Each day leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft — April 23-25 — TeamFB7 will break down a different team’s biggest draft need and the best selection to address it. Granted, teams will most often use their first-round pick on the best available player/value and not necessarily always their biggest need, so this isn’t going to compile together into a mock draft in the end. It’s more a breakdown of how each team could best address its most paramount priority if it chooses.
The Nick Sirianni/Jalen Hurts Era for the Philadelphia Eagles has been the wildest of rides.
They made the Super Bowl in their second year together, going 14-3 during the 2022 season and ultimately losing 38-35 to the Chiefs on a field goal with 8 seconds left. Hurts finished second in NFL MVP voting and looked like a revelation as a late second-round draft pick from 2020. He got a 5-year, $255-million extension, briefly becoming the highest-paid player in the league. Everything was looking up.
The momentum continued when the Eagles started 10-1 in 2023 … before a sudden and stunning collapse to lose five of the last six games and then get embarrassed in the wildcard round in a 32-9 loss to the Buccaneers.
Hurts more than doubled his INT total from 6 the previous year to a career-worst 15, including 5 in the final four games. But he was also playing through a left knee injury — the origin of which was kept vague but became a major talking point after he took a direct hit to it in Week 9 vs. the Cowboys. After limping off the field, he returned to finish the game — and the season, though his rushing production tailed off down the stretch, including just 1 attempt in the playoff loss.
His toughness was certainly not doubted, but for some his status as an elite QB was again in question. So too was Sirianni’s command of the locker room after his inability to shake the team from that jarring collapse.
Soon enough, though, everything was sunny in Philadelphia again.
Free agent signing Saquon Barkley rushed for over 2,000 yards in 2024, Hurts threw just 6 INTs in 19 regular-season and postseason games, the Eagles posted a 14-3 record and only got better as the playoffs went along, including a dominant 55-23 win over the Commanders in the NFC championship game and an even more lopsided 40-22 Super Bowl victory over the Chiefs in which Philly scored the first 34 points.
Hurts had modest passing numbers in the regular season, but he won Super Bowl MVP honors after completing 17 of 22 passes for 221 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT while rushing for 72 yards and a score. It was a peak Hurts performance. He was remarkably efficient across all four postseason games, for that matter, completing 71.4% of his passes with 5 TDs and 1 INT while adding 194 rushing yards and 5 scores.
All was right with the Eagles again.
Until suddenly it wasn’t. Again.
They surged and slumped, surged and slumped on the way to a frustrating 11-6 season last year. By December, the fans had become apoplectic with the offensive struggles under first-time coordinator Kevin Patullo, living up to the Philly reputation by taking it too far and egging his house.
It was hard to fathom how it all had come unraveled so spectacularly. Again.
The Eagles went from 8th in the NFL in total offense and 7th in scoring to 24th/19th.
Barkley went from 2,005 yards on a robust 5.8 yards per carry to 1,140 yards on a pedestrian 4.1 YPC with just three 100-yard games.
Star wide receiver A.J. Brown saw his targets mysteriously decline the first half of the season and made his frustrations clear, creating an extra cloud hanging over an ultimately doomed season. Two years removed from back-to-back 1,400-yard seasons to start his Eagles tenure, he finished with 78 catches for 1,003 yards and 7 TDs — plenty respectable but something was clearly amiss.
And again Sirianni seemed to have no answers when the adversity hit.
Meanwhile, Hurts threw for a career-high 25 TDs with just 6 INTs, but he seemed intent on not rushing for yards unless absolutely needed. His rushing attempts (105) and yards (421) were the lowest totals since his rookie season in 2020, after three straight seasons of at least 150 attempts. Was it by choice to prevent injury? Was it Patullo’s fault? Per NBC Sports Philadelphia, the Eagles’ RPO attempts dropped from 128 to 81 from 2024 to 2025 with Hurts only running on 10 of them (down from 41).
He ran at his normal pace through the Eagles’ 4-0 start with 14, 9, 9 and 9 attempts in those games — then mysteriously averaged just 5 carries for 20 yards a game the rest of the season. When asked (repeatedly) about running less, Hurts maintained he was just operating the offense.
In the 22-19 wildcard loss at home to the 49ers, as the Eagles’ offense flatlined, he still avoided using the dynamic dual-threat abilities that made him a Super Bowl MVP. He rushed just 5 times for 14 yards as Philadelphia’s underwhelming season ended with a whimper.
Sirianni defended Patullo until the end — when the embattled OC was finally, mercifully fired. He let Brown’s discontentment fester to the point the star wideout is now expected to be traded after June 1 (with the timing related salary cap matters).
