Roseman still won't name Eagles' QB2 as preseason ends 0-3
Howie Roseman kept all 4 Eagles quarterbacks and still won't name a backup as the 0-3 preseason closes and Washington arrives in 8 days.
Roseman keeps 4 quarterbacks, still won't blink on QB2
Cutdown weekend didn't force Howie Roseman's hand and neither did the finale in Cincinnati. The Eagles carried all 4 quarterbacks through to the 53-man roster — Jalen Hurts, Andy Dalton, Tanner McKee and fifth-round rookie Cole Payton — and Roseman is still declining to say which veteran backs up Hurts. "I feel like all those guys have value for our team," he said, distinguishing Dalton's short-term value from the longer runway he sees for Payton. The Inquirer's framing of it says everything about where this stands: will the Eagles still be sitting on the fence when the games start counting?
New Pod! “unCovering the Birds” looks at the #Eagles’ 53-man roster and the many parts to like and the few to be concerned about. @MikeSielski joins the show to break it all down. Watch: t.co/Sz3nE69xiN Listen: t.co/7Mu7LLGqLn
The stat sheet has an opinion even if the front office won't share one. McKee closed the preseason completing 63 percent of his throws for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns against 1 interception, often behind Philadelphia's third- and fourth-string offensive line, while Dalton finished at 51.4 percent for 168 yards and a touchdown across the same 3 games, per Jeff McLane of the Inquirer. Neither performance moved Roseman off the fence, and McLane's new podcast, "unCovering the Birds" with Mike Sielski, goes after the same tension this week — the backup job sitting at the top of the list of things the building is still worried about.
Preseason closes 0-3 with Dalton sharper than McKee in the finale
Friday's 30-13 loss to the Bengals was the least clean of the 3 and shut the door on a preseason that finished 0-3 in the preseason so far — a number that means something about roster clarity and nothing about the season, since the games that count open 0-0. Philadelphia forced and recovered a fumble and Jake Elliott drilled a 56-yard field goal, and still trailed by 17 at the final whistle. Andy Dalton went 12 of 19 for 104 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions in relief; Tanner McKee, who started, went 12 of 22 for 55 yards with an interception that's now part of the file being weighed on him.
Bengals13-30
Patriots21-24
Ravens7-24The skill players got their last look too. Elijah Moore caught both of his targets for 10 yards, and rookie Makai Lemon played through the roughest outing of the 3 exhibitions — 3 catches on 5 targets for 5 yards, a punt return for no gain, and a fumble he recovered himself. It caps a preseason that opened with a 24-7 loss at Baltimore on August 15 and continued with a 24-21 defeat at New England on August 22 — 3 losses that were never about winning, only about who made the 53.
Fangio doesn't know when Greenard will be back for Washington
Jonathan Greenard's pectoral injury, suffered lifting weights in the offseason, has never cleared, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said this week he doesn't know when the $100 million pass rusher will be back, per NBC Sports Philadelphia — a real chance the Eagles open the season against Washington on September 13 without him.
Jonathan Greenard’s availability is unknown, but his position coach says Eagles pass rusher has ‘been an A-plus’ @ReinerOlivia: t.co/1ne7ZtFXtH
It's an odd contrast with how the building is talking about him otherwise. Greenard's position coach told Olivia Reiner of the Inquirer the pass rusher has "been an A-plus" even while sidelined, the kind of praise that reads as a vote of confidence for whenever he does return rather than a hint that Week 1 is close. For a defense that leans on him off the edge, the gap between the medical timeline and the locker-room talk is the thing to watch this week.
Barkley gets his first live look of the year, and it's Washington at the Linc
Sunday afternoon vs. the Commanders is also the first time Saquon Barkley plays a snap all year — he sat out all 3 preseason games by design, and September 13 at Lincoln Financial Field is where that patience gets tested against a live NFC East opponent. Washington arrives off a 1-2 preseason and a last result that read 3-41 at the Ravens, hardly a measuring stick, but a division game at home is a division game at home regardless of how either club looked in August.
The number on the board reflects that gap: the Eagles opened as 4.5-point favorites, with the total set at 47.5 — middling enough that it isn't making a strong case either way. Philadelphia is the favorite here, and after 3 preseason losses that told the roster staff plenty and the standings nothing, this is the game where any of it will finally mean something.