As the Eagles prepare to face the Falcons in Week 1 on Thursday night, the team has released its first unofficial depth chart after the roster was trimmed down to 53 players.
Now, these unofficial depth charts are to be taken with a huge grain of salt because they’re compiled by the team’s PR staff. It isn’t like this was ripped from Doug Pederson’s notebook. But it’s still fun to glance through it. The full depth chart is at the bottom.
Here are some interesting notes:
• Haloti Ngata is now listed as a starting DT. For a while, it looked like that was Destiny Vaeao’s role, but Ngata caught up and the veteran will likely start next to Fletcher Cox. Remember, Tim Jernigan is starting the season on the Non-football Injury list.
• Shelton Gibson is listed as the kick returner. In previous depth charts, Darren Sproles was listed there. The thought was that new kickoff rules would make the play more like a punt. It still looks like a kickoff, so Gibson will get the chance.
• Without Nigel Bradham (suspended list) on the roster, the Eagles got to put Kamu Grugier-Hill and Nate Gerry as the starters at OLB. Interesting that Gerry is now listed as the backup MIKE. That role had been Joe Walker’s but he was waived on Sunday.
• DeAndre Carter is listed as Nelson Agholor’s backup in the slot. Gibson and Mack Hollins are the first two backups listed at the outside receiver spots. We’ll see which one starts on Thursday night for Alshon Jeffery.
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• Isaac Seumalo is listed as the backup center, but it seems possible if Jason Kelce ever went down, the Eagles might slide Stefen Wisniewski inside to center and put Chance Warmack at LG. The Eagles hope they won't have to worry about that.
• Sidney Jones is ahead of Avonte Maddox on the depth chart. While Jim Schwartz said the team will use a combination of players at the nickel corner spot, it seems like Jones will get a lot of work there.
• Derek Barnett and Brandon Graham are the starters at DE. Michael Bennett, Chris Long and Josh Sweat are the backup DEs.
