August 15, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Hollywood Brown still has some work to do to make the Eagles' roster.
The Philadelphia Eagles will play their first preseason game of the 2026 season Saturday night in Baltimore against the Ravens. Here are our five things to watch.
Jalen Hurts hasn't played in a preseason game since he took a late cheap shot out of bounds against the Jets in 2022. The Eagles are installing a new offense under Sean Mannion, which is perhaps a reason to get Hurts some live game reps, but I would be shocked if he took any snaps.
So, who will start then? The Eagles have tried all offseason to say that Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee are co-QB2s. Well, unless they come out on the field together Saturday night, one will start, and one won't. No matter how the Eagles spin it, the guy who starts is the QB2, and the other guy is the QB3.
On Thursday, Nick Sirianni declined to answer who would play first, saying that the team still had to think it through.
Dalton has gotten more second-team snaps than McKee this summer, so my guess is that it will be him. And how they play matters, for trade purposes, since one or the other could be dealt to another team.
When training camp began I had DeVonta Smith, Makai Lemon, Dontayvion Wicks, and Marquise Brown as locks or near-locks to make the 53-man roster. Since then, Darius Cooper has become a lock, but I'm not sure anymore that Brown is.
So that's four. Otherwise, there are four other receivers with a realistic chance of making the roster, and they all have different skill sets:
• Marquise Brown: The Eagles signed him for his long speed and his proven NFL production.
• Johnny Wilson: Wilson brings a unique element of extreme size (6'6, 230+) and physicality.
• Elijah Moore: Moore is a slot receiver with some wiggle, and he has had the best camp of the receivers on the bubble.
• Britain Covey: Even if Covey doesn't make the 53-man roster, he could be active on gameday as a practice squad callup because he is easily the team's best returner.
The Eagles can't keep all of them. How they play in the preseason games could help decide who survives cutdown day.
The Eagles made eight selections in the 2026 draft. Three of them are hurt:
Spoiler: None of those guys are going to play. That leaves five healthy rookies:
• TE Eli Stowers: Stowers hasn't stood out so far in camp. His roster spot isn't in question, but it's looking like he's trending toward being a gameday inactive when the regular season begins. Perhaps he can change some perceptions with a strong game performance.
• OT Markel Bell: Bell has had the strongest camp among the Eagles' rookies by far, and his importance to the team rose a bit when Lane Johnson announced that the 2026 season will likely be his last. I'm curious to see him in a game setting.
• QB Cole Payton: Depending on whether you're a glass half full or half empty kind of guy/gal, Payton has either been a gunslinger throughout camp, or careless. But for the purposes of preseason game entertainment, Payton will bring the goods, as he is not afraid to throw down the field.
• OG Micah Morris: Morris is sort of an under-the-radar rookie, relative to the others, but I like what I have seen so far from him. It'll be good to get a closer look.
• iDL Uar Bernard: Expectations should be extremely tempered for Bernard, given that this will literally be his first football game ever.
I think an underdiscussed thing heading into the regular season is the Eagles' depth on the edge, especially with Jonathan Greenard's availability in question.
The Eagles still have Jalyx Hunt, who seems primed to make a jump this season, and Nolan Smith, who has come on of late.
After Hunt and Smith are Arnold Ebiketie and A.J. Epenesa, who are competing to be the next guy up after Hunt, Smith, and Greenard, and who could see meaningful snaps early in the season if Greenard is either still hurt, or hampered by his injury.
If you've been following along with our Eagles training camp battle tracker, you've seen that we have a lot of notes on most of the camp battles, but not many notes on the battle for the starting sub-package safety job opposite Andrew Mukuba. It's hard to focus on the safeties and the trenches simultaneously. For me, the trenches are more important, and more interesting to watch, so that's where my eyes usually are. Hence the reason for the lack of voluminous safety notes.
But the preseason games will give a better view of what is happening on the back end, and there is a legitimate battle happening between Epps and Carter. I suspect both guys will play.
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