The idea’s been in his mind almost a year now.
It was after a lackluster performance in the season-opening 25-20 win over the Patriots in Foxboro that Nick Sirianni first acknowledged it might have been a mistake not to play the starters at all in the preseason.
“I'll definitely reevaluate some of the preseason stuff next year,” he said postgame. “You know, I know they played the first two years that we were here, they only played one series against the Jets in 2022. Maybe I should have played (the offense) a series or two this preseason, and I already wrote that in my notes.
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"I'm constantly self-evaluating myself (and) I'll reevaluate that. You know, second thought, if I had to do it over again right now, I would say, yeah, I would have played starters one or two drives in the preseason.”
Here we are seven days away from the Eagles’ preseason opener against the Ravens in Baltimore, and two of Sirianni’s veteran players say they expect the starters to actually get on the field at some point in the preseason.
Unlike the last few years, when the Eagles had two rounds of joint practices, they only have one day of joint practices this summer – Aug. 13 with the Patriots back in Foxboro.
“I feel like usually we've had two joint practices the past few years and we treated those (like) playing in the game,” Lane Johnson said. “Those two days were game day for us, so we do have the joint practice against the Patriots (but) I wouldn't be surprised if we do play. To get that cohesion to get some game reps and to get it on film.”
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You can make a case that the offense needs the game day reps with a new coordinator and play caller and a new scheme. And the defense could have seven or eight new starters, if you count slot as a starter.
Brandon Graham thinks new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, a veteran of two-a-days, will want his new group to get some game reps before the opener on Sept. 6 in Brazil against the Packers.
“I think we'll go back to the old school way,” B.G. said. “I think Vic is the type of guy that would just want to see us all in action first to kind of get us in rhythm with each other. Not saying that the old way was the bad way, but I think you probably will see us a couple couple drives.
“(I don’t) know the plan yet, but I know just off what we know about Vic, he’s definitely probably going to want to see all of us together and make sure that we all get some reps up under us in real game-like situations.”
B.G. is going into his 15th season, so he’s played in a few dozen preseason games but only one over the last two summers – he got two snaps in that 2022 opener Sirianni mentioned against the Jets at the Linc.
“I always look forward to playing in the preseason games," Graham said. "For me, it's just getting my feet wet, getting that adrenaline rush that you get normally for a game before you actually get to the game. So you can kind of feel what that feels like going against.
"It's different. As much as you plan and practice against these teams and the joint practices, it's nothing like the game.”