Category: Sports

BALTIMORE — The Eagles haven’t publicly said who the No. 2 quarterback is, and they still aren’t after one preseason game. It’s early, Nick Sirianni has said, and both Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee have taken reps with the second-team offense during the 11 training camp practices, though Dalton seemingly has at times taken more than McKee.

Nothing reveals the standing of a depth chart quite the way a game does, though.

The Eagles made their pecking order public when Andy Dalton trotted onto the M&T Bank Stadium field at 7:07 p.m. with Saturday’s starters. (The Eagles rested all of their projected starters on offense.)

But his lone quarter of action — three series without the offense gaining a first down — did little to show his status as the No. 2 is above scrutiny.

With the necessary caveats that Saturday night was the first preseason game, and few regulars dressed, and the game itself was entirely meaningless, the Sean Mannion era got underway with Dalton at quarterback, two penalties on four attempted plays, and an eventual punt after netting three yards.

Dalton’s next two drives ended in three-and-outs. There appeared to be some miscommunication between the 38-year-old veteran and second-year receiver Darius Cooper during the second series, and the third ended when Cooper dropped a third-and-5 timing throw from Dalton. The pass may have been thrown a little bit too hard, but it was a catch Cooper surely wanted back.

That was Dalton’s last snap of the game. He finished the night having completed three of his six passes for 20 yards. His quarterback rating was 57.6, and the offense netted 27 yards on nine plays with Dalton as the quarterback.

McKee was next up, and the Eagles gave their 2025 backup quarterback some extended run. The offense performed only mildly better.

We saw elements of the new-look offense under Mannion from the beginning of the game. The Eagles utilized more motion, and their quarterbacks took more snaps from under center. Their running backs ran more outside zone runs.

But it was a rough night for the offense overall. Of course, the Eagles aren’t going to be putting anything they want to keep close to the vest on film, but they failed to move the football with their vanilla stuff.

“We have a lot of mistakes that we put on film,” McKee said. “I’m included in that as well. As long as we don’t make those same mistakes, I think it’s going to be a positive. With a new offense, with so many things that are new, mistakes are obviously going to happen. That many is unacceptable, but we’re going to learn from it and be better.”

McKee got himself into a manageable third down on his first set of downs. He rolled left after faking a handoff and found Britain Covey in space to pick up four yards on a second-and-7 play. But the ensuing third-and-3 throw was too high for Grant Calcaterra on the sideline.

The running game got going on the next drive. Will Shipley started the drive with an 8-yard run before McKee connected with Cooper on a slant for 13 yards. It was the Eagles’ first first down of the day, and it came on their 14th play from scrimmage. A few Shipley runs moved the Eagles into Ravens territory midway through the second quarter, but a Jake Majors holding penalty pushed the Eagles back to their end of the field. The Eagles eventually punted after McKee couldn’t connect with Danny Gray on a third-and-12 throw.

After a brief, two-play drive before halftime, McKee returned for the third quarter and was sacked on third-and-7 on the Eagles’ first drive of the second half. The subsequent drive ended when McKee fired too high for Cooper on the right sideline.

McKee, who broke out and became the bona fide No. 2 last year during camp, exited after the third quarter with the Eagles trailing, 17-0, and behind in the first down department, 26-2 (it got to 30-2). He finished the night 6-for-10 for 35 yards with a 66.7 rating before giving way to rookie fifth-round pick Cole Payton. Payton quickly went three-and-out in his first series as a pro but led the team’s only scoring drive in garbage time, culminating in a 6-yard touchdown pass to Erik Ezukanma and the 24-7 final score.

What did it all mean? Perhaps not much, though if you were looking to be inspired by the new-look offense, which had two pretty experienced quarterbacks operating it for the first three quarters, you probably had a rough Saturday night.

On a night where the Eagles played a football game for the first time in eight months, their intriguing backup quarterback race was a bit of a snoozer.

The players were told a few days ago, they said, how the order would go Saturday night, but Dalton said the coaching staff said things could change week to week.

“I think it’s still a competition,” Dalton said. “It’s going back and forth the whole time, so I don’t know where this whole thing is going to go.”

Time is not yet of the essence. The Eagles return to the practice field Monday before heading up to New England for two joint practices vs. the Patriots and another preseason game there next Saturday.

It still remains hard to believe the Eagles keep both Dalton and McKee, which would have to happen either by cutting Payton or by keeping four quarterbacks. There is plenty of tape out there on both of them, but the film Saturday likely wasn’t going to make any team want to jump at the opportunity to part with draft capital to acquire one of them — a result Howie Roseman probably is hoping for before camp breaks.

There’s still time before then.

“I’ll let the coaches decide that,” McKee said. “My job is to go out and play when they call my number. How that’s going, I’m going to put in the work, do the extra stuff, do everything I can to have my case of why I believe I should be the backup, but ultimately the decision falls on the coaches.”

