Eagles Mailbag: Does Howie Roseman Have Another Trick up His Sleeve?
The Philadelphia Eagles have just one preseason game remaining as final cuts are quickly approaching. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman continues to make moves as he recently traded with the Houston Texans for WR John Metchie. What could be next for the Eagles?
There are also still several position battles that remain unsettled in the City of Brotherly Love. In my latest Eagles mailbag, I’ll discuss what Roseman’s next move could be, potential trade candidates to watch for on Philadelphia’s roster and much more.
It feels like Eagles rookies Jihaad Campbell and Drew Mukuba are the obvious top two choices for this exercise, so I’ll go in a different direction. Here are the other top five Eagles players that impressed me the most against the Browns:
Azeez Ojulari - I know he gave up the edge on the end around play but he showed flashes as a pass rusher.
Gabe Hall - After a strong performance against the Bengals, Hall followed it up with another good game against the Browns.
Smael Mondon Jr. - Mondon struggled in his preseason debut, yet he made up for it with a bounce back performance in his second game.
Jakorian Bennett - While Kelee Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson failed to stand out, Bennett made a few impressive plays.
Cameron Latu - He likely won’t make the final roster but Latu made several tackles on special teams and I was impressed with his effort on the coverage units.
1) In case you missed my observations from the Eagles-Browns preseason game, I was actually very critical of the offensive line’s struggles. Here’s what I had to say about the OL:
“After locking up the starting right guard spot, Tyler Steen didn’t play in Philadelphia’s second preseason game. The Eagles went with their second-team offensive line and the results weren’t pretty. Jeff Stoutland’s unit struggled to generate much push in the running game and consistently allowed pressure in the passing game.
Kendall Lamm and Matt Pryor got the start at offensive tackle, yet both veterans struggled. It was an uninspiring performance that certainly raises the concern level if Lane Johnson or Jordan Mailata are forced to miss time. Given that both players missed time last season, the Eagles might need to rethink their plan at swing tackle.“
2) I’m not sure who said that or why they would have to apologize. But it seems clear that Cooper DeJean is going to stay in the slot when the Eagles are in their nickel defense. While it remains unclear if Quinyon Mitchell will actually travel on the outside or not.
Sydney Brown was essentially in the lead for the starting job by default. Mukuba was dealing with an injury and couldn’t improve his stock from the sideline. Yet Mukuba had about as good of a preseason debut as possible and seems to firmly be in the lead now. Brown hasn’t done enough to take a firm hold of the job, but he hasn’t played poorly either.
Despite the unsettled competition at CB2 and several new projected starters, the Eagles still absolutely have enough talent to be a top five defense in the NFL this upcoming season. There is actually an argument to be made that the ceiling of this year’s defense is even higher given the versatility and athleticism of players such as Campbell and Mukuba.
I’ll always be a member of team rest your starters during the preseason. Especially given the normalization of joint practices, it feels like that’s a more controlled environment to expose your key players to a game-like atmosphere while being able to minimize the factors that you normally wouldn’t have control over.
It’s certainly a slippery slope that I understand some people might not agree with, yet the risk isn’t worth the reward, in my opinion. I’ll accept a slow start to the regular season if it means that all of my starters will be fully healthy in Week 1.
Based on Vic Fangio’s comments during his press conference on Monday, it seems like the Eagles really want someone on the current roster to win the job at CB2. Roseman already made a trade for Bennett and he seems to already be firmly in the mix for the starting job.
While Roseman is armed with a ton of draft picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, I’m not sure that he wants to take a big swing for another CB quite yet. Philadelphia will likely let the competition play out over the next week and see what happens. Teams aren’t exactly lining up to trade proven, starting caliber cornerbacks in late August.
The Eagles have already made a deal for a CB and a WR this month. While I’d never rule out anything for Roseman, my guess is that he would add a player on the OL or at EDGE, if he were to make another deal before Week 1.
In Roseman’s two most recent deals, he has traded for a player on their rookie contract. Here are a few players that I would watch for:
Arnold Ebiketie, EDGE, Falcons
DeAngelo Malone, EDGE, Falcons
Evan Neal, OL, Giants
These types of deals are always tough to predict because I never would have thought that Harrison Bryant would have had trade value. Yet he was included in the deal for Metchie on Sunday.
I’d tend to look at the deeper positions groups on Philadelphia’s roster, where the Eagles might be forced to cut younger players that haven’t been exposed to waivers yet in the NFL.
Here are a few players that make sense as potential trade candidates ahead of final cuts:
Dorian Thompson-Robinson, QB
Kenyon Green, OL
Ainias Smith, WR
Eli Ricks, CB
The Eagles are enjoying the luxury of having a really talented QB2 in Tanner McKee. While it’s easy to be concerned about the QB3 spot after what we watched against the Browns, I’m not sure that Roseman is hitting the panic button quite yet.
Philadelphia drafted Kyle McCord in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft for a reason. He needs time to develop and my guess is that the Eagles will likely try to keep him around as QB3 for the upcoming season.
The real question is will they keep him on the final roster or will they expose him to waivers and try to sign him on the practice squad. The latter seems a bit risky and the Eagles never did that with McKee when he was developing.
Ben VanSumeren making the full-time switch to fullback was a fun offseason discussion but I believe he’ll make the final roster due to his ability on special teams. While “BVS” will be used at fullback at times, he’s a core special teams player that will provide a ton of value to the Eagles in that role. I would be surprised if he doesn’t make Philadelphia’s final roster.
The biggest fear for most Eagles fans should be Lane Johnson or Jordan Mailata missing a significant amount of time. Given the performance of Philadelphia’s backup offensive tackles thus far, it’s hard to imagine that the offense would succeed without either Johnson or Mailata upfront.
Another massive fear would be Quinyon Mitchell missing a significant amount of time. It’s clear that Fangio doesn’t want to move DeJean to the outside full-time and the Eagles still don’t know who their CB2 will be. If Mitchell is out, Philadelphia’s defense would be a in big trouble.
It seems unfair to make an A.J. Brown prediction given the mysterious hamstring injury that he’s currently dealing with. But if I’m assuming that Brown will be fully healthy, here’s my prediction for his stats through 17 regular season games during this upcoming season:
87 receptions
1,411 receiving yards
9 receiving touchdowns
Second-Team All-Pro, Pro Bowl