Category: Eagles/NFL

Don’t call it a potential breakout season for Jalyx Hunt.

Hunt, the 2024 third-round outside linebacker out of Houston Christian, has been one of the standout defensive players in training camp due to his consistent disruption off the edge. His performance in joint practices against the New England Patriots, which included a diving interception of Drake Maye, provided more evidence of his stellar summer ahead of his third season with the Eagles.

But Hunt isn’t all that fond of the “breakout” label for any player who is putting in the work behind the scenes, let alone himself.

“I feel like to say ‘breakout’ is not disrespectful to any player, but the amount of work that the athletes on the field, whether it be practice squad, whether it be rotational guys, whether it be starters, the amount of work they put in … it’s no surprise when someone is able to make plays or to do anything like that,” Hunt said Monday.

After all, there’s an argument to be made that Hunt has already broken out.

In his second season with the Eagles last year, the 25-year-old outside linebacker led the team in sacks with 6½, a dramatic increase over his rookie year output of 1½. His 16.5% pressure rate was the highest among all Eagles outside linebackers, too, according to Next Gen Stats.

The former Cornell safety also led the team with three interceptions.

Hunt said he has always known that he was capable of the production. The general public is just catching up with his potential.

“Last year was just a reflection of the work I put in,” Hunt said. “So I don’t think there’s any type of breakout. I think it’s just me and y’all are starting to see the type of plays I can make and the type of player I would like to be.”

Hunt could have plenty of opportunities to make more plays when the season begins. Jonathan Greenard has been sidelined for all of training camp with a pectoral muscle strain. Vic Fangio said on Aug. 19 that he didn’t know when Greenard would be back, casting some uncertainty about his availability for the season opener against the Washington Commanders in three weeks.

Greenard was sidelined during the offseason program, too, as he recovered from shoulder surgery earlier this year. At the time, Fangio didn’t seem too concerned about his ability to get up to speed in a new defense given his veteran status.

Still, if Greenard is sidelined for Week 1 or if he is on a snap count, that could mean more reps for the rest of the room, especially Hunt and Nolan Smith Jr. Even in training camp, Hunt is taking advantage of those additional opportunities, whether he’s going up in practice against Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata or Patriots tackle Will Campbell.

He was especially grateful to get away from Johnson and Mailata for two practices last week.

“In a very respectful way,” Hunt said. “They’re just really good at their craft, so it’s nice to go against people who are stronger in other areas, make me work different moves and different tendencies, and try to dissect the rush as I go along in the game.”

Hunt is learning from his fellow Eagles teammates on defense, too. No longer the least experienced player among the edge rusher corps, he still relies on the entire room for input, and vice versa. The group feeds off of one another, he said, regardless of age or experience.

That culture goes beyond the edge rusher room. Hunt said he has looked to Zack Baun for inspiration since both players arrived in Philadelphia in 2024. Baun had signed a one-year deal with the Eagles after spending four years with the New Orleans Saints primarily as a core special teams player.

But Hunt quickly picked up on Baun’s hardworking nature in training camp that year as he catapulted himself from a relatively unknown depth defender to an All-Pro inside linebacker and starter on a Super Bowl-winning defense.

Baun had put in the work early on, and when he earned his opportunity, he never gave it up.

“He became Zack Baun, the Bald Eagle, the superhero, the captain at the helm,” Hunt said. “So I learned that from him, too. You just have to keep putting in the work, and then when you’re put in those positions, your work will come through.”

Hunt is laying the groundwork with the aspiration of following the same trajectory as Baun. His progress in Year 3 is promising. Hunt has taken up residence in the backfield this training camp, but that isn’t a surprise to the outside linebacker given his work ethic.

Come Week 1, he will have an opportunity to replicate that performance in the regular season. He knows what he is capable of achieving, even if everyone else outside of the Jefferson Health Training Complex is just taking notice.

“I don’t think there’s any type of breakout,” Hunt said. “I think it’s just me and y’all are starting to see the type of plays I can make and the type of player I would like to be.”

A month into 2026 training camp, five months after signing with his new team, and more than four years after being drafted by Seattle, Eagles cornerback Riq Woolen still feels nervous before some of his practice reps.

Why?

“It’s like I’m a rookie again,” Woolen said. He spent his first four NFL seasons with the Seahawks, but after losing some of his playing time last season during what would become a Super Bowl run, it was time to find a new team.

Woolen was one of the better man-coverage corners last season, but he struggled in zone, and the open market wasn’t that kind to him in terms of finding a long-term deal. He landed with the Eagles on a one-year deal worth $12 million guaranteed and had to move nearly 3,000 miles away, mesh with new teammates, and learn a new scheme. Hence the feeling like a rookie all over again.

“I feel like every day I continue to get better and feel like I fit in,” Woolen said Monday.

Moments like his plays during Thursday’s joint practice session in New England help the fitting-in part. First, Woolen jumped an A.J. Brown out route near the goal line and picked off Drake Maye for a 100-yard pick-six. Later, he again had tight coverage on Brown and forced the ball free into the air, allowing Jalyx Hunt to make a diving interception.

That Woolen’s big day came on the heels of one of his worst days of camp Wednesday was a good sign for him and the Eagles. Woolen may feel like a rookie now, but he is wise enough at 27 to know that a short memory is crucial to playing cornerback in the NFL. The younger version of himself didn’t know how to handle it, he said Monday.