BALTIMORE — The end zone was nearly as elusive for the Eagles as the intrigue that surrounded the game.

The Eagles dropped their preseason opener, 24-7, to the Baltimore Ravens, a contest in which most of the starters on both sides rested. But while the Ravens offense managed to move the ball, picking up 440 net yards, the Eagles mustered just 159.

The Ravens picked up 31 first downs. The Eagles had just six.

The Ravens incurred three penalties. The Eagles were slapped with 10.

Here is our instant analysis of the Eagles’ first game of the preseason:

Plight of the passers

It’s preseason for everyone, including the Eagles’ veteran depth quarterbacks.

With Jalen Hurts and the rest of the Eagles offensive starters scratched, Andy Dalton was the first quarterback up. He had a shaky showing through three possessions, completing three of six pass attempts for 20 yards, good for a 57.6 quarterback rating.

His longest completion was to camp darling Darius Cooper on an 8-yard out-breaker on the second play of the game. But Cooper and Dalton also had a pair of failed hookups. On the second drive, Dalton’s pass on third-and-6 from the Eagles’ 43-yard line sailed incomplete over the middle of the field in an apparent miscommunication with the 24-year-old receiver.

On third-and-5 from the Eagles’ 36 on the third drive, Dalton’s pass for Cooper on a vertical route deflected off the receiver’s hands.

Dalton and the Eagles offense failed to pick up a first down in those three possessions, going three-and-out on each occasion.

“It’s preseason still,” Dalton said. “There’s a lot of vanilla looks. So I think that played a little bit of a factor into it. Now, we got ourselves in some tough situations with some penalties and some negative plays that affected it. … Just not getting that first first down. We never got into a rhythm.”

Tanner McKee took over for Dalton halfway through the second quarter. He suffered the same fate as Dalton on his first drive — a three-and-out — but fared better on his second.

The Eagles failed to score on that possession, but McKee completed two of his three passing attempts, a 13-yard in-breaker for Cooper and a 6-yard screen to Britain Covey. The 13-yarder to Cooper earned the Eagles their first first down of the game with 8 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the first half.

Still, McKee wasn’t much better than Dalton. On 19 plays through five drives, McKee went 6-for-10 for 35 yards (66.7 quarterback rating). He was sacked once.

“I think whenever a game goes like that, yeah, it’s disappointing,” McKee said. “It’s good to get reps like that to learn from. A lot of times in camp, you make a mistake and obviously you want to play perfect. You never want to make mistakes. But if you can never make that mistake again, then it’s worth the mistake.

“We had a lot of mistakes that we put on film. Obviously, I’m included as well. And as long as we don’t make those same mistakes, I think it’s going to be a positive.”

Cole Payton, the fifth-rounder out of North Dakota State, took over early in the fourth quarter. He led the lone Eagles’ scoring drive of the game just before the two-minute warning, connecting with wide receiver Erik Ezukanma on a 6-yard scramble-drill touchdown pass.

The most exciting play of the game occurred six plays before the touchdown, when Payton converted a fourth-and-3 with his legs, picking up 17 yards on a scramble.

Payton went 4-for-9 for 37 yards and a touchdown (93.3 quarterback rating) on 14 plays.

Defensive risers

Despite the final score, a slew of Eagles depth defenders showed promise with almost all of the starters sidelined.

Jihaad Campbell was the only projected starter who took snaps, playing alongside Jeremiah Trotter Jr. for the first two Ravens possessions before returning to the sideline for the night. But it was Trotter Jr. who turned heads, especially on the Ravens’ opening drive.

On first-and-10 from the Eagles’ 28, Trotter Jr. blitzed the A gap and overwhelmed left guard Emery Jones Jr., tripping up Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley at the line of scrimmage for a sack.

On the ensuing play, Ty Robinson took advantage of the same guard, using him as a turnstile on his way to sacking Huntley for a loss of seven yards. The back-to-back sacks forced the Ravens to settle for a 49-yard field goal attempt, which kicker Tyler Loop missed wide right.

The secondary had standouts, too. Late in the second quarter, Kelee Ringo was flagged for defensive pass interference while grabbing at Ravens receiver Xavier Guillory in the end zone. But on the ensuing play, Ringo stuck with Guillory on a deep crossing route, and as Ravens quarterback Joe Fagnano rolled to his right, Ringo jumped in front of the receiver in the back of the end zone and made the interception.

Members of the secondary continued to make plays on the ball. Late in the third quarter, cornerback Shaun Wade forced a fumble on Ravens receiver Elijah Sarratt, which was recovered by cornerback Ambry Thomas at the Eagles’ 24-yard line.

Smael Mondon and Joshua Weru also had back-to-back quarterback hits in the third quarter. Their plays led the Ravens to settle for a 42-yard field goal, which put them up, 10-0.

