With the 2026 NFL free agency now in the rearview mirror, let's do an Eagles mailbag post or three to handle all your questions. As always, thank you for doing half the work for me. Part I here, Part II here.

Question from @marcelobcardio: Do you think all this “Hurts avoids middle of the field” talk a little too harsh or it is a legit concern since they just spent major draft capital on two receivers that are more suited as slot and middle of the field guys? Do you think he can improve in this area?

Question from @austinwullsch: Do you think the Eagles are setting this up as a "prove it" season for Hurts as a franchise QB? Seems like if he doesn't want designed runs then they want to see if he can throw to the middle of the field and plan in a more complex offense.

We'll lump the two above questions together.

So, on the first question, it's not so much that talk about Hurts' avoidance of the middle of the field is harsh. It's simply a fact. 

This isn't new Hurts offseason discourse. We've been here before. I remember during the 2022 offseason, there were a few fair criticisms of his first season as the starter in 2021:

1. He held onto the ball too long.
2. He often vacated clean pockets.
3. He avoided the middle of the field. Actually, more accurately at the time, he threw way too much to the right side of the field, and avoided both the middle of the field and to a lesser degree, the left side of the field.

And then the Eagles traded for A.J. Brown, a player who excelled working the middle of the field. In my player review of Brown that offseason, we noted (h/t Ben Solak) that Brown would be a good test for Hurts, and whether he could grow that part of his game as a passer.

And, well, he did! His numbers that season, by area of the field:

He was great working the middle of the field that season, with monster passer ratings between the numbers. Obviously, he was the MVP runner-up that season, and the Eagles went to the Super Bowl.

Anyway, Hurts has responded to this very criticism in the past. We'll see if he can do it again.

For me, the biggest Hurts question heading into 2026 is whether or not he's going to utilize his talents as a runner like he did from 2020 to 2024. As we had mentioned throughout the back half of the 2025 season, I was told that Hurts did not like having a lot of designed QB runs in the game plan. And sure enough, his rushing attempts per game were way down. He had rushed for over 600 yards each of his previous four seasons, but in 2025, just 421. As a result, the rushing offense suffered as a whole.

Every jabroni with a keyboard puts out quarterback rankings these days, and last offseason it was fascinating to me how little credit Hurts got for how good the Eagles' rushing attack was in 2024. In these QB rankings, over and over again you would see people noting that Hurts only had to throw like 25 times per game because the Eagles' rushing attack is so good, which was true. But also, you never heard those critics also acknowledge that Hurts was a major reason why the rushing attack was as dominant as it was.

But if Hurts is going to just be a drop back passer who only occasionally uses his ability as a runner — or only when games really start to matter — then I think that some of the assessments of him as a middle of the pack type of quarterback could prove to be true.

Question from @nbaumgarten0243: Curious about the New England tampering talk with regard to an A.J. Brown deal. Do you think that (A) there's anything to this (Mike Vrabel feeding info to Dianna Russini), (B) if yes, the Eagles pursue the case, or New England throws the Eagles a bone (pick swap or something) to make it go away?

I have yet to see anyone convincingly articulate how exactly the Eagles were harmed by Russini's reporting on Brown, which mirrored a lot of others' reporting on him. I've even heard some folks out on it (like here), but the arguments have generally been weak or unsupported by facts. Maybe more information will come out that points to tampering. We'll see. But with what is out there presently, I don't see it.

What I do think the Eagles should be perturbed about is the Rams leaking (purposely or not) that their deal for Brown fell apart because they were concerned about Brown's health. That is something that I do believe had potential to lower Brown's value around the league. If you want to be mad about potential tampering, start there. 

Question from @cocoeagles88: I think we were a little disappointed that safety wasn't a priority in the beginning rounds of the draft. Howie mentioned adding one as a free agent before the beginning of the season. Who would those possible candidates be?

There are none worth pursuing in my opinion. Picked clean. So if they're going to add a legitimate starting-caliber safety, it'll have to come via trade. We had previously identified the Browns as having a bit of a surplus at safety, with Grant Delpit making the most sense, in my opinion.

Ultimately, in the same way that a trade of A.J. Brown can wait until June 1 for salary cap benefits, so does a trade for a safety.

Question from @tech__44: Your favorite roster long shots with a real chance at making the team?

I'll rank the Eagles' UDFA signings in order of most likely to least likely to make the team:

• Rocco Underwood, LS, Florida: He's the only long snapper on the roster presently. The upside is that he's a great athlete who gets down the field quickly and in on tackles in punt coverage. Fumble recoveries here and here, big hit here. The downside is that he air-mailed a couple snaps during his college career, as noted in Bob McGinn's draft primer (h/t BLG):

Said one coach: “He’s the best-looking athlete but probably the least accurate. He’s had a couple of unplayable snaps, and in some critical spots. An unplayable field-goal snap this year and an unplayable punt snap over the guy’s head the year before. NFL snappers just don’t have that. You don’t ever see that. But it happened to him a couple times and that really, really bothers me.”

