August 10, 2026
Nick Tricome/PhillyVoice
Nick Sirianni on Monday morning, speaking around what most already know.
The Eagles' first preseason game is Saturday night at Baltimore.
Monday morning, ahead of the team's training camp practice in South Philadelphia, head coach Nick Sirianni danced around a definitive answer on whether the starters will play in the exhibition when asked by the media.
And if you're familiar with how Sirianni feels about the idea of his starters playing in the preseason, and how he has often answered questions about it in the past, it's enough for most to figure it out for themselves: They're not going to play.
"Yeah, we'll see," Sirianni said from the press conference tent at the Jefferson Health Training Complex. "Obviously, we gotta get through this week. At the end of the week, we talk through everything. Everything's usually fluid in that matter. We'll see how that continues to go."
The Eagles are set to have joint practices with the New England Patriots in Foxboro ahead of their second preseason game next Saturday, Aug. 22, and for years now under Sirianni, the team has heavily favored those as the preferred method to get its starters live reps ahead of the regular season.
The general thinking is that joint practices present a more controlled, and therefore far more safer, environment for the starters to ramp up while avoiding injury, and for the most part, Sirianni and the Eagles' track record with them has been pretty successful.
Part of the thought that went into asking Sirianni on Monday if he'll potentially play the starters in the preseason this time was because of new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion and the modernized West Coast system he's been trying to install over the summer with Jalen Hurts at quarterback.
Hurts, though, is why Sirianni has backed almost entirely away from playing starters in the preseason.
Back on Aug. 12, 2022, the Eagles played the New York Jets at home in the preseason. Sirianni originally planned for Hurts and the first-team offense to play a drive or two, but then Hurts kept the ball on a 3rd and 5 and ran to the sideline, and as he stepped already well out of bounds, the Jets' Quincy Williams ran through and tackled him anyway.
Quincy Williams with a late hit on Jalen Hurts 😳
— PFF (@PFF) August 12, 2022
pic.twitter.com/Zwx1crjDsm
Sirianni, from the other side, was livid – at Williams, former Jets head coach Rob Saleh, and just about anyone at the opposite New York sideline who thought nothing of the hit – and ever since, Eagles starters have been kept out of preseason games.
Sirianni still gets asked every training camp, though, before the first preseason game, and he usually gives the same type of "we'll see" response.
But don't count on seeing Hurts or anyone from the first team on the field Saturday night against the Ravens.
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