Did Patullo and Sirianni not realize that Hurts’ rushing ability — more to the point, the threat of it — changes the complexion of their offense, and without it he’s merely a serviceable but not elite QB? That without it, defenses can sell out to shut down Barkley. Or did Hurts simply refuse to put his body on the line like in previous years when he played through injury and kept taking the hits?
We could probably just sum all of that up more succinctly by asking, “What the h*** is going on with the Eagles?!”
But again, that was the question being asked after the 2023 collapse too — and Sirianni and Hurts dunked on their doubters and detractors with the most resounding response possible.
Can they do it again?
It’s hard to conjure up a precedent of an NFL coach and QB who have collectively gone from being tepidly received to begin with, to overwhelmingly celebrated and appreciated, to demonstrably doubted again just a year later, then back to receiving effusive exaltation the very next season after one of the most dominant Super Bowl performances of all-time, to less than 12 months later again criticized to the point of losing most of that earned equity in a blink.
Only in Philadelphia.
What’s not in question is that the Eagles have one of the best general managers in the sport in Howie Roseman and a full spate of draft picks this week with which to address the roster, selecting in the 1st round (No. 23 overall), 2nd (54), 3rd (68), 3rd (98), 4th (114), 4th (137), 5th (178) and 6th (197).
Let’s address the questions that have attainable answers and look at what Philadelphia needs most at the top of this draft.
What Are The Biggest Needs For Philadelphia Eagles In 2026 NFL Draft?
The first step to fixing the offense was to replace Patullo, of course, and the Eagles did that in hiring former NFL backup QB Sean Mannion, who has just two years of coaching experience as an offensive assistant/QBs coach for the Packers.
Can he get Barkley back even close to his 2024 peak? Can he get Hurts back to being aggressive with his legs in the way he absolutely must in order to be a top-10 NFL QB?
For now, those are just more unanswerable questions at this point — but essential ones nonetheless.
Meanwhile, let’s break down the Eagles offensive roster and where it can benefit most in this draft.
Do The Eagles Need To Address OL In First Round Of NFL Draft?
A major factor in Philadelphia’s struggle last season was injury/ineffectiveness along the offensive line, which was expected to be an advantageous strength for the team and one of the best in the NFL after returning four starters from the Super Bowl team.
Left tackle Jordan Mailata was again one of the best in the game, grading out top 10 among offensive tackles by PFF for the second straight season while playing 16 games. And right guard Tyler Steen, stepping into a starting role in his third NFL season, played all 17 games and graded out well by PFF (17th out of 81 qualifying OGs).
The rest was a mess, though.
Three-time Pro Bowl left guard Landon Dickerson managed to play 15 games, but he was never at full strength, starting with a meniscus injury during training camp that required minor surgery, a back injury in Week 1 and ankle injuries that kept him out in Week 5 and limited him later in the season.
His comments at the end of the season suggesting doubt if he’d be the same again after the physical toll endured — this after he had two ACL surgeries and major ankle injuries in college — led to speculation about his future, but he and the Eagles reworked his contract for 2 years and $36 million through the 2027 season (while removing 2028, which was included in his previous deal).
Center Cam Jurgens has earned back-to-back Pro Bowl nods since taking over for longtime fixture Jason Kelce, but he admittedly wasn’t the same last year. After gutting through what he described as a brutally painful herniated disk affecting his sciatic nerve during that 2024 postseason run, Jurgens had surgery after the season but said on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast that “It takes a good year to come back from that.” He played in 14 games last season while also dealing with a knee injury.
And right tackle Lane Johnson, a six-time Pro Bowl pick and five-time All-Pro, was even worse off than those two, meanwhile. He had already battled through a neck stinger and ankle injury before missing the final seven regular-season games and the playoff loss while recovering from a Lisfranc injury in his foot. His replacement, Fred Johnson, graded out 69th out of 89 tackles by PFF.
Lane Johnson will be 36 years old this season, but the likely future Hall of Famer is at least back for another year and under contract through 2027.
Philadelphia’s offensive line — and its ability to restock and reload when needed — has been the backbone of the team’s success going back to its first Super Bowl championship after the 2017 season. When 3/5 of the unit was either operating at far less than full power or unavailable, the Eagles simply weren’t the same force offensively. Couldn’t be.
(That doesn’t excuse Patullo for his role in the drop-off or explain Hurts’ curiously becoming a more one-dimensional quarterback, though.)
Throughout that run, the Eagles have had one of the most respected offensive line coaches in the game in Jeff Stoutland, who joined the team in 2013. He stepped down after last season, which adds another layer of concern to the state of the unit moving forward.
The Eagles are certainly hoping to have their five returning starters back at full strength for 2026, but it might be time to start looking for Lane Johnson’s successor/upgraded fill-in should the aging right tackle incur more injury setbacks.
