14 winners from the Eagles’ spring practices

The Philadelphia Eagles officially wrapped up their spring offseason workout program last week. Now let’s take a look at the winners, losers, and I don’t knows that stood out from three media-attended practices (two days of voluntary OTAs and one mandatory minicamp session).

Disclaimer: These were non-contact drills (no pads) and three practices is a pretty small sample size. There’s still plenty of time for players to change their outlook — for better or worse — over the course of training camp and preseason games.

QB JALEN HURTS
The reigning Super Bowl MVP turned in a strong spring. Hurts was accurate and decisive; he had very few incompletions and he didn’t take too many “sacks.” Getting rid of the ball quickly mostly resulted in shorter completions, though he did have one highlight deep completion for a touchdown. Hurts seems to be getting better in practice settings from where he was earlier in his career. He rarely — if ever — puts the ball in harm’s way.

CB COOPER DEJEAN
The Eagles clearly want DeJean on the field for 100% of their defensive snaps. This spring, he was the starting outside cornerback opposite from Quinyon Mitchell in Philly’s base defense. Vic Fangio even talked about him potentially playing safety, though he took zero snaps there during media-attendance practices. The expectation here is that DeJean will mostly serve as the Eagles’ nickel cornerback. And when he’s not playing in the slot, he’ll still be on the field in some other capacity.

CB KELEE RINGO
Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson rotated starting cornerback reps in the Eagles’ nickel defense. Of the two, Ringo shone more brightly. The third-year defender broke up multiple passes and looked pretty sticky in coverage. Ringo also seems to be emerging as a leader in his position room considering he led the huddle before a DB drill. There’s still going to be a training camp battle but Ringo appears to be the front-runner.

QB TANNER MCKEE
As QB3 over the past two years, McKee’s practice reps were pretty limited. And he was often throwing to players who wouldn’t even make the roster. Now elevated to QB2, McKee benefits from more practice time and better targets to work with. McKee took advantage of his upgraded situation this spring by looking pretty good for backup quarterback standards. As was the case with Hurts, McKee rarely threw incompletions or put the ball in harm’s way.

QB KYLE MCCORD
At the very least, McCord showed that he’s not flat out unplayable like previous Eagles rookie quarterbacks (see: Clayton Thorson, Carson Strong). Even better, McCord completed some difficult throws into traffic that make one believe he might be able to develop into a backup quarterback. We’ll see how the preseason games go but McCord is currently in good position to beat out Dorian Thompson-Robinson for the QB3 role.

RB WILL SHIPLEY
Shipley saw a lot of targets during spring practices and he looked like an effective pass-catcher out of the backfield. He’s obviously not overtaking the Eagles’ top targets in the pecking order but I do think he could be more of a factor in the passing attack than Kenny Gainwell was last year. Of course, that’s a low bar to clear since Gainwell saw just 25 targets in 21 games played.

WR TERRACE MARSHALL
The Terrace Marshall signing didn’t exactly generate a lot of excitement at the time of it happening but maybe he has a place on this roster. Marshall had some standout moments during spring practices, including when he took a slant to the house. When specifically asked about developing chemistry with Jahan Dotson, Hurts gave this answer (bold emphasis mine):

“I think that time has been valuable. It’s been valuable working with Jahan [Dotson], working with Terrace Marshall — he made a lot of big plays this offseason —, Dallas [Goedert], Grant [Calcaterra], Harrison [Bryant]. Everyone — Saquon [Barkley] out there. Everyone who was able to go and available, working with them and taking advantage of that, that was big.

Seems like a good sign for Marshall.

Is he going to beat Dotson out for WR3? I don’t know about that. And it’s not ideal if he’s a WR4 who doesn’t contribute on special teams, where he’s played 14 career snaps over four years. Dotson also hasn’t been a special teams guy with just six snaps played over three years.

Perhaps Marshall takes on the role that Parris Campbell had last year as a depth receiver who bounces between the roster and practice squad. Not exactly the most thrilling proposition but Marshall’s stock is higher leaving OTAs than it was entering them.

WR DANNY GRAY
Prior to OTAs, I included Gray on my Eagles 53-man roster projection. Here’s what I wrote:

Who is Danny Gray, you might ask? Well, the 2022 third-round pick is a burner with 4.33 speed who might be worth paying attention to. In a survey conducted by PHLY’s Zach Berman, multiple starting defenders (Darius Slay, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Cooper DeJean, and Reed Blankenship) shouted out Gray as a standout from last year’s practice squad.

Gray went on to have a pretty active spring; he was frequently targeted by McKee. I can see how he caught the attention of multiple Eagles defensive backs. Gray doesn’t benefit from Marshall also standing out since they could be competing for the same roster spot. But Gray definitely seems worth paying attention to this summer. It’ll be interesting to see if he can continue to shine in training camp and the preseason games.

EDGE JALYX HUNT
Playing as a rookie, Hunt’s hustle really stood out to me. He would pop up even when I wasn’t paying attention to him. That much only continued in spring practices. He was just everywhere out there. Hunt was especially disruptive in the Eagles’ final spring practice where he was often in the backfield. Hunt could be ready to make a significant leap from Year 1 to Year 2.

RG TYLER STEEN
Steen isn’t yet a lock to be the Eagles’ Week 1 starting right guard. He entered last year’s training camp as the favorite for that role before he got hurt and Mekhi Becton replaced him. Can’t rule out that he gets overtaken again this year. For now, though, Steen seems to be in a good position. He took all the first-team right guard reps; he didn’t rotate with anybody else.

RG MATT PRYOR
If anyone’s going to overtake Steen, it could be Pryor. He was consistently the second-team right guard. And not Kenyon Green, who was originally believed to be Steen’s top competitor for the starting RG role.

LB JEREMIAH TROTTER JR.
Spoiler alert: Jihaad Campbell and Nakobe Dean will show up in the “losers” from spring practices due to their injury issues. Fangio said Campbell won’t be able to practice until August and Dean “won’t be back for a while.” In their absence, Trot Jr. took all the first-team reps next to Zack Baun. That’s noteworthy since the Eagles were more heavily rotating at other positions, such as cornerback and safety. Trot Jr. figures to eventually be replaced in the starting lineup but he could get a chance to show what he’s got early in the season.

TE NICK MUSE
Muse is a long shot to make the roster. He’s currently the sixth tight end (at best) on the Eagles’ depth chart. But he sure showed some pass-catching ability by making some high degree of difficult grabs. One of them was a contested catch in traffic for a touchdown. Another was a diving effort on a ball that McCord put a little too much mustard on. We’ll see if Muse can keep it going when the pads come on.

S ANDREW MUKUBA
Mukuba isn’t a winner because he had a real flashy spring. He was relatively quiet. But the fact that he was splitting first-team safety reps as a rookie seems like a good sign for him. It’s not uncommon for players in his position to be with the second-team defense before eventually earning time with the starters in training camp. It could be a matter of time before Mukuba overtakes Sydney Brown on the depth chart.