Roob's Eagles Observations: A free agent who just might be better than expected

Roob's Eagles Observations: A free agent who just might be better than expected originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

A free agent I just may have been wrong about, a look at the Kelee Ringo-Adoree' Jackson competition and a long-distance Eagles fan gets emotional at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

We're just a few days out now from the preseason opener, and as always don't expect to see many starters. So as we count down the days, hours and minutes until we get to see Kendall Lamm, Trevor Keegan, Darian Kinnard, Kenyon Green and Drew Kendall play 50 snaps, here's this week's batch of Roob's 10 Random Eagles Observations!

1. One guy I may have been wrong about initially is A.J. Dillon, the veteran running back the Eagles signed to a one-year bargain deal in March. A few things concerned me about Dillon. Obviously, there was the neck injury, which cost him the entire 2024 season. Then there was his diminishing production from 2020 through 2023: 5.3 to 4.3 to 4.1 to 3.4. And then there was just his age. It's rare to see a running back whose career has trended downward turn things around at 27. I thought it was 50-50 whether he would even make the team. Now, usual caveat - it's still early - but Dillon looks terrific. It's actually easy to mistake his jersey No. 29 for No. 26 and mistake his quads for Saquon Barkley's quads. They are built similarly. But Dillon has looked strong and powerful and fast so far in camp and the biggest surprise has been how well he's caught the ball. He's only got 86 catches in 60 career games, but he looks comfortable so far coming out the backfield in the passing game. Now, Will Shipley is a natural pass catcher and I think he'll have a role as a 3^rd-down back. But I've been impressed by Dillon, and I can't imagine Saquon Barkley getting close to 500 touches again so I think he'll have a larger role than Kenny Gainwell did last year with about 4.0 carries per game (not counting the meaningless season ender vs. the Giants when Barkley didn't play). From 2020 through 2022, Dillon averaged 4.3 yards per carry with 14 touchdowns. No way to know if that player still exists, but the first week and a half has been encouraging. If the Eagles can get 2020 through 2022 Dillon, he's really going to help them.

2. Saquon Barkley had more postseason 100-yard rushing games in a 15-day span in January than any other Eagle has had in his life. Barkley had three in the 2024 postseason. Brian Westbrook is the only other Eagle with more than one in his career. Five Eagles had one: Steve Van Buren, Wilbert Montgomery, Heath Sherman, Donovan McNabb and Kenny Gainwell.

3A. I love going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and spending time checking out all the exhibits from all eras of the game. It's a fascinating place and you can spend hours getting lost in all the displays. But one thing that's aggravating is how the 1948 and 1949 Eagles teams are virtually ignored. Here's a team that won consecutive NFL Championships - both by shutout - beating the Cardinals 7-0 in the 1948 Championship Game in the snow at Shibe Park and then the Rams 14-0 a year later in the rain at L.A. Coliseum. The Eagles are the only team in NFL history to win consecutive championships by shutout. In fact, the only other team to win more than one championship game by shutout in their entire franchise history is the Packers, and they did it 22 years apart (1939, 1961, both over the Giants). The Eagles also reached the NFL Championship Game in 1947, losing to the Cardinals 28-21 at Comiskey Park. From 1944 through 1949, the Eagles were 48-16-2, the best record in the NFL, reaching three championship games and winning two by shutout. There are photos of the 1948 and 1949 teams at the bottom of a display case celebrating all five of the Eagles' championships, and that's it. The Hall needs to do a better job honoring the unique and remarkable accomplishments of Greasy Neale's bunch.

3B. That said, the Hall did do a terrific job honoring the Super Bowl LIX champs in a temporary display, notably with a huge enlargement of a photo taken above a group celebration taking up an entire wall as well as plenty of items from the game, including Cooper DeJean's cleats, Reed Blankenship and DeVonta Smith jerseys, Nick Sirianni's headset and a life-size photo of Jalen Hurts alongside a blurb about his MVP performance.

4. What makes the competition for the CB2 spot so intriguing is that Kelee Ringo and Adoree' Jackson are total opposites. Ringo just turned 23, has great size at 6-2, 210 and boundless speed and just has all the tools in the world, he just hasn't played a ton and has just five career starts. Jackson is almost 30, is just 5-11, 185, and isn't the fastest guy out there. But he's got eight years and 90 starts of experience. So you have this dichotomy where there's a young kid with elite traits but no experience vs. an older veteran who's not what he used to be physically but gets by with savvy, intelligence and preparation. The Eagles want Ringo to win the job since he's their own draft pick and he's just a kid and they have his rights through 2026. So far, they've each had good days and bad days. Jackson probably has a slight lead over Ringo, but neither of them has been consistent enough to really pull away yet. This one might come down to the wire. It would be foolish to think that either one can play at the level Darius Slay played last year. You would just like to see one of them take ownership of the position. And maybe I'm crazy but I still like Eli Ricks and wouldn't mind seeing him get some 1^st-team reps along the way.

5. Everybody is doing quarterback rankings these days so I thought I'd jump in there as well. Here ya go:

1) Jalen Hurts.

