Why I have a good feeling about the Sean Mannion hire, a couple one-time mediocre Eagles who have huge roles on Super Bowl teams and a look at the Eagles’ chances to re-sign Jaelan Phillips.

The offseason began too soon, but at least we’ve got weekly 10 Random Observations to get us through to the 2026 season, now just 31 short weeks away!

1. I know the default reaction for a lot of people is going to be that Sean Mannion sucks and the Eagles are clueless and don’t know what they’re doing and they just hired an offensive coordinator with no experience and this is going to be another disaster. And I get it. After a year of Kevin Patullo, it’s hard to have faith in the Eagle’ hiring process. But I beg to differ. I like the move a lot and out of the remaining candidates I believe Mannion was by far the best option. I love that he’s been around so many successful quarterbacks in his career – from Nick Foles to Jared Goff to Kirk Cousins to Russell Wilson to Jordan Love – as well as highly regarded offensive coaches – from Matt LaFleur to Sean McVay to Liam Coen to Zac Taylor to Kevin Stefanski to Shane Waldron to Kevin O’Connell to Klint and Gary Kubiak to Drew Petzing to Rick Dennison to Greg Olson to Dave Canales to Pete Carroll. That’s quite a group of top-notch guys to learn from. Now, just having those connections doesn’t guarantee anything. But by all accounts this is a very smart, very driven, very inventive offensive mind who is very highly regarded by some incredibly successful coaches and players. I like his resume. I like the references. I like the connections. I like what he did with Love this past year. This is a guy who will bring energy and creativity, two things this offense was desperately missing in 2025. And I like that this was more of a front office hire than a Nick Sirianni hire. Jeff Lurie has a remarkable track record when it comes to hiring, and you have to remember nobody had heard of Andy Reid when Lurie hired him in 1999, Doug Pederson wasn’t on anybody’s radar when Lurie hired him in 2016 and even a guy like Shane Steichen, as good a play caller as we’ve ever seen around here, was a complete unknown when the Eagles hired him as offensive coordinator in 2021. It’s easy to just assume this won’t work, but I’m going the other way on this one. I like the hire. I’m glad the Eagles went outside the box and tabbed a young, up-and-comer instead of another retread, and I can’t wait to see Mannion in action. I think they nailed this one.

2. Nobody in the NFL has more postseason receptions of at least 30 yards in the last two seasons than Mack Hollins. Good ol’ Mack is one of five WRs with three 30-yarders over the last two postseasons, along with Terry McLaurin, Puca Nakua, Christian Kirk and Dyami Brown. Hollins had one regular-season 30-yard catch in three years with the Eagles. So Mack has more postseason catches of at least 30 yards since leaving the Eagles as he had in the regular season with the Eagles. Great to see Mack having success. It didn’t happen here, but he kept grinding and he’s now one of Drake Maye’s favorite receivers in his ninth NFL season. 

3. A similar story of a mediocre Eagle now playing a key role on a Super Bowl team is Josh Jobe, who has developed into an outstanding cornerback on one of the NFL’s best defenses after starting his career as an undrafted rookie with the Eagles. Jobe made the Eagles as an undrafted rookie in 2022 and spent two years here, mainly on special teams although he did start three games in 2023. He was a tough, physical player with the Eagles and you could see that on special teams, but he just didn’t have the technique to function as a full-time corner and with Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell in the fold last summer they released him after training camp. But he’s grown into a huge role with the Seahawks, where he started off on the practice squad last year. This year, he started 15 games in the regular season and both postseason games, and out of 113 corners who were targeted at least 20 times this year, he ranked 12th with a 49.5 opposing QB completion percentage and 16th with 5.7 yards per target. The last former Eagles cornerback to start for a Super Bowl winner was Otis Smith, another undrafted player. Smith was here from 1990 through 1994 and started for the 2001 Patriots during their Super Bowl run. Smith finished his career with 31 interceptions, including one off Kurt Warner with a 30-yard return in Super Bowl XXXVI at the Superdome.That’s the only Super Bowl interception by a former Eagle. So far. 

4. We’ve spoken so much about Dallas Goedert and Nakobe Dean and their potential forays into free agency, but an intriguing guy for the Eagles right now is Jaelan Phillips, who spent the second half of the season here after Howie Roseman acquired him from the Dolphins for a 2026 3rd-round pick. The first reaction to the news was that you don’t trade a 3rd-round pick for an eight-game rental, so I assume Howie planned all along to try and re-sign Phillips when he made the deal. The need is definitely there. Jalyx Hunt was very good this year but Nolan Smith had a disappointing season and other than Brandon Graham, who turns 38 in April and may or may not return, the cupboard is bare at edge after Smith and Hunt. The problem is that edge rushers make a fortune. Twenty edges played on contracts in 2025 averaging at least $15 million, and the fact that Phillips is only 26 makes him attractive. But he’s only averaged 5 ½ sacks in his first five seasons, which ranked 50th in the NFL during that span, and he only had two sacks in eight games after arriving here, although his pressure numbers were solid and he was very good against the run. And he’s dealt with injuries that limited him to just 12 games in 2023 and 2024. So the lack of elite production and the injuries could keep his value down. If he wants something in the $15 million range, which could very well be the case, I don’t see it happening. But if the demand isn’t there for him and you can lock him up for closer to $10 to $12 million, that’s a no-brainer. I talked to Phillips on locker clean-out day, and he spoke highly about his time here: “I loved it here. It’s very, very blessed and fortunate that the team brought me in. I love the guys, I love the coaching staff, everybody in this building. You know, it’s a very special place, so I’m definitely grateful.” I asked what the Eagles chances were of re-signing him and he said: “I would love to be here. But I don’t have any experience with free agency or anything like that, so we’ll just have to see how everything works out. But I have a lot of faith in this team, and we’d love to be here. I do think it’s a realistic possibility. I know the organization wants me here, and I definitely want to be here, so we’ll try to make things work out.”