“That’s just part of the game and it’s part of being a DB as well,” Woolen said. “One thing may [not] go your way, but you got to be able to rebound and be able to keep playing plays and keep making plays because that’s what the coaches and team expect.”

Woolen, who is unusually tall for a corner at 6-foot-4, was on the radar of the Eagles last season when it became clear that he could be made available before the trade deadline. He had one of the best seasons in recent years in man coverage — according to Next Gen Stats, his 27.6% completion rate allowed in man coverage was the lowest by any defender to face 20-plus targets in man since at least 2018. But the Seahawks, according to Sharp Analytics, deployed man coverages on 15.2% of their defensive snaps, sixth-fewest in the NFL. The Eagles, meanwhile, used man coverage on 24.5% of their snaps last season.

That should favor Woolen, and maybe defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will dial that number up a little more to fit Woolen’s strengths. But Woolen will need to improve his off-ball play if he wants to earn a long-term contract in the spring.

Woolen, who has 12 interceptions in his first four NFL seasons, had arguably the best offseason program of any Eagles player. He blanketed DeVonta Smith on multiple occasions during OTAs. Then, on the last day of minicamp in June, he “sacked” Jalen Hurts on a corner blitz and then picked off Hurts on the next play, on an errant throw toward Dallas Goedert. But Woolen’s play during training camp has been inconsistent, highlighting what could be an issue for a team that doesn’t have much in the way of reliable depth behind him.

The Eagles had a bit of a revolving door across from Quinyon Mitchell last season before Adoree’ Jackson claimed the role. They entered the offseason seeking an upgrade, knowing Cooper DeJean would remain at nickel and even play some safety after struggling a bit on the outside. Woolen has the potential to provide the Eagles with a major upgrade, but he still has to prove he can be reliable working in zones and not take plays off.

“At times he can get a little lazy or sloppy with his technique and have a bad down or two, but he’s still showing everything that I think he can do,” Fangio said earlier this month. “He’s just got to get in such great shape and calloused to football that those don’t happen.”

Woolen also will need to shed his reputation, too. He was called for three taunting penalties last season, including one in the NFC championship game late in the third quarter that extended a Los Angeles Rams drive that ended with a touchdown.

Woolen agreed when asked Monday if there were misconceptions about him in free agency.

“I can’t be likable to everybody, but I know that people who really do know me, I know there’s a reason why they like me and that’s because I’m being myself,” he said. “As long as I’m here being where my feet are at, I feel like my personality will outshine a lot of things.

“I still feel like I have a lot more to prove to these guys, even the fans and everybody here. People only know me where I come from, and what they’ve heard from where I came from. People don’t really know me as a person. The more and more I make plays, the more and more I talk to you guys, talk to people around here, they’ll be able to understand me and get to know me and the type of player I am.”

The real games are only a few weeks away, but Woolen will get his first taste of his new home field and fan base Tuesday, when the Eagles have their annual open practice at Lincoln Financial Field.

“It’s another opportunity to show people how I play ball and express who I am,” he said.

Forgive him if he’s a little nervous.

This time last week, Sean Mannion sat in front of the Philly press corps — which had largely praised his work in the weeks leading up to the Eagles’ preseason opener — and had to face the music.

That’ll happen when you lose 24-7 and get outgained 440-159 yards.

On Monday, he got to sing a much different tune.

Mannion’s offense looked much better in the Eagles’ 24-21 preseason loss to the New England Patriots on Saturday. The unit posted 18 first downs (compared to six vs. the Baltimore Ravens), 301 total yards and finally showcased the potential of the wide-zone scheme.

So, what changed in a week? Mannion said the execution of the run game, which posted 90 yards in 24 attempts, caught his eye.

“It was execution and play style,” Mannion said. “I thought, obviously, the starting unit wasn’t in there, but that second unit [and] third unit, they really did a nice job. We controlled the line of scrimmage early in the game, kind of that first series. I thought the play style was on display. Those are the two things I told them I want to execute — really three — execution, fundamentals, and play style.

“We were a little sloppy in terms of our fundamentals and execution at times in the first preseason game. I thought it was much improved in Game 2, particularly with the offensive line group up front.”

Now entering the third and final week of the preseason, Mannion can start to think about what life might look like when the starters finally take over during Week 1 (Sept. 13 vs. the Washington Commanders). There are high expectations for the former Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach, who was hired to modernize the Eagles offense with concepts that look similar to those of Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan.

The spotlight will mostly shine on the relationship between Mannion and quarterback Jalen Hurts, who is now on his sixth play-caller since he entered the league in 2020. What does Mannion think of his progress so far?

“He did a good job,” Mannion said of Hurts’ performance vs. the Patriots in last week’s joint practices. “The first day, we had a lot of big plays and just a couple turnovers we need to clean up. That’s always a focus for us, but you could really see the run game come to life, [and] you could see the play passes off of it.

“We hit a nice pylon route to [wide receiver] Elijah [Moore], but you could see the explosives in the past game as well. A couple turnovers, those are obviously things we always want to address. We talk about the ball relentlessly, but he did a really nice job.

“For the guys who didn’t play in the game, they got a ton of great work in those two practices against the Patriots. I was really happy with how Jalen played throughout.”