2) Who cares.

6. In the last 50 years, only three Hall of Fame defensive backs have been drafted in the second round. One is Eric Allen, the 30^thpick in 1988, and another is Brian Dawkins, the 61^stpick in 1996. The other is LeRoy Butler, who the Packers drafted 48^thin 1990. Allen, Butler and Dawkins are the only Hall of Fame d-backs drafted in the second round in the last 50 years. Three were taken in the 1960s - Mel Renfro and Paul Krause in 1964 and Lem Barney in 1967.

7A. I wandered into the Pro Football Hall of Fame when it opened at 8 a.m. Friday, and there were only a few other visitors for the first half hour or so. I quickly found the Super Bowl LIX display, highlighting their win but also commemorating their first four championships as well. I was the only person in there and was pondering just how wild two Super Bowl championships in eight years is for a team that had never won one. At some point, I was vaguely aware of someone standing silently near me. And then the sound of sniffling. Not quite crying but definitely very emotional. I glanced over and there was a gentleman wearing an Eric Allen t-shirt staring at the display. Incredible," he said. Turns out he grew up in Philly and moved years ago to California for work but never wavered in his Eagles fandom. His favorite player growing up was Eric Allen and he said however long it took for E.A. to get into the Hall of Fame, he was going to be there. Last time he was in Canton was 2018, when Dawk went in: Both years, the Eagles won the Super Bowl, then had a player go into the Hall of Fame." We had a great chat in an empty hall in the Hall of Fame and then for the first time he looked over at me and said, Mr. Frank, they really did win it again, didn't they." Somehow seeing those jerseys and helmets and cleats and even Nick Sirianni's Super Bowl headset in the birthplace of the NFL made it seem more real than ever. As I walked off to the next display, he said, See you in 2029."

7B. In case you didn't get the reference ... Jason Kelce and Jason Peters are both eligible for the Hall in 2029.

8. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week: Hurts only threw 20 incomplete passes in the fourth quarter in the regular season all year. And 13 of them were in the first four weeks of the season, when the Eagles opened up 2-2. The rest of the year? He had one vs. the Cowboys, two vs. the Rams, one vs. the Ravens, one vs. the Panthers and two vs. the Steelers. And in the postseason he only had one in four games - vs. the Packers. So after throwing 13 incomplete passes in the fourth quarter through Week 4, he threw just eight in his final 15 games. This is what happens when you have Saquon Barkley and you have big leads. From Week 6 on, including the playoffs, Hurts was 37-for-45 for 471 yards with three TD passes, no interceptions and a 132.5 passer rating.

9. I expect that by the middle of the season, we'll be saying this is the best group of linebackers the Eagles have ever had. Now, Jihaad Campbell still has to do it in games, and we're only a week and a half into training camp. And Nakobe Dean has to come back healthy at some point. But we know what Zack Baun can do, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. has made huge strides and has really taken advantage of all the 1^st-team reps he's gotten, Campbell has so much potential and Dean had a borderline Pro Bowl season before his untimely injury in the Packers playoff game. The Eagles have never had a fourth linebacker as talented as Trotter. I don't have to remind anybody of the recent history of Eagles linebackers. It's ugly. But Howie Roseman has put together a loaded group here and even a guy like rookie 5^th-round pick Smael Mondon has looked good at camp. They've had some terrific linebackers occasionally along the way. Maxie Baughan and Chuck Bednarik from 1960 through 1962, Bill Bergey, John Bunting and Frank LeMaster from 1974 through 1980, Seth and B&E from 1987 through 1983 and Jordan Hicks, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Nigel Bradham from 2016 through 2018. But four deep? We'll see how it goes, but this has a chance to be a really special group.

10. When the Eagles drafted Eric Allen in the second round in 1988, the first thing Buddy Ryan said about Allen was that he made a play at the end of a blowout loss his senior year at Arizona State that got his attention: When I first saw him on film, he just stood out. He plays the games all the way to the hilt. They were down 40-0 and he's chasing a guy all the way across the field and catches him at the 2-yard-line." Buddy tended to exagerate, but he wasn't too far off. Arizona State lost that game 38-20 to Cal in Berkeley, but Allen did tackle Tyrone Moore at the 2-yard-line after a 90-yard run in the fourth quarter. I asked E.A. on Thursday in Canton if he remembered the play that may have made him an Eagle, and not surprisingly - since Allen remembers every play of his life - he did: We were playing Cal Berkeley and we were having a pretty bad game. It was late in the game, the guy breaks down the sideline. And from the other side of the field, I go and I track him down and get him before he gets into the end zone. For me, it's about the integrity of the game. It's what you're supposed to do. All those drills you do in the offseason, those pursuit turns, things like that, it just kind of kicks in. It's muscle memory. That's what you have to do to respect the game. Buddy talked a lot about that. Maybe that's one of the reasons (he drafted Allen). I just think overall, that team that we had, we had a tremendous group of players, very competitive in practice, and along with those things, there's some things you can't teach. I think he saw some of those things in that individual play."