Predicting the Eagles' 53-man roster entering training camp: Safeties galore

It’s really nice when training camp isn’t a huge deal for the Philadelphia Eagles. Just in the past few years, there have been all kinds of questions about who the starting left tackle is going to be, how Jalen Hurts is developing, and why Nolan Smith was playing in preseason games. 

Now, everything is relatively nice and tidy… especially when you compare them to a team like the Browns, who have more potential starting quarterbacks than they do preseason games. The Birds are in a good spot, and the 53-man roster is almost completely set. 

Returning with a Super Bowl roster

Winning Super Bowl LII was awesome, and winning it with a backup quarterback was super awesome… but it turns out winning a Super Bowl with a franchise quarterback is extra-super awesome. 

Quarterback:

Eagles get to run it back with Jalen Hurts, and Tanner McKee is at his rightful spot as QB2. If there are any pre-season quarterback injuries around the NFL, Howie Roseman is going to have one hell of a poker chip with McKee. 

He’s clearly a starting-caliber player, and there's a chance that QB-needy teams would overpay for him. Hopefully that doesn’t happen because having McKee as a safety blanket is great, but there's a universe where he doesn’t stay on the Eagles roster all the way through training camp.

QB3 is going to be a battle between Kyle McCord and Dorian Thompson-Robinson. DTR is a straight-up bad quarterback, so McCord’s got a pretty solid path to getting the QB3 spot. 

Running back:

It’s pretty cut and dry with the running back depth chart; it’s Barkley and Shipley at the top. The only guy in a weird position is A.J. Dillon.

Last preseason, he jacked up his neck and didn’t play at all. When a guy hurts his leg, you wonder if they’re going to lose some speed or explosiveness, but when a guy hurts his neck, you wonder if they’re going to be able to hold up to contact… which is kind of like the whole thing with running backs.

It’s going to be a huge training camp for Dillon. It’s a classic, ‘make the team, or retire and become a thigh model’ situation.

Avery Williams and Ben VanSumeren are also listed with the running backs because I didn’t want to make a ‘return specialist’ and a ‘fullback’ section. 

Wide Receiver:

The only real question with the wide receivers is who gets the fourth spot. The Eagles picked Ainais Smith in the fifth round of the 2024 draft, but he had a bad training camp and ended up on the IR before the season started. 

Between Week 9 and 17, he had two catches for six yards. When he had a starting job in the meaningless Week 18 game, he had four catches for 35 yards and a touchdown. His rookie season wasn’t anything special, but to be fair, it didn’t need to be. 

He’ll need to make some big strides in training camp if he’s going to find his way onto the roster, because the Eagles picked up Terrace Marshall Jr. this spring. 

Marshall is going into his fifth season in the NFL after spending three seasons with the Panthers and half a season with the Raiders. He hasn’t been anything special and, in his defense, he hasn’t been on any good teams with a solid quarterback situation. 

It comes down to what the Eagles are looking for in their WR4. Smith is five feet and nine inches tall, and 175-ish pounds. Marshall is six feet and two inches tall, and 200-ish pounds. They’re two entirely different players, but I think Marshall offers more as an overall receiver and not just a gadget guy.

Tight End:

Harrison Bryant and Kylen Granson are going to be battling for the TE3 spot in training camp. Normally, that wouldn’t seem like too big of a deal, but with Dallas Goedert’s history of getting banged up, this is important.

It’s hard to think of a world where the Eagles' TE3 is going to have a big role in the passing game, so it’ll come down to which one of these guys is better in the running game. I think Harrison Bryant offers more in that world.

Offensive Line:

It still hasn’t completely sunk in for me that the Eagles are returning 10 of their 11 offensive starters from last year. The only new start will come at right guard, and right now, I have that job being taken by Tyler Steen. 

It could get nabbed by Kenyon Green, but I’m going to need to see and hear about a lot more good stuff from him before I put his name in the right guard hat. 

The biggest decision that the Eagles are going to have to make on the offensive line is with sixth-round rookie Cameron Williams. He’s got the potential to be Lane Johnson’s replacement, but he’s not ready to play right now. It was kind of wild that the Eagles were able to get him in the sixth round, and if they do cut him, another team is definitely going to pick him up.

The best option is to just stash him and develop him. 

Defensive Line:

Howie Roseman makes trades between the beginning of training camp and the start of Week 1. When he makes the trade this season, you have to imagine that it’s going to be for an edge rusher. 

Nolan Smith was great last season, and Jalyx Hunt showed up big-time in the postseason, but Ojulari and Uche were very cheap free agents for a reason. If/when the Eagles do get a new guy, Patrick Johnson will be the one who gets the axe.

As far as the interior goes, you just take the guys who were down on the depth chart last season, bump them up a notch, and then sprinkle in rookie Ty Robinson. Bada bing, bada boom.

Linebacker:

It’s nice to not just be comfortable with the Eagles' linebackers, but for them to actually be really good. Because of that, the linebacker depth chart is pretty easy to suss out. Baun’s the best, Trot Jr. will hold down the fort until Campbell is ready, and the rookie Mondon will develop. 

Safety:

Safeties are one of the most important positions in Fangio’s scheme, and it stinks that the Eagles have a question mark there after they traded C.J. Gardner-Johnson. We know that Reed Blankenship is going to be one of the starters, but there’s got to be someone else next to him. 

There’s also a chance that Cooper DeJean becomes a safety when the Eagles are in base, but last season, that was a relative rarity. 

Right now, Drew Mukuba, Sydney Brown, Tristin McCollum, and Lewis Cine are the guys competing in the camp battle. My thoughts on who will win changes with the wind, and today I’m thinking Lewis Cine might be the guy who doesn’t win, and he might not even make the roster. 

That’s purely because of his lack of playing time through three seasons in the NFL. That’s been due to a very, very bad injury, but still… experience means a lot, and experience in a Fangio defense means even more.

Cornerback:

The Eagles hit on both Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper Dejean in the draft last year, they’ve (hopefully) developed Kelee Ringo into a starter, and they signed Adoree’ Jackson in free agency. This seems like this might be the year that the Eli Ricks experiment is over. He’s kind of been hovering on the roster bubble and being inactive every week, so now that the position is in a really, really good spot, he might be on the wrong side of the cuts.

Special Teams:

Remember Aarryn Siposs? Me neither. 

The whole thing: