Summer is here and Eagles training camp is still more than a month away, but the NFL news cycle never stops, and the Eagles are surely on the minds of their fans and the national football media.
Here are five thoughts about the Eagles that will have us thinking about the fall as we welcome a wave of extreme heat into the Delaware Valley:
Deep TE group will make for good summer competition
Tight End University – or "TEU" – is underway for another season, and the Eagles are well represented at the annual three-day summit that brings together tight ends across the league for activities that include film study, on-field drills, and recovery.
Per the event's Instagram page, four Eagles tight ends are in Nashville to participate.
Dallas Goedert is there, along with fourth-year pro Grant Calcaterra, third-year pro E.J. Jenkins, and fourth-year pro Nick Muse. Interestingly, the Eagles' two free-agent signings at this position – Kylen Granson and Harrison Bryant – aren't there.
This is the deepest Eagles TE room in quite some time, given the experience and pedigree of backups. Calcaterra, a 2022 fourth-rounder, struggles as a blocker, but the Eagles have won plenty of games with him as the starter in place of an injured Goedert.Granson and Bryant are each fourth-round picks who came from organizations that had erratic quarterback play during their times there. Granson, a former Colt, averaged 12.3 yards per catch in 2023 and 13.0 in 2024. Bryant, who started his career with the Browns and played last year for the Raiders, won the Mackey Award as college's top tight end in his last year at Florida Atlantic. He has 10 career TDs between the Browns and Raiders. Jenkins and Muse have each played NFL games, giving the Eagles six tight ends who have NFL experience.
The Eagles probably keep just three tight ends, so this year's training camp will offer some great competition at that spot.
Devonta Smith is a bargain
Our current "10 worst contracts in Philly sports" got me thinking about the Eagles, who had no contracts among our top 10. So, which Eagle is the best bargain? Excluding guys like Jalen Carter and Quinyon Mitchell because they're on rookie deals that were slotted and required with no real negotiation, the most bargain contracts have to be wide recevier DeVonta Smith and safety Reed Blankenship.
Smith plays second fiddle to A.J. Brown but he's ridiculously talented and was paced for 1,000 yards for the third straight season if not for missing a few games from injuries. Smith's $25 million average per-year salary is less than Jaylen Waddle's and D.J. Moore's, two receivers who had fewer yards-per-game averages and fewer TD catches last year than Smith. Tyreek Hill and D.K. Metcalf also make more annually than Smithon average,but had fewer yards-per-game averages last year and fewer TD catches than Smith.
Blankenship, a starting safety, signed a one-year extension going into 2024 on a deal that had one year left that gives him a base salary in 2025 of less than $1.5 million, making him one of the NFL's lowest-paid starting safeties who aren't on rookie deals.
Are the Eagles still the top Birds?
The Eagles have as much blue-chip talent as any NFL team, but the Ravens' signing of two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander could vault them into the preseason No. 1 spot.They already had two Pro Bowlers in the secondary – CB Marlon Humphrey and S Kyle Hamilton – before adding Alexander, who'll start opposite last year’s first-round pick Nate Wiggins. They also drafted Georgia S Malaki Starks in the first round.
While the Eagles sustained a ton of losses on defense, the Ravens added a two-time Pro Bowl corner and first-round pick to a defense that emerged over the last half of 2024. In their last eight games, the Ravens finished second only to the Eagles in yards allowed, and tied with the Eagles and Tampa Bay Bucs for fewest points allowed.
The Ravens also bring back nine of 11 starters on offense, swapping in WR DeAndre Hopkins for Nelson Agholor and LG Andrew Voorhees for Patrick Mekari. With perennial MVP candidate Lamar Jackson leading the way, the Ravens might have the NFL's best 53. However, ProFootballTalk.com's latest power rankings still have the Eagles at No. 1 and the Ravens at No. 4.
Are the Eagles still tops in the NFC East?
This is only a pertinent question because, amazingly, no NFC East team has won the division in back-to-back seasons since the Eagles did in 2003 and 2004 – that's two decades of a different NFC East champion each year. That's almost insane, especially since the Eagles have been to four Super Bowls in that span, winning two of them.
In a recent NFL.com story that offers too-early bold predictions for 2025, one bold prediction is that the Eagles would, in fact, end the drought this upcoming season.
Here's what Jeffri Chadiha wrote:
That's how good Philadelphia is going to be this coming season. As much as the Eagles have to fill in some holes left by key offseason departures -- the defense, in particular, lost five key veterans -- the core of the defending Super Bowl champions remains very much intact.
No. 1 in a preseason power ranking...Predicted to be NFC East's first repeat champion in more than 20 years...Who says the Eagles don't get any respect from the national media?
Enjoy a hot summer day down the shore with Jason Kelce, for a good cause
Have some brews or hard seltzers courtesy of Eagles legend Jason Kelce. He's doing his annual celebrity bartending from 4-8 p.m. Wednesday at Ocean Drive in Sea Isle City. Other Eagles players and legends will be there as part of his "Team 62" foundation's charity event. Those who'd like to attend must wait in line and pay a $10 donation that will benefit the Eagles Autism Foundation.
Temps in the city and 'burbs are supposed to be in the mid-to-upper 90s on Wednesday, so perhaps a trip down the shore – for temps merely in the upper 80s, and a nice sea breeze – to see Kelce is worth a PTO.
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