The 3 biggest concerns about Eagles entering 2026 season

There are high expectations for the Eagles again in 2026 but this is a team with some notable concerns.

By Dave Zangaro • Published July 13, 2026

The Eagles have made the playoffs in all five seasons with Nick Sirianni at the helm and if their pattern holds true, get ready for a trip to the Super Bowl.

OK, maybe it’s not that easy.

But entering the 2026 season, the Eagles have pretty solid Super Bowl odds. According to FanDuel, the Eagles are tied for the 10th-shortest odds to win Super Bowl LXI. Just the Rams, Seahawks, Lions and 49ers have shorter odds in the NFC.

Of course, there are still plenty of concerns entering this season. Here are the top three:

3. Replacing Nakobe Dean and Reed Blankenship

The Eagles return a ton of talent on the defensive side of the ball and DC Vic Fangio is back for his third season at the helm. The defense has been very good for two seasons under Fangio and will likely be very good again in 2026. Not only do the Eagles return a ton of talent but they also added guys like Jonathan Greenard and Riq Woolen to the mix. So there’s a chance this defense could be even better than the 2025 version.

But the Eagles did lose two very important players on that side of the football in free agency when Nakobe Dean left for Las Vegas and Reed Blankenship left for Houston. While the Eagles have handled offseason losses on defense well in the past — remember losing Milton Williams and Josh Sweat after the Super Bowl season — they might still miss Dean and Blankenship this year.

Safety is probably the weakest position on the entire team entering training camp. The Eagles bring back Drew Mukuba for his second NFL season and are hoping for a big Year 2 jump from him after some encouraging signs as a rookie. The likely replacement for Blankenship is veteran Marcus Epps. While Epps will have to win that job, he appears to be the clear frontrunner.

At least at linebacker, the Eagles have a real succession plan in place. They drafted Jihaad Campbell in the first round last season and he began 2025 as the starter until Dean returned from injury. Dean was simply a better option for the Eagles after his return last season, but Campbell did show some good signs as a rookie. Dean was better against the run and is one of the best blitzing linebackers in the NFL, but Campbell can cover more ground and can also creep up on the line as an overhang player.

2. What if Sean Mannion doesn’t work?

The Eagles took a big swing this offseason when they hired Sean Mannion as their new OC. Mannion was just 33 when the Eagles hired him and he has been coaching just two years in the NFL. But Mannion played for nine seasons in the league as a backup QB and was preparing for his next job as a coach the whole time. The Eagles went through an exhaustive search this offseason, interviewing 17 candidates, before landing on Mannion. There’s a lot of excitement about the changes coming to the Eagles’ offense, but no one really knows how it’s going to work.

Mannion is going to run a version of the Shanahan offense, which will be a pretty significant departure from what the Eagles have done the first five years under head coach Nick Sirianni. While Jalen Hurts has had to play under a bunch of different offensive coordinators, there are going to be more differences in this scheme than he has seen before. The Eagles are going to blend some old with some new but we’re going to see more under-center, more play action and more motion, among other elements, than we have seen in this era of Eagles football. The team believes Hurts can play in this style of offense but it’ll be fascinating to see how it works.

And then there’s the other huge element of Mannion’s job: Play-calling. It’s something he has never done before and we won’t really know how good he is at it until the games start in September. The Eagles have had some good play callers like Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore under Sirianni but Kevin Patullo was obviously not very good at it last season.

1. The health of the offensive line

If the Eagles’ offensive line is healthy, it has a good chance to return to dominance in 2026 — but that’s a big "if.” 

Both Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson dealt with significant injuries last season and their play suffered. Even though both are still relatively young (Jurgens is 26 and Dickerson is 27) there are some long-term concerns. Jurgens played through a painful back injury in Super Bowl LIX and needed surgery after the season. He rehabbed all of last offseason and his body just wasn’t right in 2025. And Dickerson has been playing through injuries dating back to his college career and they have seemingly had a cumulative effect to the point where he reportedly considered retirement this offseason. Both Jurgens and Dickerson went to Colombia this offseason for stem cell therapy; Jurgens has said he feels much better. But the health of those two is going to be something to monitor all year.

And then there’s Lane Johnson. The all-time great missed the second half of last season with a Lisfranc sprain. He tried to return for the playoff game but his foot swelled and he couldn’t play. Johnson is feeling good now but he is 36 as he enters Year 14. It’s hard to imagine Johnson’s level of play ever falling off if he’s healthy but he’s nearing the end of his career and it’s going to be harder to stay healthy.

Those three — Jurgens, Dickerson and Johnson — are Pro Bowlers and three of the best players on that side of the ball. One of the quickest ways for a season to collapse is to suffer a bunch of injures on the offensive line. The hope is that the Eagles are healthier up front in 2026.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/the-3-biggest-concerns-about-eagles-entering-2026-season/742104/

Nakobe Dean is a true leader and a coach on the field. If he stays healthy, I think the Raiders made a great signing. Really wish the Eagles could have kept him.

I'd argue that Jake Elliot is a bigger concern than #3 listed above. Can't believe they haven't brought in competition for him. But I totally agree that OL health the the Sean Mannion offense are the top 2 concerns heading into this season.

If our little 2nd round S gets hurt again we are really weak there

All good points/posts in here.

All teams have some weaknesses.

My biggest fears are health and depth.

Zangaro is simply lazy. Can we just spot regurgitating old news and come up with something fresh?

On 7/21/2026 at 3:18 PM, Rob331 said:

Zangaro is simply lazy. Can we just spot regurgitating old news and come up with something fresh?

It's the dead of the offseason ... there is nothing "fresh" to report on. I almost feel like these guys should just have off during this time of the year (kinda like teachers in the summer) since there isn't much to write about). But that will change soon with TC starting next Wednesday.

On 7/15/2026 at 6:46 AM, time2rock said:

2. What if Sean Mannion doesn’t work?

I'm pretty sick of this one. Ther are 21 teams in the NFL with new offensive coordinators.

5 hours ago, Rob331 said:

I'm pretty sick of this one. Ther are 21 teams in the NFL with new offensive coordinators.

But how many of those teams have playoff/SB aspirations or expectations? 21 is a lot though, I’ll give you that.

On 7/28/2026 at 5:29 PM, LacesOut said:

But how many of those teams have playoff/SB aspirations or expectations? 21 is a lot though, I’ll give you that.

Chargers

Chiefs - retread Eric Bieniemy

Lions- no experience at play calling

Bucs- no experience at play calling

Ravens- no experience at play calling

Bills- no experience at play calling

Bears - can you believe its Press Taylor, imagine if that were the Eagles

Seahawks- no experience at play calling

Steelers- no experience at play calling

Rams - no experience at play calling

The Bears…….🙃🙃.

Rams don’t count. Their HC calls the plays.

On 7/30/2026 at 4:38 PM, LacesOut said:

Rams don’t count. Their HC calls the plays.

Hair splitting won't help! That still leaves 9 playoff contenders with now offensive coordinators and 7 have no play calling experience.