PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - The BIGGEST questions looming for the Eagles as they trim the roster to 53

Episode Date: August 23, 2025

Will Ainias Smith, Darius Cooper and John Metchie all make the team? How safe are A.J. Dillon and Adoree' Jackson? Is Jalen Hurts definitely on the roster? OK, we know the answer to one of those, but the rest are keeping us up at night. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Roster cuts loom for the Eagles on Tuesday. So let's go position by position, Fran Duffy, Bow Wolf, and figure out what the biggest questions we have about the Eagles roster, ahead of the 53-man roster cut down. Let's start a quarterback. What do you think? What is the most interesting thing to you there? Yeah, I mean, obviously it's going to come down to quarterback three.

Is it Kyle McCord? Is it DTR? Is it either? Do they carry a third quarterback? I think that that's a viable question to ask after Friday night. but I think that is clearly the number one thing to look at. Now, we'll see what this, and you might know more than be, what the finger injury and the prognosis is there with Tanner McKee

and how that could impact things as well for week one now that we're under two weeks away. Yeah, I think it is my guess here would be McCord goes on the initial roster, but there's maybe looking for a different developmental quarterback from around the league, but the Tanner McKee finger does complicate things here. We will see what they do. I would go to running back here, Fran. To me, similarly, it is A.J. Dillon versus Montreal Johnson versus the field from the rest of the NFL. And I would right now probably lean a little bit towards them keeping A.J. Dylan on.

But I don't feel super confident about that. Yeah, and obviously you can get into the whole thing about making his contract, you know, vested in the area, making it guaranteed and everything with keeping him on the roster for week one as opposed to trying to bring him back. four week two. Do they try and play those kind of games for a team that obviously knows that, you know, their bread and butter last year was running the football. How important is it to be able to to be able to do that? He was kept on ice on Friday night along with Will Shipley, he being A.J. Dillon. So yeah, I agree. That is the number one thing certainly at running back. For me, a receiver, honestly, this is pretty cut and dry for me. I mean, after the unfortunate injury this week to Johnny Wilson with him going on injured reserve, you know, we know that who the top

three receivers are on this team. Maybe there's a debate on whether or not the third receiver is in question. But to me, we know who the four receivers are. Darius Cooper is going to be on this roster in my mind. So I think when you put AJ Brown, Devante Smith, Jahan Dots, and Darius Cooper, now it comes down to John Mechie. My guess is he makes the team. I think that John Mechie's on the team as a fourth, fifth receiver. I don't know that Ania Smith makes it, but I guess that's the question now is does an iasmith make it as wide receiver six as the you know underneath slot receiver and punt returner is that enough i think that's a big question i think think it is possible that they keep six because if they don't keep an i smith they don't have a punt

returner week one then again they've done some roster chicanery with that in the past you know they remember they used to cut brit and covey and bring him on week one so they are comfortable at least rolling the dice there a little bit um at tide end it is also a pretty easy answer here. It comes down to Kyle and Granson or E.J. Jenkins for tight-end three. I think it's probably weighted a little bit towards Kyle and Granson right now, but that too is one where I could see them going either way or finding somebody from the outside. I know this is a prickly subject for you, but do you consider, as you're putting your 53 together, Ben Van Zumer in with this group or with the running back group, and how do you factor him in? Does he come into this conversation?

I guess he would be in the running backs for me. And you're right. I did gloss over him. That is a interesting dilemma to me. I don't know that I would use the roster spot on the guy who plays two snaps a game on offense. But if they think he's that good at special teams, I can be convinced. All right. Well, let's go to the offensive line where again, this one is going to be interesting. You know, obviously you've got a good mix here of young day three, like promising talent that hasn't shown it all that often in preseason games.

I think we feel good about Drew Kendall making this 53 match. roster. I don't know that Miles Hinton or Cameron Williams, the two rookie offensive tackles, had looked all that great to say like, oh, in preseason games, oh, you know, we can't expose this guy to waivers. I don't know that we've seen enough from those two to say, like, it's a lock. I do think they'd like to be able to keep at least one of them on the 53 man roster. And then you have Matt Pryor, you have Kendall Lamb, right? You have Darian canard. So I do think that the numbers game there between the tackling guard spots is fascinating to watch and see what decisions they make there as we get to Tuesday afternoon.

