Philadelphia Eagles: Introducing your 53-man roster
The Philadelphia Eagles have reached the league mandated 53-man roster requirement.
For the Philadelphia Eagles, it’s been a long journey. As fans we were all there for most of it, but here we are. It was a long offseason. Then came an NFL Combine, a free-agency period, rookie minicamp, OTAs, minicamps, a slew of practice sessions and training camp.
Four preseason games later, a roster is finalized. Per the NFL, every franchise had to trim their roster to 53 men. The Eagles have done so, and now, we have about a week before the troops are sent into battle against the Washington Redskins.
There’s no need in prolonging anything. It’s time to meet the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles.
The Offense:
The quarterbacks:
QB1: Carson Wentz
Backup: Nick Foles
Immediate reaction:
Duh.
The running backs:
RB1: LeGarrette Blount
The backups: Corey Clement, Donnel Pumphrey, Wendell Smallwood, Darren Sproles
Immediate reaction: After all of our debates, they decided to keep Pumphrey and Clement. Now, why didn’t we think of that?
The tight ends:
TE1: Zach Ertz
The backups: Trey Burton, Brent Celek
Immediate reaction:
Not a whole lot has changed in a year.
The wide receivers:
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Starters: Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith
The backups: Nelson Agholor, Shelton Gibson, Mack Hollins and Marcus Johnson
Immediate reaction: Wentz is a better quarterback without even attempting a pass. Shelton Gibson just keeps on hanging around huh?
The offensive line:
The starters: Brandon Brooks, Lane Johnson, Jason Peters, Isaac Seumalo and Jason Kelce
The backups: Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Stefen Wisniewski and Chance Warmack
Immediate reaction: Well, when you look at the names on paper, it looks amazing, doesn’t it? This might actually be the best offensive line in the NFL.
The ‘D’:
The defensive ends:
Philadelphia Eagles
The starters: Vinny Curry and Brandon Graham
The backups: Derek Barnett, Chris Long and Steven Means
Immediate reaction: When it’s all said and done, Alex McCalister was held off of the roster. That sucks. Now, how long will it be before Curry is looking up at Barnett on the depth chart?
The defensive tackles:
The starters: Fletcher Cox and Tim Jernigan
The backups: Beau Allen, Elijah Qualls and Destiny Vaeao
Immediate reaction: It’s easy to fall in love with this defensive line. We’ve literally been shot with Cupid’s arrow.
The linebackers:
The starters: Jordan Hicks, Mychal Kendricks and Nigel Bradham
The backups: Najee Goode, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Joe Walker
Immediate reaction: There are no real surprises here either, and honestly, that’s fine.
The cornerbacks:
The starters: Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills
The backups: Rasul Douglas, Dexter McDougle and Patrick Robinson
Immediate reaction: We thought this would be one of the most interesting battles of camp. It didn’t disappoint. One month later, this unit doesn’t, at all, look like it did when training camp started. Oh and we’re scratching our heads about Robinson just like you probably are.
The safeties:
The starters: Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod
The backups: Corey Graham, Chris Maragos and Jaylen Watkins
Immediate reaction: Outside of a suddenly absent Terrence Brooks, this unit looks like we thought it would.
The specialists:
The starters: Donnie Jones, Rick Lovato and Caleb Sturgis
Immediate reaction: The punter and kicker we know. The long-snapper we don’t. Lovato takes over for long-time Eagles great Jon Dorenbos. He’s got big shoes to fill.