While the Eagles largely kept the players they wanted after the cutdown to 53, their roster-building philosophy is perplexing.
After weeks and weeks of anticipation, the Philadelphia Eagles’ 53-man roster is here, and it’s… kind of weird.
Four quarterbacks? Check.
Four tight ends? Check.
Six wide receivers, five defensive linemen, and only two true safeties? Check, check, and check, even if the versatility of Cooper DeJean and Michael Carter II makes that call a little easier to stomach.
Mind you, at this point, Eagles fans have learned all too well that questioning Howie Roseman is a bad choice, as ever since he returned to power in the post-Chip Kelly era, his decisions have tended to work out more often than not in the aggregate, but some of these calls look downright odd, especially considering how the waiver wire shook out.
Now granted, was there any way for the Eagles to have predicted that a league-high four of their players would be claimed off of waivers? No, and some of the players, namely defensive back Kapena Gushiken, weren’t even guaranteed to make the practice squad had they gone unclaimed. But losing two tackles and the team’s 2025 fullback certainly weren’t what many hoped to see when the waiver wire claims were announced, especially since Philadelphia didn’t claim the safety they so desperately need or another position of their own.
Will the Eagles ultimately be okay? Will Carson Steele get another chance to play fullback in an NFL game and perform well enough to earn Pro Bowl consideration like in his rookie season with the Kansas City Chiefs? And will players like Kiran Amegadjie, a third-round pick by the Chicago Bears in 2024 who signed with the Eagles’ practice squad, make losing Myles Hinton and Cameron Williams easier to stomach?
Ultimately, fans will find out soon enough, but to say the Eagles went about filling out the final spots on their 53-man roster in a way most fans expected simply isn’t true, as some moves were truly head-scratching.
The Eagles prioritized below-average current players over potential
When the initial 53-man roster was announced, arguably the biggest surprise among Eagles fans was the exclusion of their international rookies, Uar Bernard and Joshua Weru.
A pair of African-born pass rushers with just a summer of football under their belts, neither was expected to be immediate contributors for the Birds. But because of their athletic gifts and a few flashes during the preseason, the vast majority of Eagles fans, pundits, and even haters alike felt they were too valuable to subject to waivers out of fear that a team like the Miami Dolphins, who weren’t exactly trying to win in 2026, would scoop them up and give it a go.
Fortunately, Roseman’s intuition that the duo was safe was correct, and in the end, both signed with the Eagles’ practice squad, where they will learn from Cliff Hunt and Jeremiah Washburn as redshirt rookies. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Williams, Hinton, and Latu, who were all subjected to waivers and ultimately found themselves claimed.
Why is this relevant? Well, because some of the players the Eagles kept on their 53-man roster, players like Andy Dalton, weren’t subject to waivers, and others, like Elijah Moore and EJ Jenkins, weren’t exactly expected to draw much interest on the waiver wire had they been released, freeing up a chance to slide onto the practice squad.
Asked about this very situation on Monday, Roseman did have some interesting insight on the situation, noting that when releasing a veteran, 31 other teams have a chance to woo them away, which might have happened in some cases this year.
“No, I think that you’ve got to look at the roster as 70 guys. I think when our practice squad comes out, you’ll see that maybe it’s a little bit younger than it has been in the past. From our perspective, when we’re looking at the bottom of the roster, we’re kind of looking, we’re trying to do our best to see who we can keep. Some of those guys — I think in a vacuum, it’s easy to say, ‘Hey, put this guy on the practice squad and you’ll get him back and he’s a vested vet,’ but understanding that those guys have other options to go other places. When you say that to a veteran and they say, ‘Hey, I’m going to score my options,’ and you’ve got 31 other teams and they say, ‘We’ll give you a 53-man spot,’ now you lose that guy. You’re trying to combine that with the knowledge of how guys are doing, try to make an educated bet on losing guys. From our perspective over the weekend, probably anticipated we would lose a couple of guys. To be fair, we always anticipate that. The rate of claims in the league is about 4%,” Roseman said.
“Certainly, those percentages didn’t apply to our roster over this weekend, unfortunately, but that’s the risk of doing business and don’t feel good about that. Don’t feel good about losing those guys. We lost two draft picks. We lost a special teamer, a tight end who had 10 special teams tackles for us last year and a blocked kick. Don’t feel good about that. We lost a young defensive back that we liked. That goes along with this. You can’t sit here and feel tremendously good when you’re losing players. We’ll do our best to try to replenish that. I told [Special Teams Coordinator] Coach [Michael] Clay, I owed him one, so I’ll do my best to help him make up for it. But yeah, certainly would like to say wish those guys well, but don’t feel great about it.”
Would it really have been so bad for another team to convince a player like Dalton or Moore to sign elsewhere? Based on how they played all summer, no, not really, but if the Eagles feel differently, or hope they can eventually trade Dalton for a pick before Halloween, then that’s fine. But why not claim a player off of waivers who can help now? Or better yet, why not make a trade before the final roster was due, Roseman’s favorite activity, to add a safety, defensive tackle, or even a definitive QB2 instead of keeping a player like Kelee Ringo around in a contract year when Vic Fangio has all but spelled out that he doesn’t trust him to play perimeter cornerback?
Throw it all together, and it’s hard to pinpoint one decision as the Eagles’ biggest mistake when it feels like their bottom-of-the-roster philosophy was the biggest culprit.
In the NFL, the 53-man roster, much like the American Constitution, is a living document. Players land on IR for one reason or another, replacements are secured from all over the NFL, and multiple practice squad members are allowed to be activated for game day each week, giving veteran players who aren’t subjected to waivers a chance to still contribute until a roster spot opens up. Some teams use that as a way to keep veterans around without having to guarantee their contracts for the year, as injuries always find a way to get them on the team when needed. The Eagles opted against that strategy in 2026, giving their veteran practice squad spots to players like Britain Covey, who has never produced on offense, plus Gushiken, Dameon Pierce, Danny Gray, and Chance Campbell. In the end, time will tell if that strategy proves correct.
After weeks and weeks of anticipation, the Philadelphia Eagles’ 53-man roster is here, and it’s… kind of weird. Four quarterbacks? Check. Four tight ends? Check. Six wide receivers, five defensive linemen, and only two true safeties? Check, check, and check, even if the versatility of Cooper DeJean and Michael Carter II makes that call a little easier to stomach.