And Lyndon Dickerson's health is a factor here because if he's not going to be ready for week one, do they keep Brett Tooth on the roster? And is he going to be the, you know, interim starting left guard? Kendall Lamb, who you mentioned did have a very tough final preseason game against the Jets from first watch. So that is not ideal in his favor. I think this is the place where we're going to be surprised by exactly what they do with the offensive line and we'll ruin a bunch of, you know, roster prediction contest contestants ballots. Defensive side of the ball, to me it is a defensive tackle. Do they keep six? You know, given the strength of the roster where it might be elsewhere, can you get away

with keeping Byron Young as the six? Because I do believe that Gabe Hall and Ty Robinson will make this team in addition to the top three. And then on the edge, I mean, what do they do? Josh Ushay has had a pretty good summer, but he's got an injury right now. How serious is it? We don't know. Is Zizzo Jalari going to make the team? Is Patrick Johnson going to make the team? Could they shockingly keep Antoine Powell Riland after the summer he had, but a nice sack?

Or more likely, you know, to Sanai Rose, when he was one of his draft picks to go out and get like a better quality edge rusher to add to this group. Yeah, I still think just based off this offseason and the, these salary implications. I don't imagine them going for one of like the high-priced vets. I know that there's a portion of the fan base that thinks that there's that kind of move is possible. That would surprise me. As much as like that would that would fit the bill in years past,

I just don't know that they're in position to do something like that now. But if there is a young guy on an expiring contract or a rookie deal that you can go and make that move for, you know, that's the day. Like we didn't know four years ago, there are three years ago that C.J. Gardner Johnson was available from the New Orleans Saints until they made that trade. John Dotson last year, there was probably more breadcrumbs pointing to that. But that's a tough one for us to be able to pinpoint. But yeah, I agree with you.

In terms of like the outside linebacker, that is going to be a fascinating one to watch and see which, what decisions they make there. And offball linebacker, I do think this is another one that's pretty cut and dry. It really does feel like Zach Bond and Jihad Campbell are going to be your starters. We know Nicobie Dean is going to start on the sideline. so then you go in with Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Smile Mundin as your two backups. And then it's a matter of, all right, well, do you like Lance Dixon enough or Dallas Gant enough to get them on the 53?

My gut says no. I think, you know, you're probably looking at Lance Dixon as more of a practice squad candidate. But I think that this one is, of all the positions on the roster, it's probably the cleanest in terms of the decision-making standpoint. I think you're probably right. At corner, all of the intrigues about who's going to start week one. I think there's probably a little bit less about.

the roster, but there is some. Now, obviously, Queenie Nyh Mitchell is going to be on this team. Kili Ringo is battling an injury, but I think he makes the team. Jacori and Bennett. Adori Jackson is actually a fascinating one to me. He did not play in the preseason finale. He has taken most of the reps with the ones over the past week of practice. But I don't think it's impossible that the Eagles move on from him. I think he's probably about like 60% likely to start week one and also at the same time, like 30% likely to not be on the team at all. But I would lean towards him making it. And then after that, Mac McWilliams will make this team.

And that's probably it. They could add somebody from elsewhere. I do think that this is probably the end of the line for Eli Ricks on the 53 Ben roster. Yeah, a tough way for him to go out on Friday night with the shot he took in the late in the second half. But I think when you're looking at that group, I agree with you. I would say that that 30% number on Adori Jackson not being on the 53 is probably a touch high for me. I would say it's not zero, but honestly, I feel like he's the week one starter, man. Just with how things have progressed over the last couple of weeks,

it feels like he is going to be the guy that gets the nod, at least for week one, and we'll see how plays out from there. All right. I think it's safety. Safety. To me, it's going to be like Andre Sam versus Tristan McCollum. Obviously, there's going to be talk about who's the starter. Is it going to be Sidney Brown or Drew McCuba?

But to me, I don't think that it's completely out of the question that Andre Sam. gets the nod. I think Sam does more on special teams. And so that could be a deciding factor there. McCollum had a couple nice plays on Friday night. This is a, that is an interesting decision for them to make. And we also don't know the exact severity of the Drew Macuba injury. So it's possible that that changes the math there as well.

Maybe they put them on IRR and try to bring him back. Eagles fans would hope that that is not the case with Drew McCuba. Okay. Much to find out about the Eagles. The roster cut down is on Tuesday. We will have you full covered live 4 o'clock on PHLY. Check it out. Subscribe to the channel, like the video, all that good stuff.

I'll talk to you later.