One Joint Practice Is Likely It For Eagles' Key Offensive Starters

Jalen Hurts and the rest of the Eagles' offensive stars will likely be put in bubble wrap after Tuesday's joint practice against New England.

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts signs autographs after Tuesday's practice in New England. / Philadelphia Eagles/X.com

One joint practice is likely all the Eagles’ key offensive starters will get against outside competition this summer.

In the previous three years of the Nick Sirianni era, the Eagles had 10 joint practices. Tuesday in Foxborough was the only one for 2024.

A potential cameo for the offense in the preseason opener at Baltimore was scuttled by the heavy rain that preceded the game.

“Just the chance of the weather and how the weather was all day. It was a little wet when we got out there,” Sirianni said after the 16-13 Eagles win. “[I] just wanted to have a clean operation, and with the way the weather was, it could have been a little messy. I wanted to give them a clean track.”

On Tuesday Jalen Hurts and Co. got extensive action against the Patriots in a practice that spanned over two hours, the longest of the summer for the Eagles.

That’s a near guarantee that Thursday night’s game will be for Kenny Pickett, Tanner McKee, and the backups for a second consecutive week.

The final preseason game against Minnesota on Aug. 24 is also out of the question for the first-teamers.

So is two hours against a team projected to be near the bottom of the NFL this season enough for Sirianni to feel comfortable with his star-studded offensive cast?

The coach did sort of admit the setup is not optimal. The Ravens for instance are a typical joint practice candidate for the Eagles due to the proximity of the two teams. Complicating things this season was the timing of the preseason game between the two foes and the fact they play each other in the regular season, albeit late in Week 13.

Both the Eagles and Ravens fashion themselves as Super Bowl contenders in their respective conferences and the last thing you want is another league heavyweight getting better intell on you due to joint practices in August.

"There are circumstances why you can't get multiple [joint practices] in this year,” Sirianni said. “... I've told you guys I don't like doing them the week one. I just don't and I know people do it at that time and everybody is different, but I personally don't think you have enough [preparation] in yet to do it.”

This week, the complication was the short week. The Eagles were in Baltimore last Friday and have to play the Patriots on Thursday night. 

"Now we're here in Week 2. We're coming off a short week, so would've been hard to get two [joint practices] in this week,” the coach said. “Next week we're going to be playing on a [Saturday] instead of a Sunday so that's a little bit of a turnaround as far as our first game. 

"So we might not get the ones against the other teams, so that's why it's more important that we get some of those operational practices ourselves, inner squad,” Sirianni said. "... Getting those inter-squad ones that you ramp up in a different way and go about it a different way will be helpful as well."

Hurts was asked if one competitive session against someone wearing another color would be enough.

“The goal is always to be ready when the Game 1 comes so I don’t know what the future looks like but I know today we had an opportunity to get better and I think we did,” the quarterback said. 

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