Get in the (outside) zone

Despite the overall ineffectiveness of a very vanilla Eagles offense in the first game of the preseason, there were some encouraging moments, especially in the run game.

On McKee’s second possession, third-year running back Will Shipley had a strong series, picking up 22 yards on four carries (5.5 yards per carry). The outside zone carries were effective. Shipley picked up eight yards on his first rush of the drive, bouncing to his right and running behind tight end E.J. Jenkins before he got tripped up by Ravens safety K’Von Wallace.

The Eagles lost some momentum late in that series when center Jake Majors was called for holding, wiping out a Shipley 8-yard run.

“I think that drive was a good one, in terms of being able to put the ball on the ground and just run the football,” Shipley said. “Those boys up front were doing a great job. I think you saw the momentum. We were carrying it on and, again, we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot with a penalty and weren’t able to get back on track.”

Shipley relieved Tank Bigsby, the likely backup to Saquon Barkley. Bigsby had just two carries for five yards.

Injury report

Jakorian Bennett, who started at outside cornerback opposite Ringo, was injured early in the first quarter and did not return to the game.

Inspired by Pro Football Reference’s “Cups of Coffee” database, The Inquirer identified more than two dozen living players who appeared in just one NFL game — and played that game as an Eagle. We’re seeking to tell some of those stories in our semiregular Cups of Coffee series.

Former Eagles defensive tackle Jeff Owens played his first NFL game on Dec. 28, 2010. A gruesome knee injury made it his last.

“It looked that bad when you watched it,” Owens said.

His NFL debut came in Week 16 vs. the Minnesota Vikings, which was played on a Tuesday night at the Linc in bizarre circumstances. A snow emergency that had been forecast for the area meant the game was moved from Sunday Night Football, and it became the NFL’s first scheduled Tuesday contest since 1946.

The Vikings were 5-9 and playing out the string behind a quarterback, Joe Webb, who was a converted wide receiver.

The heavily favored Eagles were 10-4 and had already clinched the NFC East, but needed the win to stay in the hunt for a first-round playoff bye. They wouldn’t get it.

Owens, a seventh-round draft pick out of Georgia who had spent the season on the practice squad, was helping to fill in on the front seven for rookie Brandon Graham, who had torn his ACL and meniscus two weeks prior.

While the snow subsided, the temperatures remained frigid. Cold winters were somewhat foreign to Owens, who spent his childhood in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., area and played college football in the SEC. Now 39, Owens thinks the weather played a massive role in his injury.

“I’m trying to warm up, get in the hot tub before the game and all that; we got the benches warm … and it’s a big difference when you’re trying to go full speed, 100 miles per hour in that kind of weather and stopping on a dime. My body just wasn’t used to it,” Owens said.

Late in the third quarter, Owens fell backward while trying to chase Webb out of the pocket. He remained down and immobile for minutes before being carted off the field. He was placed on injured reserve the next morning, with a ruptured left patellar tendon. The injury itself was devastating for Owens, but the injury’s timing made the situation worse.

“You don’t have surgery till January/February, and the expectation is you’re not going to be ready to play when training camp comes back,” Owens said. “Then when I came back … that first day, I didn’t pass my physical because I wasn’t ready.”

To add insult to literal injury, the Eagles lost the game, 24-14. They didn’t win again that season, falling to the Green Bay Packers 12 days later in what became the final playoff game of the Andy Reid era.

There was more working against Owens after the injury. An NFL lockout spanning from late March to late July 2011 prevented him from entering the team facility to rehab. Once it finally opened back up following the signing of the collective bargaining agreement, the Eagles didn’t have the patience to wait for Owens’ return and released him on the first day of training camp.

“Maybe if I was a third-rounder, second-rounder, I would’ve had more leeway, but I was a seventh-rounder,” Owens said.

Before entering the NFL, the Plantation (Fla.) High School alumnus had surgeries on both knees. Despite a successful career at Georgia, his medical record likely played a role in a draft slide. Owens believed he would be picked earlier, and was told on draft weekend that the Kansas City Chiefs considered drafting him in the third round, as did the Chicago Bears in the fifth round. Neither materialized.

The injury also was his biggest reason for hanging up the cleats after getting released by the Eagles.

“I could have tried to fight to come back, but I already had my degree from Georgia, so it’s like, ‘Might as well start working,’” Owens said.

But work didn’t take the former Eagle far from football. Owens quickly landed a job as an assistant coach at West Forsyth (Ga.) High School. Fifteen years later, he still works in coaching and is now the defensive line coach at NAIA Campbellsville University in Kentucky. What’s kept Owens in the profession so long is the impact he’s had on his players.

“Taking a kid who really didn’t have a direction, then see the kid graduate, see the kid become a husband, see the kid become a dad, and then years later, I have guys I’ve coached … [who] reach back out,” Owens said. “So that’s what’s impactful, is knowing that it doesn’t go in vain.”