An intriguing change we’ll see this year on offense, a thoughtful Saquon Barkley reflection on his performance in the Super Bowl and one thing that sets A.J. Brown apart from every other elite wide receiver.
We’re three days into training camp, and there’s so much going on I could do 100 Observations this week. I won’t, but I could. But I’ll make you a deal. If the Eagles make another Super Bowl this season, I’ll do 100 Random Eagles Observations on Super Bowl Sunday. Promise.
1. I don’t think anybody would disagree that the Eagles’ offense underachieved a bit during much of last year’s regular season last year. With the talent they had? Fair to say 26.8 points per game was a little low. They reached 30 points only four times in their first 15 games (but four of their last seven) and weren’t top-5 in points, yards, first downs, third down or red zone. They were good, and very good later in the season and when the offense underachieved the defense carried the team. With this quaterback, these skill players, this offensive line, this should be a 30 points-per-game offense, and Jordan Mailata offered an intriguing way the offense can be better in 2025. “Well, I can probably pass block a little bit better, run block a little bit better. And I think as an individual, if we all do our individual stuff great, you know, it’ll all add up. But I think the operation, getting out of the huddle quicker so we have more time to operate on the back end, communicate our calls. I think that’s probably the biggest issue. And it’s probably the same constant thing that I would say last year as well, but that’s just something that keeps popping up is just our communication, our operation. It was good, but I think that could be greater. That could be better. And it all starts with just the operation of breaking the huddle and then going from there, communicating the calls. So I think that’s one way where we can free up some extra time so we don’t have to think too much, so that we can just react.” Kevin Patullo agreed Saturday that tightening up the operation would benefit the offense: “I think in general, when you can push the tempo as an offense, now you put the defense in stress, so that’s something we want to continue to do and just kind of operate faster. I think that’s something that can help everybody. It gives us more time to see things and just operate with more efficiency.”
2A. Three days of training camp practices with no pads is way too early to draw any conclusions, but it’s not too early to say Jihaad Campbell looks fast and athletic out there. He looks like a football player. He’s already ahead of schedule coming back from that shoulder injury, and it’s hard not to be excited about what he’s going to be able to contribute once the pads go on Monday or Tuesday. Campbell is an inside linebacker right now, but we’ve seen him working with edge rush coach Jeremiah Washburn after one practice, so that’s clearly Vic Fangio’s mind as well. The coaches are throwing a lot at him, and they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t believe he could handle it. Exciting player.
2B. Nakobe Dean is still a ways away, but he’s out there watching practice and taking mental reps off to the side, and at the end of practice on Thursday, when the massive wall-of-sound speakers at the practice fields began playing Jump Around by House of Pain – a song released eight years before he was born – Dean was laughing and dancing around looking nothing like someone rehabbing a torn patellar tendon. What does that mean? Maybe not a lot medically, but it was really good to see.
2C. What happens when Zack Baun, Campbell and Dean are all healthy? I don’t know exactly how all the pieces will fit together and how the reps will be split up, but I do know Dean is too good to not play. Fangio will find a role for him, and I don’t know if there’s ever been an Eagles team in history that had this problem of too many talented linebackers.
3. Jalen Carter has sat out the first three practices with a sore knee, but that kid showed me something at practice Thursday because after the final rep of each set of reps, all 11 defensive guys on the field sprint as a group to the end zone behind them before going back to the sideline. And Carter kept jumping from the sideline into that group and sprinting into the end zone with his guys. So he’s not practicing, but he’s running sprints with his teammates. He doesn’t have to do that. Nobody told him to do that. He’s technically injured and not participating. But here’s a legit superstar, a guy who made a Pro Bowl and 2nd-team all-pro before his 24th birthday, just being one of the guys, just being a fantastic teammate, just wanting to be out there hurting with his teammates. True leadership isn’t always rah-rah speeches, it’s being a terrific example to the people around you. And when the other guys on defense see a star like Carter fitting in with his teammates like that and putting in extra work, that means a lot. I loved seeing it.
4. The Eagles had three touchdown runs of 40 yards or more in their playoff win over the Rams – 60 and 62 yards by Saquon Barkley and 44 yards by Jalen Hurts. They had more 40-yard TD runs in that one game than the Colts, Falcons, Bengals, Browns, Cowboys, Packers, Teans, Colts, Jaguars, Chiefs, Vikings, Saints, Jets, Steelers, Rams, Seahawks, Titans and Commanders have in their postseason history.
5. There’s been so much hype this summer around Jalyx Hunt, and Dave Zangaro wrote Friday about how impressed some of his teammates have been with the second-year edge rusher. I’m seriously bullish on Hunt. I’ve got him down for eight to 10 sacks and I wouldn’t be shocked if he goes over that. He’s so strong and quick and athletic and he’s already come so far so fast, his ceiling is unlimited. I just can’t get over the fact that this kid began his college career as an Ivy League safety at Cornell in 2019 and was still playing safety at Cornell as recently as 2021. His first year as an edge was 2022, when he resurfaced at Houston Baptist (now Houston Christian). I mean, to be at the level he’s at now – starting for the Super Bowl champs – when he was a safety four years ago is absurd. He was drafted as a project, but he’s anything but. He’s going to be really, really good.
