The Eagles are headed into their bye week with eight games left and little to feel good about. Their next chance to snap the skid comes Nov. 22 against the Steelers, and by then it will have been more than two months since their last win. That victory came Sept. 20, when Jalen Hurts capped off a brilliant game-winning drive against the Titans.
With the season drifting, the focus shifts to what the Eagles should do with the final stretch. The clearest answer is simple: use the last eight games to find out what they actually have.
One of the easiest places to start is at receiver. Even if DeVonta Smith and Tay Wicks make it back from injury, the rookie should keep getting a real share of the targets.
He has gotten better every week, and on an offense this rough, he’s become one of the few bright spots. With Smith missing four of the team’s nine games, Lemon has moved into the team lead in receiving yards with 312, which is two more than Smith.
The small sample is still telling, though. Since Week 7, Lemons has posted three straight games with at least six catches and 50-plus yards, a run matched only by Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Tight end is another spot that feels overdue for a shake-up. Dallas Goedert staying put without being traded for something-anything-is strange enough.
It’s even stranger that Johnny Mundt and Grant Calcaterra are still on the roster. Maybe Zach Ertz doesn’t have much left, but fans would probably rather watch him chase a franchise record that has stood since 1983, when Harold Carmichael had 589 catches.
Ertz has 582.
And if Goedert is still around, Eli Stowers should still be getting more work. The second-round pick played only seven snaps against the Giants in Week 9, which is hard to justify.
Goedert logged 57 snaps, or 81 percent, and the odds are he won’t be back on a third straight one-year deal anyway. Stowers ought to be taking some of that workload now.
The defensive front could use a similar reset. Jordan Davis’s trade will likely open the door, and it should.
He has played only 61 defensive snaps in his second season, but he has held up fine in a rotational role. The Eagles need to see more of him before deciding what they really have over the next two years of his rookie deal.
If Davis is out, Zion Wilson makes sense as the next man up. The 6-foot-3, 315-pound lineman spent the preseason with the Eagles, was waived on cutdown day after putting up nine tackles, two tackles for loss or no gain, and four QB pressures in three preseason games, then landed on the practice squad Oct.
- He was denied another year of college when he tried to transfer from East Carolina to Virginia, so he entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent.
In 2025, at East Carolina, he had seven sacks. The Eagles should either elevate him or sign him outright.
The last stretch should also be about the future at quarterback and beyond. Unless Joe Milton suddenly wins the Eagles a game or two, Cole Payton ought to play in the final two games.
And even if Milton does win one or two, Payton should still get on the field. This is evaluation time.
The same goes for outside linebacker Keyshawn James-Newby and safety Cole Wisniewski, who still has one practice squad elevation left. There’s no reason to keep playing Marcus Epps if he isn’t part of what comes next. James-Newby has already shown some decent things in limited chances.
Guard Micah Morris deserves a look, too. At 6-foot-5 and 335 pounds, he has the kind of size that makes it worth finding out more before the season runs out.
In Other News...
Eagles Just Sent A Clear Message About Their Receiver Plans
The Eagles used their Week 10 bye to make a notable shift at receiver, mutually agreeing to waive veteran Marquise Brown. It ends a brief stint in Philadelphia for Brown, who appeared in four games and posted five catches for 63 yards without finding the end zone.
Browns next stop now depends on whether he clears waivers, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. For the Eagles, the move signals a clearer turn in how they want to shape the receiver room as they come out of the break and into the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Draft Plans Are Already Pointing To A Sneaky Position Fit
The Eagles already have an extra first-round pick sitting in their 2027 draft stash after the Jordan Davis trade, and that kind of future flexibility tends to sharpen every conversation about roster building. Even with that long view in place, the more immediate intrigue is in the later rounds, where Philadelphia has a habit of finding useful pieces by leaning into fit, value and development rather than just chasing the obvious names.
A handful of under-the-radar college prospects are starting to look like the sort of players this front office could circle back to when the board thins out. Running back Jamal Roberts, cornerbacks Jamari Sharpe and Vicari Swain, edge rusher Anto Saka and tight end Andrew Rappleyea all bring traits that line up with different Eagles needs, which is exactly why they belong on the radar now. The bigger question is which of those fits becomes real when draft weekend arrives and Philadelphia starts turning its long-range planning into actual picks. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Just Sent A Troubling Message About Their Passing Game
The Eagles have already moved on from Hollywood Brown, parting ways with the veteran wide receiver by mutual consent after a brief and quiet stint in Philadelphia. Signed to a one-year deal in March, Brown never found much traction in the offense, appearing in four games and finishing with five catches for 63 yards while the team continued to shuffle pieces around its receiver room.
Browns departure adds another layer to a passing game that has been searching for consistency, even with several other wideouts still on the roster and practice squad. Because of the timing of the release, he now goes through the waiver claim process, leaving open the possibility that another team could step in before Philadelphia gets any chance to revisit the move. [Read more 🡒]