Now that the Philadelphia Eagles' preseason schedule is over, the team's focus shifts to cutting their roster down to the regular season 53-player limit before the 6:00 PM Eastern deadline on Sunday, August 30. Here's our best effort at projecting what the INITIAL roster is going to look like. The Birds will likely make some tweaks (injured reserve placements, trades, waiver claims, etc.) before they actually play the Washington Commanders in Week 1. Note that this activity is about predicting what the Eagles WILL do as opposed to what we necessarily think they should do.
QUARTERBACK: Jalen Hurts, Tanner McKee, Cole Payton (3) [3]
Hurts threw a lot of interceptions this summer, yes, but I challenge you to find a daily practice observer who feels like he had a bad camp. On the whole, the good outweighed the bad. It seems like he's embracing the new offensive direction. The Eagles are hoping Hurts doesn't get, well, hurt … because the depth behind him is very uninspiring. There was no clear winner from the Eagles' training camp backup quarterback battle. McKee somehow looked worse than ever after previously showing encouraging signs in previous years. Dalton looks somewhat physically diminished, which tracks for a quarterback entering his age 39 season. Maybe he gets traded … but what price is he even fetching at this point? I wonder if the Eagles might trade both Dalton (for very meager draft pick compensation) AND McKee (included in a deal for another team's quarterback, such as Anthony Richardson or J.J. McCarthy)? Payton has shown some promise but the Eagles didn't really do a good job of getting him more action in the preseason. Utilizing him on special teams in the final preseason game points to them trying to find a role for him. This is a tough position to figure out.
OUT: Andy Dalton
RUNNING BACK: Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley (3) [6]

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