6A. Really fascinating comments from Saquon Barkley on Chris Long’s Green Light podcast about his performance in the Super Bowl. After he gained 2,447 yards through the NFC Championship Game, the Chiefs limited Barkley to just 57 yards on 25 carries in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. His 2.28 rushing average in that game is 12th-worst in NFL playoff history (minimum 20 carries) and worst in Super Bowl history. Sixteen of Barkley’s 25 carries went for two yards or less and he had only three carries longer than four yards. But the Chiefs’ decision to crowd the box and try to shut down Barkley paid off with Jalen Hurts and the passing game having a huge day in the Eagles’ 40-22 win. Barkley beautifully put it all in perspective: “I had a rough day that game. Listen, I’m a big believer in showing love and giving respect and I’m super excited we get to play them again this year, but Spags and all those guys over there on that defense, my hat is off to them. I played a game my second year where I had one yard rushing on 14 carries against the Jets. That game in the Super Bowl was harder for me than that game. They just did a really good job. … (At) the beginning of the game I understood where their mind set was, but of course I’m under the impression that I’m going to make something shake, that I’m going to make something pop. But it wasn’t my day. It wasn’t my time. I think the success I had leading up to that game opened up a lot of stuff, and that’s team football. The success that Jalen and A.J. and Smitty had in the years prior helped me out. Because it’s hard to load the box. It’s hard to bring that extra defender. Because now you have A.J. Brown and Smitty on an island. Yeah, good luck with that. So as a leader on the team and the player that I think I am, I didn’t play to the level I wanted to play in that game. Two days later, you’re excited that you won and I got my ring, but you’re like, ‘All right, what am I going to do next time in the game and how am I going to approach that game?’ Like, what did I do in the week of practice? Why didn’t I have the game I wanted to have? But that’s your human nature. I’m not mad that I didn’t play great. Like, I got a ring. But at the same time, next time I get there, I’m going to be ready for the next opportunity.”
Beautifully said.
6B. In that Jets game in 2019, Barkley actually had one rushing yards on 13 carries, and his 0.77 rushing average is 4th-worst ever by a running back (minimum 10 carries) and worst since Reggie Bush was 11-for-(-5) in Tampa in 2006. Those 13 carries went for 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, -1, -2, -3 and -4 yards.
7. It’s been encouraging to see how comfortable Jalen Hurts has been early in camp throwing to Jahan Dotson. This time last year, Dotson was still a Washington Commander, and he didn’t get traded here until Aug. 22, so he’s way ahead of where he was last year, and at least through three days Hurts hasn’t hesitated to throw him the ball when he’s open. I don’t know how much of an impact Dotson can make on an offense with A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley, but this is a 25-year-old who was a mid-1st-round pick just three years ago who’s quick, knows how to get open and catches the ball well, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he catches 35 passes for 400 to 450 yards this year playing mainly in the slot. Like a Jason Avant type of season. Go back to the Super Bowl, and two of Hurts’ first four completions were to Dotson – a 27-yarder down to the 1-yard-line to set up a Hurts TD on the Eagles’ first drive and then a 15-yarder to midfield on the Eagles’ second possession. If Hurts trusts Dotson in key moments of a Super Bowl, he’s going to trust him this year. I haven’t seen one reason Dotson can’t be a factor.
8. JALEN HURTS STAT OF THE WEEK: Here’s one for the “Jalen Hurts can’t throw crowd:” Since Hurts became a full-time starting quarterback in 2021, he’s had 33 games with a passer rating of at least 100. Only four QBs have had more: Josh Allen (38), Joe Burrow (36), Patrick Mahomes (36) and Jared Goff (34).
9. One thing that sets A.J. Brown apart from most other elite wide receivers is his monstrous yards per catch average. He’s not just catching the ball, with his speed and elusiveness he’s running deep routes and with his strength and toughness he’s piling up big yards after the catch. Brown’s 15.8 per-catch average since his rookie year in 2019 is highest in the NFL (minimum 300 catches), and he’s 7th-highest in yards before the catch (10.1 yards) and 8th-highest in yards after the catch (5.6). So he’s a rarity in that he’s elite both before and after the catch. Since Stathead began tracking yards before and after the catch in 2018, Brown is the only player in the league who’s averaged 10 yards before the catch and five yards after the catch (Marquez Valdes-Scantling is at 5.5 and 11.9 but has only 205 career receptions).
10. This is a little thing but it really bugs me. And maybe I’m the only one. But every year since the Eagles moved training camp out of Lehigh to the NovaCare in 2013, they’ve blanketed the tall fence between the fan parking lot on Pattison Avenue and the NovaCare Complex entrance with huge posters of old training camp scenes from West Chester and Lehigh. So over here was a huge poster of Reggie White and some kids at West Chester and over there was a shot of fans watching practice at Lehigh taken from the hill behind the stands. I love that stuff. I loved West Chester and Lehigh and any reminder of those days is welcome. I get why the Eagles have camp at their own facility these days, but if you can’t have training camp anymore where all fans are actually welcome, at least pay homage to those halcyon days. But this year, those posters are gone, replaced by generic images from the NovaCare Complex. One more link to those great old training camp days that has disappeared.
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