5A. About 9 ½ minutes into his first NFL game, opening day 2020 against Washington at FedEx Field, Jalen Reagor caught a 55-yard pass from Carson Wentz with former Eagle Ronald Darby covering him. It was the Eagles’ 11th play of the season and probably the fifth or sixth play of Reagor’s career. Reagor played 65 more games and was targeted 161 more times and never caught another pass that long. In fact, he only had one more entire game with 55 yards, a 57-yard game a year later against Washington at the Linc. 

5B. Since 2001, 104 wide receivers have been drafted in the first round and Reagor is the only one who never had 60 yards in a game. The last 1st-round WR before Reagor who never had a 60-yard game was R. Jay Soward, the 29th pick in 2000. Soward played one year for the Jaguars and never had more than 45 yards in a game. He was indefinitely suspended by the NFL before his second season for violating the league’s substance policy and never played in the NFL again. He did wind up playing in the CFL, winning a Grey Cup with the Toronto Argonauts in 2004. One of his teammates on the Argos was Bernard Williams, the Eagles’ 1st-round pick in 1994, who was also serving an indefinite NFL suspension.

6. It’s easy to look back on the 2025 season as a disaster because of the way it ended, with a gruesome home wild-card loss to the 49ers in a game they led by six points going into the fourth quarter. But the Eagles did a lot of good things this year. They beat five teams that finished with winning records, and only the NFC-champion Seahawks – with six – won more. They also won three road games against teams with winning records, tied with the Seahawks for most in the league. They won six road games, and only the Patriots, Seahawks and 49ers won more. They became one of only two teams to reach the playoffs in each of the last five years, along with the Bills. And they had one of the best defenses in the NFL and in the first eight games after the bye they allowed just 14 ½ points per game, their best eight-game span in 21 years. We’ve got a pretty high bar set here when an 11-win playoff season feels so disappointing. 

7. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week: Hurts was the only quarterback in the NFL this year to throw at least 25 touchdown passes and six or fewer interceptions. It was his third career season with 18 or more TDs and six or fewer INTs. In NFL history, only Aaron Rodgers – with six – has more. Drew Brees also had three seasons with 18 or more TDs and six or fewer INTs. Out of 152 quarterbacks in NFL history to throw at least 100 touchdown passes, Hurts’ interception percentage – one every 53 attempts – is 7th-best, behind only Rodgers (one every 71), Justin Herbert (one every 59), Tom Brady (one every 57), Joe Burrow (one every 55) Patrick Mahomes (one every 55) and Russell Wilson (one every 54).

8. Only four tight ends have had 13 touchdowns with a catch percentage (catches per target) over 70 percent in a season since Stathead started tracking targets and catch percentage in 1978: Antonio Gates, Travis Kelce, Rob Gronkowski and Dallas Goedert. Now that’s elite company! 

9. Until the 49ers game, the Eagles had won seven straight playoff games as favorites of at least six points dating back to 1981, when they lost 27-21 to the Giants in a wild-card game at the Vet as seven-point favorites. Giants quarterback Scott Brunner only completed nine passes in that game, but three of them were touchdowns. Rob Carpenter killed the Eagles with 161 rushing yards, still the most ever against the Eagles. 

10A. The Bill Belichick snub is a disgrace obviously, but the true root of the problem is that the Hall of Fame insists on lumping senior candidates with coaches and contributors into the same category. So voters are put in the position where they can vote for any three candidates in what is now a combined senior candidate and coaches and contributors category. How can that be one category? Makes zero sense. They used to be separate categories but the Hall of Fame merged them a few years ago. I would guess the reason at least 11 voters left Belichick off their ballot was because they believed he would still get the necessary 40 votes to get in and it was more important to them to put their support behind the long-shot senior candidates, Roger Craig, L.C. Greenwood and Kenny Anderson. If you really believe Kenny Anderson should be in the Hall – and he should be – you have much more of a chance to impact his chances than Belichick’s chances because obviously Belichick will eventually get in. Voters shouldn’t have to choose between voting for a deserving coach and voting for three deserving senior candidates. They need to separate categories to avoid exactly this sort of travesty.

10B. I would have voted for Belichick if I were a Hall of Fame voter, but I sure don’t feel bad for him. Freaking cheater.