I'll watch him closely during camp whenever I can.

• Dae'Quan Wright, TE, Ole Miss: I profiled Wright during the season, and really liked him as a Day 3 target. I'm kind of surprised he didn't get drafted. He made big plays all season for Ole Miss, with 39 receptions for 635 yards and 5 TDs. He had receptions of at least 25 yards in each of his first five games of the 2025 season, and finished with 16.3 yards per catch, a huge number for a tight end. 

• Maximus Pulley, S, Wofford: I enjoyed watching Pulley's highlights. He hunts big plays. He reads quarterbacks' eyes and anticipates where they're going with the football, and he triggers downhill and looks for tackles for loss in the run game. He also plays a position where the Eagles are thin. There's opportunity.

• Kapena Gushiken, CB, Ole Miss: Gushiken runs a 4.33 and he's a willing tackler, which makes him an out-of-the-box special teams candidate.

• Deontae Lawson, LB, Alabama: A couple years ago it felt like Lawson would be a high pick, but he tore an ACL in 2024 and wasn't the same player in 2025. But, he was three-year starter at 'Bama, which on its own says something. I'd have him higher if the Eagles didn't already have so much depth at linebacker. I'm surprised he signed with the Eagles, and not a more linebacker-needy team.

• Joshua Weru, EDGE, Kenya: Like Uar Bernard, Weru is extremely athletic, but new to the game and comes from the International Player Pathway program. Assuming Bernard makes the team, it'll be hard to roster two project players with almost chance of seeing the field. The Eagles would love to get Weru to the practice squad, where he would be a roster exemption. I believe they will be able to bring him back, assuming he doesn't do something spectacular during a preseason game.

• Jaeden Roberts, OG, Alabama: The Eagles have a whole lot of developmental O-line prospects after they selected five offensive linemen the last two drafts. Because of that congestion, Roberts will have a steep uphill climb to crack the roster.

• Tucker Large, S, Washington State: Already cut.

Question from @ceasePHL: How far is Uar Bernard off from Jordan Mailata at this same point in his development process?

When Mailata was drafted, he had at least played a football-adjacent sport, and there were highlights:

You could see (a) that he had movement skills, (b) toughness, and (c) that he wasn't shy about using his enormous size to his advantage.

I swear I don't mean to poke fun at anyone here, but by comparison, here are the highlights we have of Bernard:

In my opinion, Mailata was significantly further along when he was drafted than Bernard is right now, at least from a scouting perspective, in that Mailata checked some boxes that Bernard hasn't had the opportunity to yet.

Question from @DanBrogan: Is there a spot on the roster for Elijah Moore? That’s a player I really liked out of college.

I liked him, too, and actually, he was one of those guys that the draft community really embraced. For example, I just happened to stumble upon an article published shortly after the 2021 draft, in which NFL.com's Lance Zierlein named his three favorite picks in each round of that draft. Moore made the second round list, at pick 34: 

The Jets had the fourth-best receiver in this draft fall right into their laps early in the second round. A common theme this year was teams seeking out complementary players for the young quarterbacks they drafted, and that was indeed the case here. He’s the ultimate route chef in this year's class, cooking up coverage with well-disguised patterns and crisp breaks to separate. He’ll become an early favorite for Zach Wilson.

He is a five-year vet who is now on his fifth NFL team. He previously played for the Jets, Browns, Bills, and Broncos. His career stats:

So, Moore has over 200 career catches and 2,000+ yards. He hasn't been a complete bust, like, say, Jalen Reagor. But, he did have his worst NFL season in 2025, when he had just 9 catches for the Bills in 9 games. The Bills waived him, and he signed with the Broncos' practice squad, never appearing in any regular season games in Denver. He did appear briefly in the AFC Championship Game, making 1 catch for 4 yards.

If I were publishing a 53-man roster today, Moore wouldn't be on it. But I am curious to see what he's got in camp.

Question from @Jwromo2: Are we getting a beach town bike ride review this year?

Ha, in case you don't know what this question is about, that was my summer of 2023 non-football content project. I rode my bike the length of various shore towns, and then rated them. I just re-read it, and it was good, in my opinion 😂.

My ratings:

I also wanted to get to Wildwood, Cape May, and Seaside, but never made it. I probably should update my biking ratings with those three spots this summer.