The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, had their parade, went through free agency, drafted 10 guys, had OTAs, took some time off, and then got their rings. It’s been a quick offseason, which is a good thing because that means football is soon, but bad because that means it’s almost time to stop talking about how the real score of the Super Bowl was 40-6.
But you can’t stop the wheel of time. The Eagles report to training camp on Tuesday, July 22nd, and have their first practice on Wednesday, July 23rd. It’s time for Jalen Hurts and the gang to start their 2025 campaign and go back-to-back.
Health above everything
The main thing with training camp is that everyone stays healthy. If we can’t have anything on this list but everyone stays healthy, that’s a huge win. Health is the only thing… but I want to have my cake and eat it too. This is the Eagles’ 2025 training camp wishlist.
Every stat, all of them
One of the best things about training camp is all of the stats. We get quarterback completions from Jalen Hurts down to Dorian Thompson-Robinson. We’ll get everyone’s receiving stats. We’ll get redzone percentages. We’ll get the defensive backs’ wins in one-on-one drills. There are so many of them, and they’re the lifeblood of August football… they’re also hilariously meaningless.
It turns out, if Jalen Hurts doesn’t throw any interceptions during camp, he’ll still be liable to get picked off by Xavier McKinney on his second pass of the season.
Kevin Patullo not looking dumb
The Eagles aren’t going to give anything away in their open practices. This isn’t about him running an offense that looks dumb; this is about him being a play caller for the first time ever. During the joint practices and especially during the preseason games, Patullo needs to be sharp.
Nick Sirianni’s not going to let us see the offensive starters on a field until September 4th, which is totally fine because he’s got a perfect 4-0 record in season openers. The problem with that is the team hasn’t looked super sharp in those openers. There can’t be a situation in Week 1 where both the players and the rookie offensive coordinator look out of whack.
Tyler Steen doesn’t lose his job
Last season, Tyler Steen had the inside track on the starting right guard job until he hurt his ankle. Then, Mekhi Becton came in, played like a hero, and no one ever looked back.
It would be awesome if Steen took the job and ran with it because it’s his third year under Jeff Stoutland, he’s started a few games, and he’s played well. Also, behind him are Kenyon Green (who stinks) and Matt Pryor (who’s decent, but old). A good and healthy training camp from Steen would set the offensive line up for success for a while.
Jahan Dotson is getting targets
The Eagles traded for Jahan Dotson on August 24th, 2024. That was just two days before their last preseason game, which means he didn’t get a real training camp with Jalen Hurts. Then, during the season, Dotson had some opportunities to be WR2 and even WR1 while A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were dealing with injuries/concussions.
He didn’t do a whole lot with that opportunity, and it seemed like it was because there was some kind of disconnect or level of uncomfortability between him and Hurts.
He’s getting a whole offseason and training camp with the Eagles this season, and it would be pretty great if they can pick up right where they left off in the Super Bowl. We know that the other starting pass catchers are amazing, so getting an August that is full of Dotson news would be sick.
Jihaad Campbell practicing early and often
Vic Fangio needs to see his guys in practice so he can make sure they’re not going to be a liability on the defense. We saw it last year with Cooper DeJean: he had an offseason injury, missed a whole bunch of training camp, and didn’t get starting reps until after the Week 5 bye.
Jihaad Campbell is recovering from a shoulder surgery that he had around the time of the combine. Hopefully, that recovery is going on or ahead of schedule so that he can be ready for football in September.
He has the potential to be an edge rusher on top of being an inside linebacker, but Fangio said that he wants Campbell to learn inside linebacker before anything else. So not only does Campbell practicing mean that we’ll be able to just straight-up see him play football sooner, but it’ll also get him set up to help at a position where the Eagles are a little thin.
Something with Sydney Brown
Just like with Cooper DeJean’s 2024 offseason, Sydney Brown was also recovering from an injury. The difference is that Brown was coming off a torn ACL from late in the 2023 season. That means that he didn’t have an offseason, a training camp, and then missed a good chunk of the actual season (he didn’t come off the PUP list until mid-October).
So when C.J. Gardner-Johnson missed time last season, Tristan McCollum came in as the second safety. I’m assuming that’s because Fangio wasn’t comfortable with Brown, but it could also be because his playing style doesn’t fit the scheme… or (but hopefully not) because he might just stink.
Whatever the reason, this is going to be a big training camp for him, and we need to see if he’s either going to be a guy or if he’s not.
He’s competing for the job with three or four other guys, including the Eagles’ second-round draft pick, Drew Mukuba. That’s the earliest Fangio has ever drafted a safety in all of his 30-ish years of coaching in the NFL, so there’s probably a good reason that he’s here.