Eagles Smooth Sailing to Camp - Unlike Cowboys & NFC East Rivals

The defending NFC champion Eagles had a relatively peaceful offseason, but the Cowboys, Giants, and Commanders are navigating choppy waters as camps open

PHILADELPHIA – The only waves around the Philadelphia Eagles are the ones about an hour to their east. They are the ones produced by the Atlantic Ocean and lap along the shores of the many small vacation towns along the South New Jersey coastline, where even center Jason Kelce owns a summer home.

It’s been mostly tranquil seas for the defending NFC champions who report to training camp on Tuesday following a summer break of more than six weeks after opting not to have a mandatory minicamp like the other 31 NFL teams did.

They will do their conditioning tests and then hit the field for their first practice on Wednesday. 

Practices this summer will begin at 10 a.m. with the exception being the only fully open practice available to fans on Aug. 6 at Lincoln Financial Field, which begins at 7 p.m. Various coaches will be available prior to the start of practices with players available afterward.

Head coach Nick Sirianni will get things started with a 9:30 press conference on Wednesday morning.

Except for Jalen Carter, who, not surprisingly, was hit with a lawsuit stemming from the deadly car accident he was involved with last January, the Eagles were only in the news for all the right reasons, with offensive linemen Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata getting married, running Boston Scott getting engaged, and Kelce raising nearly a half-a-million dollars for the Eagles Autism Foundation and his own fundraising arm, Team 62.

While the Eagles sail smoothly into their third summer camp under Sirianni, with a roster considered one of the league’s best, that hasn’t been the case with the Eagles' NFC East rivals, each of whom has some troubled waters to navigate.

DALLAS COWBOYS Guard Zack Martin hasn’t yet committed to reporting to camp as he enters the final year of a contract that he wants restructured. Scheduled to make $13M in his final year, the all-world guard, 32, wants to be paid.

The feeling is he will report, but there are plenty of Cowboys who are due to be paid and quarterback Dak Prescott will likely need to be restructured in order to pay some of them.

Running back Tony Pollard is playing on a franchise tag, something the Eagles never use, and there are a slew of other key players who will need new deals or depart after this season, including cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and Stephon Gilmore, tackles Tyron Smith and Terence Steele, center Tyler Biadasz, and safeties Jayron Kearse and Malik Hooker.

It’s a lot like the Eagles last year when they had several key free agents to contend with this past offseason, but at least they went to the Super Bowl.

The jury is out as to whether a Cowboys franchise that hasn’t been to the Super Bowl in this century and not since 1996, can do the same thing.

NEW YORK GIANTS Last year, the Giants had to cut cornerback James Bradberry in a salary-cap move, and the Eagles were only too happy to scoop him up, signing him to a one-year deal that he parlayed into a three-year contract.

Now, running back Saquon Barkley is unhappy with his contract and is threatening not to report to camp.

Well, at least, the Giants have the reigning coach of the year in Brain Daboll, even though he was 0-3 against Sirianni and his Super Bowl team last year.

WASHINGTON COMMANDERS Daniel Snyder is out, and Josh Harris, who owns the Philadelphia 76ers, is in.

There will be a culture change, and maybe another name change too, but it should be for the much better. It will likely take some time to flush out the mess Snyder made.

Ed Kracz covers the Philadelphia Eagles for SI's EaglesToday.

Please follow him and our Eagles coverage on Twitter at @kracze.

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