PHOENIX — It was a busy week at the Arizona Biltmore for the NFL’s annual league meetings.
The Eagles’ top three decision-makers — Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni — all spoke to reporters over a three-day span.
Among the headlines from the week:
• Howie Roseman: ‘A.J. Brown is a member of the Eagles’
• Eagles sign OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinkia
• Eagles to practice with Patriots during training camp
• 6 takeaways from GM Howie Roseman
• Why Sirianni isn’t concerned about too many cooks in the kitchen
• 5 takeaways from head coach Nick Sirianni
• Jeffrey Lurie explains exploratory process for future stadium
• 6 takeaways from owner Jeffrey Lurie
And now it’s time for some Eagles leftovers after a busy week in Phoenix:
1. NFL owners talked about several rule change proposals this week but there wasn’t a proposal about the Tush Push this year. Last May, the Eagles’ signature play was saved after a proposal fell two votes shy.
“It was a pleasure to come here and not have to fight,” Lurie said.
How did Sirianni feel not having to defend the play this year?
“I don’t know. You take one step at a time,” he said. “That’s not something I have to think about right now. I guess I don’t really have a lot of thoughts on that. We’ll play by the rules of whatever we need to be able to do in every aspect.”
While the Tush Push isn’t in danger this offseason, competition committee chairman Rich McKay said before this week that there are still people concerned with the “pushing element” of the play. So this is an issue that could come up at some point again.
2. The Eagles this offseason reworked Jake Elliott’s contract, which seemingly signals that he will be the Eagles’ kicker in 2026. Basically, Elliott took a pay cut with the trade off that his salary is guaranteed.
Roseman on Sunday was asked about his confidence in Elliott.
“Lot of faith in Jake,” Roseman said. “I think, for us, just seeing him in big moments. And feel like last year, it was a unique weather situation in our stadium. I think any of us who were at our stadium last year saw that. It was probably one of the worst weather … really in Philadelphia it’s been a weird fall-winter weather-wise. Probably the most unique that I can remember since I’ve been there. That carried over in our stadium.
“I think, for us, you have to put that into consideration and your trust in the person and the player. And it goes back to we do have a lot of trust and expect him to have a really good season and bounce back.”
3. Lurie on Tuesday said the Eagles will not be giving up a home game to travel internationally in 2026 after doing so in 2024 for the São Paulo game. But he did say the Eagles are “openly available to be an away team” for an international game.
The Eagles could potentially end up in London, Mexico City or Rio de Janeiro in 2026. Here are the options:
• Eagles at Jaguars in London
• Eagles at Commanders in London
• Eagles at 49ers in Mexico City
• Eagles at Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro
4. The Eagles had a type in free agency this offseason. They signed a bunch of former high-round draft picks who haven’t lived up to their draft statuses.
These are buy-low signings with upside.
“We understand that the hit rate on that isn’t going to be 100%,” Roseman said in response to a question about Arnold Ebiketie. “I’m not saying that just talking about Arnold. I’m just talking in general. We’re going to swing the bat with guys who have traits in their body who show that they can have production, who can translate to the system and that guy is at the right position too. It was a signing that we were excited about but, again, gotta earn the role.”
5. Let’s check in on the Patriots’ side of the A.J. Brown trade rumors:
Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel on Tuesday was asked about the potential of a trade for A.J. Brown and basically said the team is always looking to improve the roster.
Meanwhile, Rams GM Les Snead also said on PFT Live that they had discussions with the Eagles about Brown but it “didn’t work out.”
6. I tracked down Bengals head coach Zac Taylor on Tuesday because he coached Eagles OC Sean Mannion in Los Angeles and then coached veteran backup Andy Dalton for a year in Cincinnati.
So I asked Taylor how the two can help each other in Philly in 2026:
“I’ve got so much respect for Andy, first of all,” Taylor said. “Whatever role he takes on there, he’s just trying to win and be an asset, whether it’s the starting quarterback, whether it’s the backup quarterback, whether it’s helping the coordinator. I think Andy’s got so much experience he’ll play a valuable role there.
“Sean Mannion is prepared for this moment. He’s prepared his whole life. He prepared when he was a quarterback. I think he watched intently how his quarterback coaches coached him, how the coordinator did it, how (Sean) McVay did it. He’s obviously been so well thought of people have taken him from team to team. You look at Shane Waldron in Seattle, (Kevin) O’Connell had him in Minnesota. That shows you the respect. And for Matt LaFleur to hire him immediately; he coached him. Everyone knows what they’re getting with Sean and so I think Sean is built for this opportunity. There will be bumps in the road, of course, but I think he’s as built for it as anybody.”
7. This will be Mannion’s first year as a play caller in the NFL. So who better to ask about play calling than one of the best we’ve seen come through Philadelphia?
On Tuesday, I caught up with Colts head coach and former Eagles OC Shane Steichen to ask him about the keys to navigate being a first-time play caller:
“I think first off, you have to know what your players do really well and then go put them in position. I think it’s a lot of film study in the offseason to take those talents that they have and put them in position to go do those things on the field. And then really diving in on the tape big time when you’re going against your opponent, the defensive coordinator. As you’re calling plays against that, what are their tendencies? Do they break their tendencies? I think having a feel for the game on when to call certain things I think is a big part of it. You can be a robot and go down a list of calls or you can have a feel of, like, ‘Hey, I’m going to call this play and be aggressive here.’ There’s a time and a place to do certain things. I think that’s all a balancing act.”
