Four lingering questions about the Eagles offense following minicamp

The Eagles’ mandatory minicamp is in the books, but the new-look offense is just beginning to take shape.

For three days last week, the Eagles opened up minicamp to the media, allowing a surface-level glance at their overhauled offensive system that features new personnel and familiar faces alike. Here are four questions about the offense spurred by minicamp that eventually will have answers once the season gets underway:

Jalen Hurts didn’t sugarcoat the change coming to the Eagles offense when he said that “probably 95%” of it is new.

It might not be completely, totally, night-and-day different — Nick Sirianni has said throughout the offseason that they will “mesh” aspects of the previous offense with the new one. Still, Hurts’ revelation further confirmed that new play-caller Kellen Moore is at the helm of the revamped offense. Throughout minicamp, Moore was at the center of the operation, while Sirianni took more of a backseat in his role as CEO coach.

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts says Eagles offense is 95% new. What are they keeping, the Tush Push?

The most noticeable difference about the offense in minicamp — which is a passing camp — was the uptick in pre-snap motion. That characteristic aligns with the offenses that Moore led in years past, including his 2023 stint as the Los Angeles Chargers’ play-caller. Last season, the Chargers finished eighth in the league with a 25.9% motion rate, while the last-place Eagles used pre-snap motion on just 10.9% of plays, according to ESPN.

Aside from the apparent increase in use of pre-snap motion, minicamp unsurprisingly didn’t reveal much about the new system. So how different will the Eagles offense look under Moore in 2024? The team might provide a few more meaningful glimpses in training camp and the preseason, but Sirianni said “there’s a lot of unknowns” that they won’t show until Week 1 for the sake of competitive advantage.

Compared to the rest of the offensive starters, Hurts might face the steepest learning curve as he adjusts to Moore’s system.

Even familiar plays may come with new responsibilities for the fourth-year quarterback. In some cases, Sirianni explained, Hurts’ progression might be different. New is normal for Hurts, who has had the same offensive play-caller and quarterbacks coach in consecutive seasons only once since the outset of his college career.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni is in a tough spot. He needs his quarterback firmly on his side.

That occurred in 2021 and 2022 with Shane Steichen as his offensive coordinator and Brian Johnson as his quarterbacks coach. Consistency bred success in Hurts, who went on to finish as the runner-up in MVP voting in 2022.

This time around, Hurts explained that “this whole entire offseason has been about learning” the new system, so it shouldn’t come as a shock that his growing pains were on display in minicamp from time to time. He threw interceptions on some occasions and missed open receivers on others. There were instances when it seemed like he held on to the ball for too long, which is a somewhat subjective observation in seven-on-seven drills.

It’s too early to draw conclusions about Hurts’ potential in the offense based on his minicamp performance alone. However, it isn’t too early to wonder how comfortable Hurts will be in the new system by the start of the season. By the end of the process of learning the new offense, Hurts said he wants to make it his own. How long will it take for him to get there?

» READ MORE: Sizing up the Eagles’ wide receiver race behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith

The Eagles have made it clear that the passing game runs through A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert. But there will be opportunities for others to contribute, particularly as the third wide receiver behind Brown and Smith.

Last season, those third-receiver targets were distributed fairly evenly among Quez Watkins (21 targets), Olamide Zaccheaus (20), and Julio Jones (19). Zaccheaus led the non-Brown-or-Smith wide receivers with 41.06% of the offensive snaps, followed by Watkins (26.5%) and Jones (20.14%). All three departed in free agency, allowing a new player (or players) to take on the role this season.

Who will emerge as the third receiver? When asked about early standouts and the Eagles’ overall depth, Sirianni didn’t immediately name a wide receiver. He instead lauded Grant Calcaterra, the tight end and 2022 sixth-round pick out of SMU, for his “toughness and mental toughness to get better every single day.”

» READ MORE: Parris Campbell vies for the Eagles’ speedster WR role and sees Saquon Barkley with this O-line as ‘scary’

Sirianni also mentioned Parris Campbell, Joseph Ngata, Johnny Wilson, John Ross, and Britain Covey among the wide receivers who had good minicamps. Campbell, Ngata, Ross, and Calcaterra took snaps with the first-team offense, in addition to Brown, Smith, and Goedert. Presumably, Ainias Smith also will have an opportunity to compete for a depth role come training camp.

Tyler Steen, the Eagles’ 2023 third-round pick out of Alabama, is in the pole position to assume the starting right guard job with Cam Jurgens sliding back to center this season. He took all of the reps at right guard with the starters in team drills during minicamp.

Still, Steen is going to have to earn the gig come Week 1, and he’ll have competitors lurking in the shadows if he isn’t capable of holding it down all season long. The Eagles added a pair of players with starting guard experience in the offseason in Matt Hennessy and Max Scharping. Hennessy, who has played some guard but mostly center in his three-year career, was the second-string right guard during the offseason program.

» READ MORE: Tyler Steen looks to earn the Eagles’ starting right guard role

The Eagles also signed Mekhi Becton, the New York Jets’ 2020 first-round pick (11th overall) out of Louisville who started 30 games at tackle over the course of three seasons (not including the 2022 season, which he sat out because of a knee injury). But the Eagles believe that the 6-foot-7, 363-pound Becton has positional versatility. While Landon Dickerson had an excused absence during the three-day mandatory minicamp, Becton filled in for him as the starting left guard.

“Really impressed with his football IQ, his intelligence,” offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland said of Becton. “I didn’t realize he was able to play other positions. So that in itself, just to have that swing value and the willingness to want to do it. He’s a fun guy to coach.”

» READ MORE: Mekhi Becton, once resistant to move on from left tackle, is embracing a versatile role with Eagles

Steen, who turns 24 later this month, has just one game of starting experience that came while Jurgens was injured last season. Steen struggled in that Week 9 performance against the Dallas Cowboys, and Sua Opeta got the start when Jurgens again was out in Week 15. Steen will look to prove that he has improved since then and that he can handle the full-time starting role in training camp.