5 questions for another glimpse at Eagles' 2025 OTAs

The Eagles have made it halfway through their OTAs.

After holding three voluntary practices last week, they’ll hold three more this week on June 2-3 and June 5. After that, they’ll have just one mandatory minicamp day on June 10 before breaking for the summer.

Reporters were allowed to just one OTA practice last week and will be able to watch again on Tuesday. Because of that, it’s a somewhat limited viewing opportunity but we did learn plenty from last Wednesday’s practice.

And it left us with a bunch of questions going into the next OTA availability:

1. Will depth charts change?

Last week’s glimpse at practice gave us a few notes on depth chart and it’ll be interesting to see if anything has changed:

• Reed Blankenship wasn’t there so the top safeties were Sydney Brown and rookie Drew Mukuba. If Blankenship is back this week, we’ll see who lines up next to him first. (My guess would be Brown but they’ll rotate.)

• Adoree’ Jackson was the first-team right cornerback but Kelee Ringo mixed in. Those two are competing for that starting spot.

• Cooper DeJean got some work as the RCB in the base package and moved inside on nickel downs. That will likely continue. But, remember, if DeJean has that role in the season it’s basically just a way to make sure he doesn’t leave the field.

• Jeremiah Trotter Jr. was the other inside linebacker next to Zack Baun. (Both Nakobe Dean and Jihaad Campbell are recovering from injuries.)

• Tyler Steen got first crack at the right guard spot. This was his job last year too until a few days into training camp when he suffered a minor ankle injury and was replaced by Mekhi Becton, who was the starter during the Super Bowl season.

2. What will Vic have to say?

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will speak to reporters around noon on Tuesday. It'll be his first press conference since his defense dominated in Super Bowl LIX. So maybe there will be a few questions about that dominant performance, the departures in free agency and more.

The good news with Fangio is that he's always honest and to the point. So if you have questions about any of the position battles on defense or where Jihaad Campbell might fit or basically anything else, we can count on Fangio to tell the truth.

3. Anyone back on the field?

Last week, Bryce Huff wasn’t in attendance and we since learned he is getting traded to the 49ers. But Huff wasn’t the only one last week. DeVonta Smith, Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson, Reed Blankenship, Ben VanSumeren and Avery Williams were also not in attendance. VanSumeren is getting over a knee injury that ended his 2024 season early so that absence makes sense.

As a reminder, these practices are voluntary but the Eagles have had strong attendance in recent years. Some of those players have likely been popping in and out throughout the spring. So there’s a good chance we’ll see a couple on the field on Tuesday but a couple others might not be there.

Williams is an under-the-radar free agent acquisition I’m eager to see. The Eagles list him as a “return specialist” on their website but listed him with the receivers on their roster last week at OTAs. Williams probably won’t play a huge role on offense in 2025 but head coach Nick Sirianni seemed very excited about Williams when he spoke at the owners meetings in late March. It piqued my interest.

4. Will the offense look different?

The Eagles offense has a new coordinator this season after the promotion of Kevin Patullo, who replaces Kellen Moore. But the Eagles also return 10 of 11 starters from the Super Bowl and Tyler Steen, who has been on the team the last three years, is in the lead to be the right guard.

When we saw the Eagles’ first-team offense last week in that one practice (take it with a grain of salt) there weren’t many downfield throws. Now, that’s partly to be expected without DeVonta Smith or A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley (who didn’t participate in team drills) and with a less-than-full starting offensive line. But it was notable that most of what we saw last Wednesday was a horizontal offense. A bunch of stuff underneath to Dallas Goedert and Jahan Dotson. 

While we can’t take away much from one practice, it is something we’ll be monitoring the rest of the spring and the summer. The Eagles relied on a great rushing attack in 2024 and Saquon Barkley had the greatest rushing season in NFL history. But there were times last season where the passing offense left something to be desired. As teams sell out to stop the run in 2025 — you’d have to think they will — the Eagles will need to be ready to combat that. The good news is that they have the pieces to make that happen and Jalen Hurts had two of his best games of the season in 2024 in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.

5. Who will turn some heads?

It’s never wise to have any big takeaways from these spring practices. This is football in shorts and sometimes it’s akin to a passing camp. But it’s a chance for a few players to start a surprising bid at a roster spot. A couple of receivers made some plays last Wednesday when reporters were out there. Both Danny Gray and Darius Cooper were able to catch deep balls from backup quarterback Tanner McKee. One of those two receivers could end up being a training camp darling this summer. Gray was drafted by the 49ers in the third round out of SMU in 2022 and ran a blazing 4.33 at the Combine. And Cooper went undrafted out of Tarleton State, where he averaged 19.4 yards per catch. It’s not shocking to see either of them making plays downfield.

So maybe it’ll be Gray or Cooper or someone else on Tuesday to turn some heads. Find out in our post-practice observations.