We’ve spent the past few days projecting the Philadelphia Eagles’ depth chart for the 2024 NFL season. We started with the offense, moved on to the defense, and then finished up with the special teams unit. Now it’s time for a prediction of who will actually make the final cut down to 53 players. We’ll certainly update these projections throughout the rest of the offseason to reflect meaningful developments from practices and preseason games.
Hurts is looking to stack his second season without missing a game. How he goes, the Eagles go. The Eagles should hold a legitimate QB2 battle … but the thinking here, until proven otherwise, is that they’re setting Pickett up to win by giving most of the second team reps. QB3 typically doesn’t get many practice reps, limiting McKee’s chances to move up the depth chart.
RB: Saquon Barkley, Kenny Gainwell, Will Shipley (3) [6]
Barkley figures to see the biggest workload of any Eagles running back in some time. Gainwell could see some touches to help spell Barkley. Last year, Boston Scott saw just 24 touches as RB3. Shipley is in line to take over that small role. Unless someone unexpectedly steps up, the Eagles don’t have a fourth running back that they must keep. Makes more sense to keep RB4 on the practice squad.
WR: A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, DeVante Parker, Ainias Smith, Britain Covey, Johnny Wilson (6) [12]
Brown and Smith have been remarkably healthy over the past two years. The Eagles will hope their good fortune in this department continues. Especially since the options behind the top two receivers aren’t overly inspiring. It feels like one of either Parker or Parris Campbell will make the team. I went back and forth on this one before ultimately deciding on Parker, who’s had the more successful NFL career. There’s also less of a need for a slot guy like Campbell when you’re keeping both Ainiasu and Covey. And, yes, Covey is obviously worth keeping around as the NFL’s best punt returner. Wilson has a similar skill set to Parker in theory but he’s probably not ready to play much right away as a rookie. Wilson’s going to be a healthy scratch if he doesn’t have a special teams role.
