Eagles Offseason: What We Learned From The First Preseason Game

Football is kind of, sort of back in the form of the NFL preseason and the Philadelphia Eagles had their first such game on Thursday night.

While it was good to come away with a win, that’s not what ultimately matters at this point – it’s more about individual performances, particularly with the Eagles playing almost exclusively backups and the Bengals going with starters off the bat.

So what were some of the key takeaways from the first preseason game against Cincinnati?

Tanner McKee Balls Out Again

For those who didn’t already believe, Tanner McKee shut them up immediately. Playing with only two starter and otherwise the second-team offense against the Bengals starting defense, McKee led an offense that made Bengals fans fear what their season will look like once again. He tore them apart for 252 yards in a bit over half the game, going 20/25 with a 135.3 rating. He led six drives and came away with point on five of them, making only one poor decision during that whole time. He appears to already be among the best backups in the league and probably the starter for several other NFL teams. It already sparks thoughts of what will  happen after this season if the Eagles can’t get an extension in place when he is eligible and can instead move him for great draft capital. That’s a 2026 problem, though. For now, it means the Eagles have backup security for the most important position on the field.

Running Back Room Seems Set

Unfortunately for the depth backs on the roster, it certainly seems that the AJ Dillon signing might work out.  The veteran had 27 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry in addition to making three catches for another 27 yards. He showed great cuts, good vision, made power runs, and solid hands. There’s not much more you could have asked to see and his skill set is a close mirror to those of Saquon, meaning play calls might not need to change for him. Meanwhile, Shipley tore apart the Bengals starting defense for 48 yards and 6.9 yards per carry. It seems safe to say the top three running back spots will be very difficult to unseat.

Sydney Brown Struggles

So many fans want this to work out, but it looked bad in the early going of the game. Against the starting offense for the Bengals, Brown failed to wrap up twice and let the runner go right by him on multiple occasions. He started making tackles against backups, but further bad news came in the fact that as soon as he actually started to bring guys down, it took just three tackles before he found himself once again out of the game due to injury. That’s also very concerning, especially with Andrew Mukuba unable to play from injury. It remains to be seen how serious Brown’s injury is, but it might be tough to evaluate which player you want to start when neither of them are able to actually stay on the field.

Gabe Hall Shows Why Booker Was Traded

Hall and Ty Robinson basically played the whole game and seemed to be the only two players to do so. Hall took that opportunity to show why the Eagles completed the Booker trade the other day, though. He flashed multiple times and was the player to get the most consistent pressures in the game and frequently was the focus of the opposing offense. Hall was signed as a UDFA following the 2024 draft and that’s a signing that certainly appears to have worked out as he seems firmly poised as the fourth DT in the rotation. He only officially recorded three tackles and never got credit for a sack, but he forced the throw out quicker than the QB wanted several times, including forcing an interception to one of his follow defensive linemen. Hall is certainly a player to watch and appears likely to be an impact player in the coming season.

Linebacker Depth A Major Concern

By the time the second/third-stringers came out for the Bengals, the broadcast was giving props to Jeremiah Trotter Jr. There was one play in particular they highlighted how well he did – except he overran the play and only made the tackle because his fellow defenders pushed the runner back to where Trotter could recover. He otherwise started the game and overran several plays and failed to wrap up against the first-teamers a concerning amount. That went for Smael Mondon, too. Trotter ultimately led the team with six tackles, but the run was barely able to be stopped by the backers and coverage/quick tackles in the center of the field seemed a rare site. It does raise concerns about the position behind Baun since Nakobe Dean has an unknown timeline to return and someone will need to step up at the position.

Receivers Battle It Out

Terrace Marshall receiving high praise at practices but being unable to play in the first game makes it a tough call to see if he’s in or out as a seemingly top depth option. Jahan Dotson played limited snaps and again showed how dominant he could be moving the chains twice in the lone drive he played – he would seem to be the lock for WR3. Johnny Wilson also seems to be the incumbent with a leg up and did not disappoint with a three-catch, 73-yard night including a contested catch and back shoulder catch. His lone concern was a drop that should probably have had more touch on it from the QB, but is a bad look for a player who fell so far in the draft last year because of his high drop rate throughout his college career.

The big surprise was Darius Cooper, who seemed to be able to move the ball at will throughout the game. Six catches for 82 yards and a touchdown is great for the UDFA out of Tarleton State. If that performance keeps up, it will be hard to keep him off the roster and risk losing a controllable young player with talent.

On the flip side, while Ainias Smith got a lot of praise on the broadcast and online, I really didn’t see it. He did have a big return, but that seemed more due to poor coverage from the Bengals and two absolutely terrible tackle attempts by the Bengals than anything Smith did. Receiving-wise, he had two catches for 11 yards on two crossing routes and was targeted for a second potential touchdown where he seemed to make no effort to make a play on the ball. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive as Wilson or Cooper, who are competing for the same two or three spots.