That’s one direction Philadelphia could go at pick No. 23.
Even with the specter of trading Brown this summer, the Eagles probably won’t look to draft a wide receiver in the first round.
They believe in DeVonta Smith as a No. 1 WR and should after he’s totaled 385 receptions for 5,019 yards and 31 TDs in five seasons. The team then signed veteran Hollywood Brown (49-587-5 for the Chiefs last season) and traded a 2026 fifth-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick to the Packers for Dontayvion Wicks (30-332-2 in 14 games in his third NFL season), who new OC Mannion was obviously familiar with from their time together in Green Bay.
Philadelphia also took a cheap flier on WR Elijah Moore, who had productive seasons for the Jets and Browns in the past before a quiet 2025 season with the Bills and Broncos.
Brown and Moore are on 1-year deals, and it’s arguable whether any of those complementary options rises to the caliber of a true No. 2 wideout, so the Eagles could look to invest a Day 2 pick in the position with an eye to the future as much as anything. (Speedy Georgia slot weapon Zachariah Branch would be a fun addition to the mix, for example).
The only other offensive position the Eagles could have looked in the first round was at tight end — but only if consensus top prospect Kenyon Sadiq, out of Oregon, was on the board. He surely won’t be at No. 23. Dallas Goedert is back for his ninth season with the team after signing a 1-year, $7-million contract following another productive season in which he had 60 receptions for 591 yards and a career-high 11 TDs.
Even pairing those two together would have given the Eagles some interesting options offensively, but again, Sadiq won’t be on the board unless the Eagles trade up higher in the first round. If not, the team could still look to tap into a decently deep and intriguing TE draft class on Day 2-3.
What Are Eagles’ Defensive Needs In 2026 NFL Draft?
The Eagles made a mid-season trade with the Dolphins for former first-round pick Jaelan Phillips to bolster the pass rush and wanted to sign him to a long-term extension, but Phillips cashed in with a 4-year, $120-million contract from the Panthers.
That leaves a glaring need atop the depth chart at edge rusher, with veteran Brandon Graham still a free agent pondering his future.
Philadelphia returns Jalyx Hunt (6.5 sacks in his second season), former first-round pick Nolan Smith (who is still developing and had a quiet third season after posting 6.5 sacks in 2024) and signed Arnold Ebiketie (16.5 sacks in four seasons with the Falcons) and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (15 sacks in four seasons with the Buccaneers before a quiet 2025 between the Browns and Bears).
This is absolutely a position of priority need, and there will be some second-tier edge rushers left on the board by this point (potentially including Miami’s Akheem Mesidor, Missouri’s Zion Young, Auburn’s Keldric Faulk or Clemson’s T.J. Parker).
The other defensive position of greatest need is at safety after losing starter Reed Blankenship in free agency to the Texans.
Andrew Mukuba, a second-round pick last year, had 46 tackles and 2 INTs in 11 games while PFF graded him 76th out of 98 qualifying safeties. Well-traveled veteran Marcus Epps, a starter for the team in 2022 who returned last season after two years with the Raiders and logged 250 snaps off the bench, would be next on the depth chart for now.
The Eagles will need to use at least a Day 2 pick to address that spot.
To review, we’d rank the Eagles’ biggest draft needs in order as EDGE, OT, S, TE.
Who Should Philadelphia Eagles Draft In First Round?
It’s a toss-up between offensive tackle and edge rusher, depending on where the greater value is with regard to players still available at pick No. 23.
For instance, The Ringer’s Todd McShay projects the Eagles to take Georgia offensive tackle Monroe Freeling there, but many other draft analysts have Freeling going much earlier. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. has the Eagles taking Clemson OT Blake Miller.
We’re higher on Freeling, and if he’s there that would make the decision easy. Others are more confident on Miller as a safe pick with a high floor.
The challenge here is the Eagles are going to be picking right in the middle of the second tier of both offensive tackles and edge rushers, and there’s really no consensus to what order they’re taken.
So this is a total coin flip.
Edge rusher is the more pressing need for 2026, but we have a higher confidence level in the second-tier of offensive tackles having long, productive NFL careers. That’s probably the better value long-term. It just comes down to how desperate the Eagles feel about the state of the pass rush, which could also be patched together for 2026 with one of the remaining veteran free agents (Cameron Jordan, Joey Bosa, Von Miller, A.J. Epenesa, etc.).
Philadelphia still has enough cap space to go that route.
Given that, we’ll get off the fence and say the Eagles should take the best offensive tackle available (Freeling, Miller, Utah’s Caleb Lomu or Arizona State’s Max Iheanachor).
But never put it past Roseman to get creative on draft day and make a move to shake everything up.
