We've seen all of spring practices, we've seen all of training camp and now, we've seen two preseason games.
That's enough to get a good guess at what the 53-man roster will look like.
The Eagles have until 4 p.m. on Sept. 1 to cut nearly half of their players, from 90 to 53. Here's my guess on how that goes:
QB (3): Carson Wentz, Nick Foles, Nate Sudfeld
Sorry, Christian Hackenberg fans. The fifth-string quarterback won't make the team. Neither will fourth-stringer Joe Callahan. These three are locked in stone unless a quarterback on another team goes down between now and Sept. 1 and the Eagles are opportunistic. But that doesn't happen all the time.
RB (4): Jay Ajayi, Darren Sproles, Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood
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The top three are locks and the fourth guy keeps changing. Like almost every day. The four guys fighting for that job are Smallwood, Josh Adams, Donnel Pumphrey and Matt Jones. Right now I have Smallwood there because he's been the best of a terrible race. At least he's somehow managed to stay healthy. Pump and Adams are hurt right now and Jones is coming off a terrible performance in the second preseason game.
If Sproles wasn't 35 and coming off an ACL tear, I would have kept just three.
TE (3): Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, Richard Rodgers
I'm concerned that Rodgers won't be ready for the start of the season, but for now, I have him on the roster. Doug Pederson said Rodgers' knee injury is "week to week," which doesn't sound good. If Rodgers isn't ready for the opener, look for Billy Brown or Josh Perkins to sneak on the roster for a week or two.
WR (6): Alshon Jeffery, Mike Wallace, Nelson Agholor, Mack Hollins, Shelton Gibson, Greg Ward
I know there was a report from NFL Network about the possibility of Jeffery starting the season on PUP, but I can't see that happening. Even if he's not ready for the opener, I really don't think he's going to be unavailable for six weeks, which is what would be the case on the PUP. Even if he can't play Week 1 or 2, he's worth that roster spot knowing he'll come back before six weeks is up.
Aside from that, I think the top five are locks. Gibson deserves to be called a lock at this point. Then it gets trickier. I know the team likes Kamar Aiken, but he hasn't shown me a ton and now he's hurt. Markus Wheaton is hurt too. I just like Greg Ward. We've seen him get first-team reps with Agholor out, so that lets me know what the team thinks of him. He gets the nod for now. If Bryce Treggs didn't get hurt, he was pushing for a spot.
OL (9): Jason Peters, Stefen Wisniewski, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, Lane Johnson, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Matt Pryor, Isaac Seumalo, Jordan Mailata
The big omission on the list is Chance Warmack. I think having Pryor and Seumalo gives the Eagles backups who are just as good at guard and more versatile. So the Warmack experiment might be over. I kept Mailata on the active roster because I think the team might worry about exposing him to waivers. Maybe he makes the team and then ends up on IR a little later, sort of like what happened with Pumphrey last year.
DT (4): Fletcher Cox, Haloti Ngata, Destiny Vaeao, Bruce Hector
I'm pretty confident Tim Jernigan will start the season on NFI, which forces the Eagles to go a little light at DT. They have two DEs who can move inside, so they can afford it. You'll notice I have undrafted Bruce Hector from South Florida beating out former sixth-rounder Elijah Qualls. I've seen Hector overtake Qualls on the depth chart and I don't think that's a coincidence.
DE (6): Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Chris Long, Michael Bennett Josh Sweat, Steven Means
The Eagles can afford to go heavier at DE because they have guys who can move inside on passing downs with Graham and Bennett. Means is the last guy in. He won't get to play much - he might be better off getting cut and finding a team with some playing time to offer - but he's a valuable member of the Eagles even if it's only during the week.
LB (5): Jordan Hicks, Nate Gerry, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Joe Walker, LaRoy Reynolds
You'll notice no Nigel Bradham. We'll get to him in a second. Those top three are locks. Walker was a guy I left off of previous predictions, but over the last few weeks, I've seen that the Eagles think a lot more of him than I thought. He's their backup MIKE and a good special teamer. LaRoy Reynolds is a solid depth piece and special teamer. I think he makes the team over Corey Nelson, who has had a disappointing summer.
CB (6): Ronald Darby, Jalen Mills, Sidney Jones, Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox, De'Vante Bausby
A little heavy on corners, but the Eagles have depth here. I don't think there are any surprises here. Maybe Bausby, after getting overtaken by Maddox, gets cut. But I like him as a depth piece.
S (4): Malcolm Jenkins, Rodney McLeod, Corey Graham, Tre Sullivan
I had Graham on my last prediction too; he wasn't on the team then. I think most of us were waiting for that to happen. He'll be the third safety, but Sullivan has earned his roster spot too.
Specialists (3): Jake Elliott, Rick Lovato, Cameron Johnston
Johnston hasn't been very good this summer, but he's the only punter on the roster. So he's on the team.
NFI: Tim Jernigan; PUP: Chris Maragos
Reserve/Suspended: Nigel Bradham
Jernigan and Chris Maragos seem destined to be on the NFI and PUP lists, respectively. Neither have practiced all summer and it doesn't appear they'll be ready for the opener.
Bradham is suspended for Week 1, so he actually won't count toward the 53-man roster. The Eagles get to keep an extra player for a week. Hooray!