Corners A Problem

Adoree’ Jackson didn’t have a great game. At least he wasn’t bad, though. Kelee Ringo, on the other hand, looked like a fish out of water once targets started going his way. It was a terrible night for the young corner, but neither of the players seemingly set to be the team’s CB2 this season gave the fans anything to write home about. It actually makes the investment in Jakorian Bennett seem more important – he was a pretty good corner in a sub-par defense last year and it’d be ideal to have someone play about the level of what fans saw against the Bengals’ first team tonight when the scores actually begin to matter in a few weeks.

OL Depth Shines A Bit

Tyler Steen looked great, but that seems like a bit of a cop-out considering he’s essentially now a starter and just getting the reps as an inexperienced player. Next to him, however, Matt Pryor looked impressive. It certainly seemed like he was the next best lineman out there sealing the edge rather routinely. He took a penalty, but he seemed to be the most reliable of the backup lineman and would seem a favorite to take on a backup role this season.

While it didn’t seem too much of a hinderance, it is worth noting that the backup center strength doesn’t seem to be there with rookie Drew Kendall. It didn’t impact most of his play as he held his ground well, but it was very noticeable on the tush push, where he snapped the ball and then got absolutely no push at all. That’s something to keep in mind if the OL ever goes to backups because you don’t want the QB to have to go around the center in order to gain any ground – that is not ideal.

Patrick Johnson Flashes Among DL Depth

The Eagles, surprisingly, didn’t rotate their defensive line much at all in this game – it was the least-rotated position by far throughout the game (particularly at DT), but there wasn’t much of a standout among the depth. The lone exception was Patrick Johnson – the former Eagles draft pick who wanted to re-join the team following his first season away from Philadelphia. He had a sack that was overturned by a penalty and then an interception on pressure during the following play. Those two plays were really the only splash plays in this game by the DL aside from the clear top four that started the game off. It’d seem to put the veteran in decent position to take that last roster spot.

Hinton Has Rough Night

There was no Eagles who had a worse night than Myles Hinton. There are, of course, many other factors and evaluation tools to go into a roster spot decision, but if you were basing his future solely on the performance in this game, he’d have be an easy cut. He not only took two penalties, but missed his assignment multiple times and got run over with more regularity than any other OL on the field. That’s part of what made it surprising he was the first OL to sub in and got more reps than the other depth OL options. With such a deep position, it’s hard to imagine he winds up on the 53-man after that performance, draft pick or not.

Does Kylen Granson Have A Leg Up?

Granson certainly seemed to be the favorite tight end of Tanner McKee, who targeted him three times in his brief time on the field as opposed to the one target he had to any other TE (Grant Calcaterra). He was the most statistically significant at the position with three catches for 28 yards, but he also came in to play a defense further down the depth chart than fellow potential TE3 Harrison Bryant.

Tariq Castro-Fields, Maxen Hook Stand Out As Deep Secondary Depth

Former Penn Stater Tariq Castro-Fields was the main standout among the secondary depth. He made solid plays repeatedly and didn’t seem to make any poor plays – something Vic Fangio has emphasized when talking about his players fighting for their spot on the depth chart this summer. He joined the team early last season, but this is his first offseason in Philadelphia and it looks like it could translate to another season of his sticking with the team either on the active roster or the practice squad.

While not at the same level, Toledo UDFA Maxen Hook also stood out a bit on Thursday night. He was certainly bit on the touchdown pass, but he routinely seemed to be in position and aware of what was going on. He reminded me a lot of what we had seen from Reed Blankenship in his rookie preseason. He played late against depth and certainly seemed like he just needed to have a half-second better reaction time to truly make those plays, but the strong awareness and solid tackling should put him in line for a practice squad spot where the team can look to develop him further.

Laekin Vakalahi and Hollin Pierce

It was interesting to see the Australian Vakalahi take some snaps late in the game. Like Mailata before him, he hadn’t played before and this was just his second actual game of American football. As expected, he appeared to have technical issues, but he also showed good power and a surprisingly good ability to react and often recover after making the technical mistakes. It will be interesting to see if he can clean that up with his tools to be a contributor. Meanwhile, his battery mate at RG was standout UDFA Hollin Pierce who was hard to evaluate. I’m not sure if it was the gameplan all along, but while Vakalahi was getting beat on the left side, it seemed that Trevor Keegan (at center) constantly shifted over to help Pierce, making it difficult to evaluate either as they combined to successfully block one player most every pass play.

Injuries

Sydney Brown got injured yet again in the first preseason game and left in the first half before he was planned to. Receiver Elijah Cooks was also carted off the field, which is never a good sign.