Bleeding Green Nation
Taking stock of Philadelphia’s roster.
Philadelphia Eagles training camp began exactly one week ago. Let’s take a look at the most notable winners, losers, and I don’t knows from the first five practices down at the NovaCare Complex.
Disclaimer: The Eagles only held one fully padded practice and it’s obviously early in camp. There’s still plenty of time for players to change their outlook — for better or worse — over the next few weeks.
Q is the only Eagles cornerback who’s been able to have success defending A.J. Brown, who’s otherwise pretty unstoppable. Coming off a very strong rookie season, Mitchell looks poised to take another step forward in Year 2. The Eagles having him rep at both starting outside cornerback positions suggests Vic Fangio could have him shadow top-notch receivers in 2025.
I get it. Goedert hasn’t played a full season since his rookie year in 2018, when there were only 16 regular season games. He’s missed 15 games over the last three years and he turns 31 in January. Maybe he just won’t be able to stay healthy. But I swear he looks better than ever in the practices we’ve seen so far. He regularly gets open and catches the ball. He’s been a very reliable and efficient target for Jalen Hurts. I truly believe he’s poised for a career season as he enters the final year of his contract.
The Eagles clearly want to have DeJean on the field for 100% of their defensive snaps. It remains to be seen exactly where he’ll play since he’s been repping at safety in base defense before shifting down to his slot role in nickel packages. Maybe he’s the full-time starting safety next to Reed Blankenship if no one else steps up to win that job and the Eagles feel like someone else can play the slot? We’ll see. But he won’t be leaving the field.
It feels like it’s only a matter of time until the 2025 first-round pick becomes the starting off-ball linebacker next to Zack Baun. He’s big, fast, physical, and instinctual. Entering camp, there was thought that Campbell wouldn’t be able to practice until August since Vic Fangio previously indicated as much. Though Campbell has been officially listed as “limited” with a shoulder injury, there’s been no real signs of him being less than 100%. Campbell has been seeing more and more time with the first-team defense with each passing day.
Trot Jr. is currently still the top off-ball linebacker next to Zack Baun. Campbell will likely overtake him at some point. But Trot Jr. isn’t going down without a fight. The second-year defender always appears to be in the right position and he’s been especially effective against the run. Even if he doesn’t end up starting, there’s still a lot of value in having a high quality backup (see: Oren Burks stepping up down the...
