Predicting who makes the Eagles' final 53-man roster and who gets cut

Tuesday is going to be a bad day for a whole lot of people. That’s the day that every team in the NFL has to have its roster cut down to 53 people. Howie Roseman would tell you that his roster isn’t done being built yet, and based on the three trades that he made on Sunday, he’s probably telling the truth. 

That being said, we’ll get a roster of 53 Philadelphia Eagles, and it’s going to be pretty close to the final list of guys that are going to be solely responsible for our mental, emotional, social, physical, financial, and subconscious health. These are the guys that I think are going to be on that roster. 

A trench-heavy prediction

For the most part, we know the 25 starters on the Eagles’ offense, defense, and special teams. That leaves 28 other guys who are going to fill out the rest of the 53. Luckily, there are a handful of battles for starting jobs, which means we kind of know who the depth guys are going to be at the positions where there are some question marks.

Quarterback:

On Sunday morning, it came out that the Eagles were trading with the Vikings for Sam Howell. You’ll remember him from the two games against the Commanders in 2023, where he went for a combined 68-of-93 for 687 yards, five touchdowns, and one interception. 

Something important to note is that McKee is dealing with an injury. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said, “Tanner McKee suffered a fractured thumb, per The Insiders, that will bring his availability for Week 1 in question. Not a major injury for the clear-cut No. 2, as it’s just the top of the thumb. The Sam Howell trade likely would’ve happened anyway.”

Having someone say, ‘Eh, you’re good. You only broke the top of your thumb. Toughen up, buttercup,’ seems like it's downplaying a broken bone by kind of a lot.

Based on what we saw from Kyle McCord in the preseason, he’s clearly not ready to be even an emergency quarterback, much less QB2 in Week 1. I imagine they’ll try to bring Kyle McCord back on the practice squad and try to develop him.

Running back:

There’s nothing crazy here: A.J. Dillon is going to be the third banana in the Eagles' running back room. Montrell Johnson Jr. looked serviceable in the preseason games, and I imagine that he’ll be a priority for the practice squad.

Saquon Barkley had almost 500 touches last year, and if there are any weeks where he needs a break, having three other guys available is going to be pretty important. 

If Ben VanSumeren were to make the roster, it would be as a fullback, and I would’ve listed him with the running backs… I just don’t see a world where the Eagles give one of their 53 spots to a guy who would only play 20 offensive snaps all season, even if he’s got some value on special teams. 

Wide Receivers:

With Johnny Wilson missing the season with an ankle/knee thing, it kind of cleared up the wide receiver depth situation.

A couple of days before Wilson went down, the Eagles conveniently traded for John Metchie. Before, it was a ‘Whoa, who’s going to get cut?’ but now it’s, ‘Woof, good thing Metchie’s there.’

Almost every practice report said that Darius Cooper (UDFA, Tarleton State) was the offensive star of training camp. We only really got to see him in the first preseason game against the Bengals, and although it was brief, he looked pretty awesome. 

There are a handful of spots where this roster prediction could be wrong, and the first one is with Ainias Smith making the roster. I think he’ll be the Eagles' punt returner, and he needs to go in one of the positional groups.

There’s also a good chance the Eagles cut him, try to get him back on the practice squad, and then elevate him… just like they did with Britain Covey in 2022 and 2023.

Tight Ends:

There are no surprises here. Kylen Granson was battling with Harrison Bryant for the TE3 spot, but Granson got the job when Bryant was traded to the Texans in the Metchie deal.

Hopefully we don’t see much of Granson during the season, but we probably will based on Dallas Goedert’s injury tendencies and how TE3s end up getting a decent number of meaningful snaps. 

Offensive Line:

The Eagles made two moves with the offensive line on Sunday evening: They got swing-tackle Fred Johnson back from the Jaguars and sent three-year pro and three-time Super Bowl champion Darrian Kinnard to Green Bay. 

Before Johnson came back, I had Kendall Lamm with a spot on the roster. I don’t think that they’re going to give Kinnard’s spot to another offensive lineman.

If they do, it would probably go to rookie Cameron Williams. When he was drafted, his deal was that he was very raw, but he could potentially be Lane Johnson’s future replacement. I think Williams will end up with some mysterious injury, and he’ll get stored on the IR for the whole season. 

Interior Defensive Line:

Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis are staples on this defensive line. Moro Ojomo’s been coming alive this offseason, and he’s gotten high praise from his teammates and coaches. Ty Robinson was the Eagles’ fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft, and Gabe Hall’s a developmental guy who showed good stuff over the summer. 

Byron Young is the tricky one. It would’ve been easy to write him off a month ago, but after the Eagles traded Thomas Booker to the Raiders for cornerback Jakorian Bennett and Darian Kinnard to the Packers, a roster spot opened up. I think it’d be a better move to have a good defensive lineman on the 53 rather than a depth offensive lineman who might be okay.

Edge/Defensive End:

Of the newcomers to the team, the only edge rusher who’s really stood out this summer has been Josh Uche, so he’s a lock. That means the fourth spot comes down to three guys: perennial roster casualty Patrick Johnson, Ogbo Okoronkwo, and Azeez Ojulari.

I went with Ojulari because I think he has the most upside. All he’s known in his career with the Giants is injuries, and for some reason or another, the Eagles don’t have nearly as many injuries as other teams. If he can stay healthy, he’ll be good.

Another thing that helps his case is that he played his college ball in Georgia, so… Yeah.  

Linebacker:

This is just about as easy as predicting the quarterback room. Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell will be the starters, while Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Smael Mondon are going to be awesome backups.

It’ll get hairy when Nakobe Dean comes back from rehabbing his torn patellar tendon, but that’s a problem for a different day.

Cornerback:

Cornerbacks and safeties are the exact situations where camp competitions let you know who’s going to make the roster. With Quinyon Mitchell and Copper DeJean, we’ll get Kelee Ringo, Adoree’ Jackson, Jakorian Bennett, and Mac McWilliams.

Unfortunately, this also means that we’ll see the end of the Eli Ricks experiment. The Eagles picked him up as a UDFA out of Alabama in 2023. The hope was that he could turn into something, but aside from a handful of preseason highlights, there’s not a whole lot there. 

Safety: 

The only weird name here is Andre’ Sam, the 2024 UDFA from LSU. I think it’d be a good move to have one extra safety on the roster simply because of how much Sydney Brown and Drew Mukuba have been getting banged up. 

If either (or both) of those guys go down, you probably don’t want to have to be reliant on just Tristin McCollum to play next to Reed Blankenship. It would be Maxen Hook, but Darius Cooper is the only rookie UDFA who’s going to make the roster. It has absolutely nothing to do with Hook being a white guy… mostly absolutely nothing.

Special Teams:

This is just another reminder that Charley Hughlett is the Eagles' new long snapper. The days of the Ol’ Reliable, Rick Lavato, are done. 

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