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I Can’t Believe We Have to Argue This, But the Eagles Should Not Play the Starters in Preseason
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
The Eagles just won the Super Bowl. They played longer than any other team besides the Kansas City Chiefs last year. That’s 21 games of football. They then put their bodies through hell at the Super Bowl parade. I know everyone wants to see good football and Vic Fangio hopes his starting defense plays, but cover those dudes in bubble wrap and keep them fresh for the season. It feels like we’re wading into the Week 18 waters of “should Saquon Barkley go for the rushing record or rest?” I get it, we want immediate gratification, but you have to think of the bigger picture. Preseason is stupid. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still be watching (at least the first two quarters), but preseason is dumb. You could easily argue joint practices are more important than preseason games because the ones go up against each other (Kinkead: and they get more reps). Joe Giglio wants the Eagles to play the starters a little bit so there isn’t a slow start to the season, like the season they won the Super Bowl:
Anyone remember that 10-1 slow start the year before? How about the Super Bowl season the year before that, when the Eagles got off to the slow start of *checks notes* 13-1? Jalen Hurts has suited up for one preseason game since 2022 and they’re 19-3 in September and October. There are 30 other teams that would take those slow starts. That only game was against the Jets and he got his block knocked off on a late hit out of bounds by a New York player. Have we no shame, Joe??? This is an argument that, at this moment, can’t be disputed. The Eagles won the Super Bowl and they were the healthiest team in the NFL. The entire active roster was available for the Super Bowl. Is some of that luck? Of course. But a lot of it is strategy deployed by Nick Sirianni since he’s gotten here. And guess what? It’s worked.
If Zac Taylor wants to play his starters for the entire quarter, let him. They’ve been sitting at home since January. Dial up something worth watching on TV1, throw preseason on TV2, and I recommend you get Bengals first quarter moneyline before it’s too late.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com