Eagles News: Philadelphia’s breakout candidate (2024)

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

Breakout candidates for all 16 NFC teams: Cowboys’ DeMarvion Overshown, Panthers’ Bryce Young and more - PFF
Philadelphia Eagles: C Cam Jurgens. The Eagles drafted Jurgens with the intention of being Jason Kelce’s long-term replacement at center. Now, the former Cornhusker will slide from guard to center, a position that should be more natural, given that he almost exclusively played it at Nebraska. Jurgens struggled a bit in pass protection toward the end of 2023, but already having two years of starting experience — and working with Jeff Stoutland, of course — renders him an ideal candidate to make a jump.

7 things we’ll be watching at Eagles OTA practices - BGN
Where does Cooper DeJean line up? The guess is we’ll see him start out as the nickel with the second team but maybe he’ll be on the outside instead. Perhaps we see him lining up at multiple positions? Really, the whole secondary bears watching. Is James Bradberry even at practice? Does Quinyon Mitchell immediately get the first team nod? How does Isaiah Rodgers fit in?

10 players the Eagles can least afford to lose to injury - PhillyVoice
8) RB Saquon Barkley. The Eagles made Barkley the fourth-highest paid running back in the NFL this offseason, signing him to a contract worth a little over $12.5 million in average annual value. Spoiler: They’re going to use him. If Barkley is able to stay healthy in 2024, there’s a decent chance he could touch the ball somewhere in the range of 300 times in the Eagles’ offense. If he can’t stay healthy, the Eagles will be forced to turn to Kenny Gainwell and rookie Will Shipley.

Gored - Iggles Blitz
Jason Kelce, gone. Fletcher Cox, gone. Today we found out another Eagles legend was walking away. DeVante Parker is retiring. He allegedly wants to spend more time with his family. I prefer to believe that he’s intimidated by the thought of facing James Bradberry in practice and just decided to hang up his cleats. Go ahead and put DeVante Parker in the Frank Gore wing of the Eagles Hall of Fame. Joking aside, this isn’t a shocker. The Eagles were his third team in four years. Parker is a player on the decline and he knows that. I’m guessing the idea of playing for a title contender really appealed to him, but as offseason activities got closer he realized he didn’t want to deal with the grind of camps and practices. That is understandable. The game of football is fun. The practice and preparation are not. Well, at least not to most people. There is always the occasional guy who enjoys all the work and the grind of the offseason.

Eagles’ rookie receivers have chance at slot, returner roles - ESPN
“That’s the biggest part of this, just being healthy,” Parker said. Campbell is another vet with a notable injury history. But he can still run (he clocked a 4.31-second 40-yard dash at the combine in 2019) and was with Sirianni in Indianapolis for two years when Sirianni was the Colts’ offensive coordinator. Then there’s Covey, the team’s standout punt returner who flashed during his limited reps in the slot in 2023 (4 catches, 2 first downs, 6 targets, 42 yards). How many receivers will the Eagles keep? And who will emerge as the starter alongside Brown and Smith? Much will depend on who develops a connection with quarterback Jalen Hurts over the next several months. One benefit for the younger players in particular is they have two of the top receivers in the game to take their cues from. “I have a great room, a great group of guys that I’m going to be surrounded by,” said Smith. “So I’m definitely excited to just go to work with them, learn a lot from those guys —and being able to watch them play, practice, all of those things — and just learning how to play at the level they play at.”

How much can Eagles rely on Nakobe Dean in 2024? - NBCSP
But how much can the Eagles rely on Dean in 2024? It’s a fair question. Because in 2023, it seemed like the Eagles were expecting Dean to be their top linebacker and things obviously didn’t work out like that. Perhaps, they put too many eggs in that basket. Thanks to Dean’s injury, the Eagles ended up playing Zach Cunningham and Nicholas Morrow for most of the season. Morrow was the starting MIKE in Dean’s absence. The Eagles will have a new-look linebacker group for new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio in 2024. Morrow left in free agency to join the Bills, while Cunningham remains unsigned. The Eagles signed Devin White and Oren Burks in free agency and then drafted Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in the fifth round. But before those moves this offseason, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman made sure to say publicly that the team still believes in Dean. “I have a lot of belief, and I know Coach (Nick Sirianni) does, as well, in Nakobe Dean,” Roseman said at his year-end press conference in January. “I believe in the player. I believe in the person.

Australia among countries NFL scouting to host future international games - NFL.com
“Australia is among a set, and it’s not a small set of markets, that we’re looking at,” O’Reilly said. O’Reilly noted Australia has a strong NFL fan base, media partners and that both the Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams have global market rights there.

CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons both absent from Dallas Cowboys OTAs - Blogging The Boys
This is obviously significant given that Lamb and Parsons are both eligible for contract extensions with the team, the latter for the first time in his career. Both Lamb and Parsons were absent from the Cowboys’ voluntary work back in April, although it was reported that Parsons’ absence was not related to any sort of contract holdout. Again, missing time right now is not worth jumping to any serious conclusions about but it is certainly less than ideal.

How ‘bout them Cowboys? The worst sports team in Dallas - SB Nation
The mystique of the Dallas Cowboys is dead. Heck, unless you’re an old like some of us (myself included), you don’t ever remember the Cowboys being great — just overhyped. It’s gotten so bad that the once-proud denizens of the gridiron, America’s Team, are being totally lapped in success by the likes of the Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers, and Dallas Wings, all of whom have had more recent success that Jerry World. With the 2024 season on the horizon we’re hurtling towards it being three decades since Dallas had any kind of NFL success.

Did the Giants close the talent gap? Ranking NFC East defenses position-by-position - Big Blue View
This thorough and exhaustive analysis suggests that Philadelphia is well ahead of the other three NFC East teams. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Eagles and Cowboys tied with the same odds to win the division; both teams are +130 to win the NFC East. Washington is considerably behind both of those teams with the odds of +750, and the Giants are at the bottom of the division at +1000. The NFC East hasn’t had back-to-back division winners since Philadelphia won it four years in a row, from 2001 to 2004. Dallas won the division last season with a 12-5 record, and the Eagles finished 11-6. The last time the Giants won the division was in 2011, with a 9-7 regular season record and a shiny Lombardi Trophy to conclude the postseason. The Giants have just SIX divisional titles since 1990. According to this exercise, and reality, the Giants have their work cut out for them if they want to secure their seventh divisional title since the creation of the first web server.

The 5 O’Clock Club: What do Darryl Tapp, Ryan Kerrigan and Sharrif Floyd have in common? - Hogs Haven
Any Washington fan could be forgiven for not knowing who Darryl Tapp is. He played in Washington for only one season, 2013, that magical year when the coaching staff included Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Mike McDaniel, Sean McVay, Bobby Slowik, and Raheem Morris guiding the team to a 3-13 record. In 2013, DE/OLB Darryl Tapp was one of three significant offseason free agent signings along with CB E.J. Biggers and LB Nick Barnett in a season where free agency was deeply constrained by the second year of the league-imposed $36m salary cap penalty. In an effort to deal with the penalty, the team essentially re-signed as many players as possible, and went into the ‘13 season with substantially the same team that they’d had in 2012. Probably because the free agency period was so restrained that year, I paid a lot of attention to Darryl Tapp, and during the season, I thought he played well.