The Bengals will play their starters in the preseason opener. Don’t expect the Eagles to do the same.
It would be a departure from the recent norm if the offensive starters saw any action. In the last two preseasons, Jalen Hurts and the key cogs of the offense were sidelined for all three games.
With the Eagles’ preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals coming up on Thursday, Nick Sirianni is keeping his personnel plans close to the vest, just as he did last year.
The fifth-year Eagles coach said he is “still thinking through all of those things” as he decides who will play — namely the starters — in the team’s first of three preseason games.
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“Everything’s discussed,” Sirianni said Tuesday. “We spend a lot of time discussing it. And we’ll see how that goes. Today’s practice, this will be our third day in a row in practice, and we’ll see how guys are feeling after this and go from there.”
It would be a departure from the recent norm if the offensive starters saw any action at all. In 2023 and 2024, Jalen Hurts and the key cogs of the offense were sidelined for all three games. Hurts last saw preseason action in 2022, playing one series with the starting offense in the Eagles’ opener against the New York Jets.
When asked Tuesday if he can get ready for the regular season without playing in the preseason, Hurts answered affirmatively.
“I think any time I have the opportunity to play, I relish in it and take advantage of it,” Hurts said. “If Coach makes that decision, I will.”
When Hurts played in the preseason in 2022, he took a late hit on the sixth play of the drive, drawing a 15-yard penalty in the process. Despite the hit, Hurts finished the drive, going 6-for-6 for 80 passing yards and one touchdown.
Meanwhile, Bengals coach Zac Taylor said that Joe Burrow and the starters will play “several series” Thursday. Those series led by the Bengals’ two-time Pro Bowl quarterback could test a young Eagles defense, whose ongoing position battles at cornerback, safety, and inside linebacker will play out through the preseason.
Thursday’s game will also be Kevin Patullo’s first opportunity to call plays in a game scenario. While preseason games provide the offense the chance to nail down its operation — when players come on and off the field, for example — the new coordinator won’t necessarily be scheming to face the Bengals defense, he said Sunday.
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For that reason, Hurts pushed back on the notion that preseason reps would provide valuable opportunities for him to get on the same page with Patullo from a play-calling standpoint.
“Preseason games aren’t real games in terms of what the defense is giving you and kind of what we’re showing from an offensive standpoint,” Hurts said. “So that’s all that you want to take into consideration.
“But when you have these competitive practices and [when] we’re doing these situations like we’re doing, you just want to take advantage of that. So that’s what I’m afforded and given and that’s all I can control in terms of taking advantage of it.”
Even though the Eagles had an unpadded practice on Tuesday that was shorter than the day before, the team sessions were just as spirited as the ones on fully padded days. Sirianni planned a variety of situational drills, including seven-on-sevens and 11-on-11s in the red zone. Both the offense and defense made big plays, from Jahan Dotson’s touchdown catch against Cover 0 to Cooper DeJean’s end-zone interception of Hurts.
After the workout, DeVonta Smith asserted that practices are supposed to be harder than games, making matchups against opponents easier. He said that he goes up against his teammates on defense every day, so they have a better read on what he might do in any given situation.
Hurts called Smith’s opinion an “Alabama mentality,” but he acknowledged that his fellow former SEC players possess a similar way of thinking. Nonetheless, Hurts lauded Sirianni’s approach to ramping up the competition in practice through the situational drills that mirror game scenarios.
“Competition is everything, how Coach Sirianni goes about it, I applaud it and support it fully,” Hurts said. “We just kind of build off of that. I think Coach Sirianni does a really good job of, again, just bringing those situations to life in practice so we can already have a mold and have that much conviction when it is fourth-and-5 in what we’re going to do. Third-and-1, what we’re going to do.
“Everybody knows what we’re going to do in that moment. But just building that confidence in one another.”
Jeffrey Lurie has owned the Philadelphia Eagles, which he purchased in 1994, longer than his son, Julian, has been alive. But in recent years, the younger Lurie, heir to the franchise and now 31, has assumed a more pervasive and influential role in the organization. While the Eagles have made no secret about Julian’s increased involvement with the team, specifics about his role have been scant. In recent months, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane spoke to nearly two dozen sources on and off the record to gain a better understanding of not just who Julian Lurie is and what he does, but - most important of all - whether he’ll be ready to assume the reins as Eagles Chairman and CEO, whenever the time comes. Jeff shares the biggest takeaways from his reporting with Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski in this companion episode to Jeff’s feature article about the Eagles' succession plan. Listen here.
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