8. Sirianni on Monday was asked how Mannion’s new system will benefit Jalen Hurts and pointed to one specific area: Play action. It’s a staple of what Mannion is expected to run and Sirianni expects Hurts to be good at it.
“Jalen is a very talented player and I think what you’ve seen is he’s been very effective,” Sirianni said. “I think back to the Minnesota game this year where we had a lot of play action passes and he had a perfect passer rating in that. He’s been very effective over the years with play action passes and with the boot game and everything like that.”
In that Week 7 game against the Vikings, Hurts was 4-for-4 on play action passes for 121 yards, 1 touchdown and a passer rating of 158.3, per NextGen Stats. So he has shown that he can do it, although the usage rate in that game wasn’t very high.
Here are Hurts’ play action numbers from all of last season: 68/107, 780 yards, 6 TDs, 3 INT, 92.4 rating. Pretty good.
But it is worth noting that Hurts’ highest play-action usage came in the Week 14 overtime loss against the Chargers and he wasn’t very good in that area. He completed just 6 of 14 passes for 97 yards with 2 interceptions.
9. Jerrod Johnson spent the last three years as the Texans’ quarterbacks coach before a split this offseason. Johnson interviewed for the Eagles’ OC job and eventually got hired as a senior offensive assistant/special projects for the head coach.
Why was this offseason the time for a split between the Texans and Johnson?
“Everybody says sometimes a change of scenery is good, sometimes it’s a change of voice is good,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said. “For me, how can we help C.J. (Stroud) the best. Maybe it’s a changing of the voice, who’s leading that room, who’s really giving him the information, who’s coaching him up. Can that move the needle a little bit more? Everything that we do, from my perspective as a coach, there’s a lot of tough decisions that have to happen. People don’t always agree with it and that’s OK but for me, it’s my role to really make sure the Texans are in the best position we can be in. Some change has to happen for that and hopefully some change helps us out.”
While the Texans and Johnson split, Ryans did have positive things to say about Johnson and his initial success with Stroud and said, “I hate to see him go.” Ryans said he still thinks Johnson is going to be a really good coach in the NFL.
10. For years under Lurie, the Eagles have had notoriously exhaustive coaching searches and long interviews. While their No. 1 objective is to land the best candidate, they also use interviews to learn as much as they can in the process from some of the brightest minds in football. Lurie on Tuesday mentioned that the Eagles record the Zoom calls with candidates and keep them as a resource.
“We can go back,” he said. “It’s phenomenal. It’s an incredible asset.”
11. The Eagles’ offense wasn’t good enough in 2025 but it’s not like they’re going to have a bunch of new players in 2026. They did however make a switch at offensive coordinator and Mannion is going to bring in a very different scheme. But most of the starters are going to be the same.
The Eagles are banking on their guys to play better this season. Sirianni this week explained why he believes in his players.
“I know the players, you spend so much time in this draft process watching the actual tape,” Sirianni said. “You spend so much time also trying to get to know players and do they love football? Are they tough? Are they smart? Have high football IQ? I know that about our guys. I know how hungry these guys are going to come back because of how much they love football and how competitive they are and the football IQ and the toughness. You bet on people that have done it and you’ve been around.”
It might not be a bad bet. While the Eagles’ offense underperformed in 2025, many of those same players were key components of the Super Bowl win in 2024. The hope is that they get back to their top form. And with some of them, health is a big part of that.
12. There weren’t many interesting rule change proposals on the docket at this year’s owners meetings but a few playing rule proposals were adopted. The most interesting among them came from the competition committee and will allow the league office in New York to consult with officials about flags and disqualifications for flagrant football acts and non-football acts.
This is a big step for the league because New York can now actually drop a flag on the field. While this is obviously a narrow window for that use, it seems like the first step into this becoming more commonplace. McKay said there was interest in more potential uses down the line for this type of oversight.
13. Part of the reason so many are wondering if the Eagles will trade Tanner McKee is because this is the final year of his rookie contract. While the Eagles could eventually get a 2028 compensatory pick back for McKee if he leaves in free agency after this coming season, this is the final chance for the Eagles guarantee they get some value back for McKee.
But Roseman claims he isn’t thinking like that.
“I think our whole goal here is to try to compete this year and to try to do really well,” he said. “I think from our perspective, having a guy like Tanner is incredible security for us. The way I think about these three quarterbacks, when I go to bed at night, I know we have three quarterbacks who can play, I sleep better. That’s just how I roll. From my perspective, Andy (Dalton) in a vacuum, nothing to do with Tanner.”
14. It’s worth noting that Eagles passing game coordinator Josh Grizzard had other options this offseason and chose to join the Eagles’ staff:
Coen said he tried to hire former Tampa Bay OC Josh Grizzard during offseason. Went to Eagles.
— Ryan O’Halloran (@ryanohalloran) March 31, 2026
15. Sirianni said he hadn’t yet read Hurts’ new children’s book, “Better Than a Touchdown.” But Sirianni did see it at the airport before flying to Philly and planned on buying it when he arrives home.
Sirianni said he and Hurts have been in contact this offseason, but that has mostly been just checking in.