The Eagles got through the 53-man roster deadline with the kind of pain every contender knows well: a lot of good players had to go, and several of them didn’t make it through waivers.
Philadelphia trimmed 36 players from its initial group, and two more - Jakorian Bennett and Grant Calcaterra - were placed on injured reserve/designated to return. The real damage came after the cuts, though. The Eagles lost an NFL-high four players off waivers from their 91-man roster, a reminder that the rest of the league was watching closely.
Howie Roseman’s preferred outcome is simple: cut players, let them clear waivers, then bring back the ones the team wants on the practice squad. That plan worked for a lot of the roster, but not all of it. Some of the names the Eagles hoped to stash were claimed elsewhere, and others found different landing spots.
Philadelphia’s 17-man practice squad includes 13 players who were in camp with the team this summer. Eight of those 13 were not with the organization at any point last season, while five were holdovers from last year’s practice squad: Hall, Covey, Campbell, Majors, and Gray.
Hall and Covey both spent time on the active roster last season, too. Hall could be elevated again this year if one of the five defensive tackles gets hurt, while Covey looks like an early-season elevation as a punt returner before the Eagles would have to move him onto the active roster - assuming he’s still handling that job after three weeks.
This year’s practice squad is younger than the one the Eagles carried last season. Philadelphia has seven players age 25 or older, down from 11 at the start of last year, and the group includes six rookies and eight combined first- or second-year players.
The biggest waiver loss for the Eagles was Gushiken, the highest-paid of their undrafted free-agent signings and a bubble player on the 53. The Eagles had hoped to get him back on the practice squad and keep Mac McWilliams instead.
There was also a notable battle at tight end. Philadelphia kept four at the position, with E.J.
Jenkins making the roster over Cameron Latu. Latu’s waiver claim surprised the Eagles, though the Patriots had a strong look at him during joint practices this summer.
Along the offensive line, Williams and Hinton didn’t develop the way Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin did over camp. Both tackles struggled at times, but that didn’t stop other teams from seeing value. Offensive linemen are always in demand, and neither player reached the level Philadelphia hoped for, even though both were 2025 draft picks.
“Don't feel good about losing those guys,” Roseman said. “We lost two draft picks.
We lost a special teamer, a tight end who had 10 special teams tackles for us last year and a blocked kick. Don't feel good about that.
“We lost a young defensive back that we liked. That goes along with this.
You can't sit here and feel tremendously good when you're losing players. We'll do our best to try to replenish that.”
The Eagles only saw one of their cuts land on another team’s practice squad so far. Jose Ramirez signed with the Patriots, who liked what they saw from him during the joint practices and added him along with Cameron Latu.
A couple of other summer standouts didn’t end up on Philadelphia’s practice squad, either. Deontae Lawson was one surprise, and Zion Wilson was another. Both had shown promise over the summer, but neither signed with the Eagles.
The other 17 players cut by Philadelphia haven’t landed on practice squads elsewhere yet, though it’s still early. For now, Lawson and Wilson are the two names to keep an eye on as the season moves forward.
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