Preseason Week 1: Eagles @ Ravens, Our First Glimpse At 2024
Tomorrow evening will be our first taste of the season.
And while the Eagles might not put much competitiveness into preseason (1-6-2 in the last 3 years), the Ravens certainly do, (24-1 in their last 25) with a 24 game win-streak spanning 8 years that the Eagles were on, twice.
At the end of the day, wins and losses in preseason don’t make an impact on the standings. But we will get helpful insights on roster depth, as well as build an idea of what the final 53-man roster might look like. As teams are now able to carry a 90-man roster until August 27th, 2 days after the final preseason games.
As of now, we’re not sure if any of the starters from 2023 will see any snaps against the Ravens. While highly unlikely, there’s multiple starting positions that are still realistically open heading into tomorrows game.
Offensive Line Shuffle
With Kelce’s retirement, that meant there’d be another change to the Eagles offensive line this season. And with Tyler Steen drafted in the 3rd round last year, the Eagles already seemed prepared. Until they signed former Jet, Mekhi Becton, the 11th overall pick from the 2020 draft.
While playing time wasn’t a guarantee for Steen last season (71 offensive snaps), he managed to make an impact in what little time he had, including these 6 snaps against the Commanders.
Both Becton & Steen have missed the last few days of practice. However with both returning recently, Becton has taken over the starting reps. After Steen had the majority of these reps prior to his injury. Is this precaution from Steen’s ankle injury? Or are the Eagles testing all possible options for the offensive line, in case of another 13 OL combos in 14 games disaster like in 2020?
New Receivers In The Mix
With the departure of Quez Watkins, Olamide Zaccheaus and Julio Jones during the offseason, the Eagles would look to replace 2 wide receivers roles in the offense.
Enter offseason additions of Parris Campbell, Ainias Smith and Johnny Wilson.
However, after multiple weeks of camp there’s been more brought up specifically about one of these receivers. Johnny Wilson.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Eagles might’ve struck gold on a day 3 pick, including Jordan Mailata and Jason Kelce. Even Quez Watkins was the teams WR2/3/4 during his rookie contract, also drafted in the 6th round.
Hopefully we’ll see some of Wilson in the game against Baltimore, but if the WR3/4 positions are already in place, then there’s a chance we won’t see much, if any of Wilson prior to Week 1 in Brazil.
Today’s the day we’ll see the Eagles finally take the field, just 28 days until their regular season kicks off!
Photo Credit: Colleen Claggett/PhillyVoice
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