No starters, no stakes, but plenty of sense in Nick Sirianni’s preseason schedule for his Eagles starters

The best thing about the second week of the NFL preseason is that there is only one more week of it remaining. It used to be that you could at least root for guys to stay healthy. Now, the guys don’t even play. Of course, it also used to be that there were four of these things. Future generations will marvel that we had any.

I realize that this is a self-defeating attitude for someone who is an active participant in an industry that attempts to cull revenue from the idea that you can wring some sort of meaning from August football. Really, though, the only thing we learned about the Eagles on Sunday in a 21-20 win over the Browns is that Gardner Minshew can carve up a second-string NFL defense. And, frankly, we already learned that last year against the Jets.

Beyond that, what can you really say about the Eagles on an afternoon when most of the Eagles didn’t play? The closest Jalen Hurts came to breaking a sweat was when he climbed onto an exercise bike on the sideline. Even then, he was wearing gym shorts, headphones, and a gold chain. Lane Johnson was sitting on a cooler next to him. They were laughing about something — maybe it was the idea that people would actually pay for these tickets.

Which is fine. Smart, even. When you consider the dollar value of every regular-season day lost to injury, it makes little sense to expose these players to a full-contact environment where there are no stakes. The Eagles had already spent two full days scrimmaging against the Browns during the joint practice sessions they held on Thursday and Friday. Which meant they had even less to gain from the “official” exhibition on Sunday.

“I really felt like we got two good days of work and we really look at those joint practices as the game,” Sirianni said. “It’s a controlled game setting. I felt like they got the work in they needed, and that’s why I rested them.”

At least somebody got their money’s worth, then.

Sirianni has no reason to apologize. Not after watching Hurts absorb a helmet-rattling late hit in the Eagles’ preseason opener. Sure, there’s a valid argument for getting your first-teamers some form of live action before Week 1. Mostly, from a logistical standpoint: reacquainting oneself with the play-calling and the play clock and the line judges and the spatial awareness of the stadium itself. A regulation game is a much different thing from a controlled practice, and there is some benefit to be found in giving your players a little taste of that before the season. But anybody who thinks Sirianni is taking some sort of risk in keeping Hurts from the live fire for as long as possible doesn’t have a great handle on the reality of these games. They also don’t remember last year, when Hurts played 10 snaps in the preseason and then went 27-of-35 with three touchdowns and no interceptions in Week 1.

» READ MORE: The Jets’ cheap shot on Jalen Hurts should have the Eagles concerned. About Hurts.

As Sirianni noted, his quarterback got plenty of quality reps in their practices with the Browns this week. Those aren’t the type of reps he would have gotten on Sunday while facing an opponent that had stripped away most of the elements that make football such a challenging game. If you haven’t spent your week game-planning for an opponent, and your opponent is actively trying to avoid doing the things it anticipates doing during the regular season, what can you really learn from your execution, or lack thereof? Any coach who comes to regret not playing his starters more in the preseason probably didn’t have very good starters to begin with.

All of this is to say that the questions that will come to define the Eagles this season are very much the same as they were before Sunday.

Will they be able to generate the sort of pressure from the edges that typically separates the elite defenses from the merely solid ones?

Can a team have an elite defense without an elite — or even very good — safety? What if that team has Darius Slay and James Bradberry as its cornerbacks?

What will Jonathan Gannon’s scheme look like now that he has players who should — in theory — allow him to do a lot of the things he could not do last year?

» READ MORE: What we know and what we don’t about the Eagles after a solid preseason debut

Offensively, the only question is Hurts. On the line, out wide, in tight — the Eagles rank in the top third of the league in talent across the board. But the guy under center is the one who sets the ceiling.

Of course, you knew that. And with 20 days to go before the season opener, you know pretty much everything you can know about the Eagles without seeing them play a real game. Which leaves one option for fans and players looking to make the most of their preseason. Like any of life’s struggles, the only way out is through.