The NFL preseason is a very exciting time for football fans everywhere. It’s a time marked by watching rookies make their professional debuts, coaches calling their first plays, and quarterbacks competing for the most important job on the team. All the things we love, are the very things that can make the players on the field dread suiting up for the exhibition games. Unless you’re a lock to make the team, you will likely spend your preseason sweating it out as more and more cuts are made, that is of course unless you’re able to really show out in the preseason. The Philadelphia Eagles are a team in the midst of a rebuild. Amid the sudden influx of new, younger talent, players from the previous regime will have their hands full fighting off the competition from both their opponent on the field and their opponents on their own team.
With preseason week one in the books we have already seen which players are beginning to trend upwards towards a roster spot, and which ones may be fighting for a spot on another roster in the coming weeks. While the Eagles may have lost their opener a handful of players are more than happy with the individual results. Today we take a look at the three winners, and three losers of Philly’s first preseason game.
Winner: Jalen Hurts
The Eagles new starting quarterback looked sharp on Thursday and sought to spend his brief time on the field answering the questions raised by the media over the last few months. In just two series Hurts looked patient and calm in the pocket and was able to limit his scrambles to only dire situations. The ball left his hand with zip and he really felt in control of his game against a Pittsburgh pass rush that penetrated the Eagles line on multiple occasions. Overall, Jalen Hurts did everything you could have asked from a starting quarterback on limited plays while showing significant improvement in the pocket.
Loser: Nick Mullens
Since signing with the Eagles just before training camp, former 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens had supposedly impressed many members of the coaching staff throughout the team’s practices. Since the beginning of camp, there have been multiple reports from Eagles insiders claiming that Mullens, by all accounts had been outplaying veteran backup Joe Flacco. Heading into the Eagles matchup against the Steelers, Mullens had all the momentum in the world. Although Flacco was given the nod as QB2, Mullens was given every opportunity to string together at least a solid performance to keep his name in the conversation for the backup job. Instead, Mullens flopped, finishing the game 1/5 passing with 2 interceptions. Throwing more interceptions than completions is not where you want to start while fighting for a roster spot at the most important position on the team.
Winner: Quez Watkins
Quez Watkins had just one reception against the Steelers on Thursday but boy did he steal the show. Watkins spent all of last season in the Eagles reserves, biding his time until an opportunity arose. Not much was known about the Eagles 2020 sixth-round draft pick, except for his ability to fly past defenders. Watkins is far from a finished product. In fact, he still has a ways to go before actually being ready to contribute regularly on a winning team but Thursday’s game showed a flash of his speedy potential. A simple screen turned into a 79-yard score all thanks to the speed of number 16. The Eagles receiver room is not the most talented but it is going to be extremely competitive, so competitive that younger, fringe players need to make the most out of every opportunity they receive and Quez Watkins did just that on his impressive catch and run.
Loser: J.J. Arcega-Whiteside
Boy oh boy. You cannot help but feel for J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. Since entering the league in 2019, ‘JJAW’ has failed to live up to his status as a second-round pick. Throughout his first two seasons, he had the luxury of making the roster due to his draft status and the Eagles’ unwillingness to admit their mistake. However, that can only take you so far as the former second-round pick may have taken the free ride for all that it’s worth. As the Eagles receiver room becomes more and more crowded, Arcega-Whiteside becomes much more expendable and suddenly the Eagles front office is willing to cut their loss and refocus their attention on their next top draft pick. The clock has already been ticking on the Eagles’ third-year receiver and Thursday’s preseason opener was not the sign of life fans had hoped for. As the game clock hit zero, Arcega-Whiteside finished the game without a single catch.
Winner: Tyree Jackson
What could be a surprise to many, the former quarterback turned tight end Tyree Jackson made an impressive showing against Pittsburgh as his transition to tight end has already gone much smoother than another former quarterback we all know about. Standing at 6 foot 7, 245 pounds Jackson is a physical anomaly. So much so that teams quickly realized that the former Buffalo quarterback would have a future in the NFL, even if it isn’t at quarterback. Slowly but surely, the twenty-three-year-old Jackson has taken more and more practice snaps at the tight end position in an effort to utilize his natural athletic ability. Like the Eagles receiver room, the backup tight end job is going to be a battle for all involved. Dallas Goedert is a lock to start and no one knows what the future holds for Zach Ertz. The backup tight end position is more important than ever and in just his first NFL snaps at the position, Tyree Jackson showed out in limited playing time. In his tight-end debut, Jackson hauled in 2 catches for 32 yards. The 32 yards were enough for the third most on the team but more importantly, it was almost double the yards cultivated by fellow tight end Richard Rogers, who is also firmly in the running for a roster spot. Given the circumstances and the competition surrounding him, Tyree Jackson left the field Thursday doing just about all he could to help keep his name out of cuts in the foreseeable future.
Loser: Richard Rodgers
As stated above, Richard Rodgers could very well be on the Eagles opening day roster as cuts continue to trim away at the team. Rodgers is a name that should be familiar to Eagles fans. He’s spent the better half of the last three years on and off the Eagles roster as a reserve tight end. As a veteran presence competing against a young player who’s played the position for all of one game, Rodgers should all but have the third tight-end spot in the bag. However, instead of an easy checkmate, Rodgers now finds himself on the outside looking in as the young and exciting Tyree Jackson has stolen round one of their four-part battle. While the preseason is far from over, a good outing against Pittsburgh would be huge for a player grasping onto a backup spot, unfortunately for Rodgers that player wasn’t him.
