’s crazy for a single person in a family to make it to the NFL, it’s crazier for two people from a family to get to the NFL, it’s even crazier for two people from a family to play against each other in the NFL, and it’s even, even even crazier for the two people from the same family playing each other in the NFL are also identical twins. That’s where we’re at with the Eagles' safety Sydney Brown and the Bengals’ running back Chase Brown.
Last season, the Eagles played the Bengals in Week 8. That was the only opportunity that the Browns have had to play against each other. Unfortunately, Sydney only played the last three snaps of the game. Chase got the ball on all three of those snaps, but he was never able to make it to the second level for Sydney to make a play.
Sydney Brown is currently in a competition for the second starting safety spot, so he’ll probably get a decent number of snaps during this game. Chase Brown is the Bengals’ starting running back, so he’ll probably get a decent number of snaps because the brains behind that team are rotten.
Hopefully, for the Bengals’ sake, and for the sake of competitive football, Cincinnati’s offensive line can move the Eagles’ depth defensive linemen and spring Chase free. If they can do that, we’ll get to see Sydney make an open-field tackle on Chase. There can only be one.
Competent play calling:
Kevin Patullo is the Eagles' new offensive coordinator, and this is going to be his first time calling a game. When I say that we need to see competent play calling, I’m not asking for him to call plays that flow, build, and sequence off of each other. I’m simply asking for him to just communicate clearly, get plays in on time, and not have to call a timeout because there’s some kind of breakdown.
He’s been the passing game coordinator since 2021, which means he’s had a headset on and heard Nick Sirianni, Shane Steichen, Brian Johnson, and Kellen Moore all call plays. He should know the process and be able to hit the ground running.
Jalen Hurts has had a billion different offensive coordinators and play callers in his college and professional career, so he’s used to the change. The most important thing is that the process stays as close to flawless as possible.
On the other hand, this is a preseason game for everybody, and there are probably going to be hiccups. It’s just that the Bengals’ starting defense is backup defense quality, and the Eagles’ offense is going to have much better reps against a bunch of scrubs if Patullo gets in a flow early.