The Eagles offense didn’t look great in their first preseason game of 2026, but offensive coordinator Sean Mannion said that he was happy with how things worked out from an operation standpoint. He admitted there are a lot of things to clean up, but overall they managed substitutions well, and he was happy with the communication on the sideline. He also talked about his experience as a play caller and how he’ll approach their second preseason game.
Here’s what the OC had to say:
On the first preseason game
Mannion said that they
obviously want to have a better performance offensively than they did against the Ravens on Saturday, and noted that they have things to correct. Specifically, he pointed out that they weren’t playing on schedule – they had a lot of long first and second downs, which was partly a result of penalties and negative runs.
“If we were able to stay on schedule better and kind of eliminate some of those miscues on early downs, we’ll keep ourselves in more manageable third-down situations and lead to a better result.”
The OC went on to say that a lot of it just comes down to fundamentals and execution. He feels like they are in a good place mentally as an offense, and there weren’t a lot of mental errors from the game, which Mannion said was encouraging.
“A lot of young guys in there — [It’s] their first time with live game action. It’s not scripted. It’s all calling it from the sideline. I was pretty encouraged with the mental side of things. It’s just carrying the fundamental work that we’ve done in practice to the game setting. That was the biggest takeaway from here.”
Mannion also talked about how they do an after-game report and self-scout, and while they did keep the new offense pretty under wraps, he said these preseason games are more about evaluating the player. They want to see the guys go out and play, execute their assignment, and play with good fundamentals. So, they’re not trying to game-plan too much, or think about how things might be called if they had full use of the playbook.
On rookie TE Eli Stowers
“Tight end’s a position that requires a lot of versatility. We’re going to ask all these guys to be productive players in both phases. The preseason’s a great opportunity to push these guys and evaluate what they can do, give them things to work on every day at practice, and then see them take it to the game.
I know Eli’s put a lot of work into improving as a blocker, and along with that entire position group, there’s a huge commitment to being productive in both areas. We want to see what all of our players in that room can do in both phases of the game.”
On his play-calling duties
“It was smooth. I felt comfortable. I thought our staff did a great job. The communication was clear. We didn’t have any substitution issues. We didn’t have any play calls get jacked up where we got caught with them substituting late or anything like that. I thought the lines of communication were clear. I was happy with how the quarterbacks were able to get us in and out of the huddle. We weren’t really up against the play clock at all. I was happy with that.”
Mannion also confirmed that he plans to call the second preseason game, against the Patriots, from the booth. He explained that he had some experience up in the booth at Green Bay, but he’s spent most of his football career on the sidelines. Still, the OC said it’s a good opportunity for him to see what it’s like from a different vantage point, and then make a decision about how he’ll do things this season.
Overall, he reiterated that he felt comfortable calling plays and felt like the call sheet was well organized. He was happy with the communication between staff members and players, and thought the process was generally clean. They will always work to improve, but through one game, Mannion felt good about it – he also learned quite a bit.
On the QB play
Mannion said that there was some good and some need for improvement from QBs Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee. He pinpointed third downs needed to be better, but also acknowledged they were in some tough spots at times, too.
“There were some glimpses there of what we want to see, but I think the biggest thing that the whole group can improve on is just stay within the play, trust your footwork, trust your training, and go cut it loose.”
The OC also talked about rookie QB Cole Payton and how his athleticism was on display more in the game than they typically get to see at practice.
“[Payton] ran around, did a nice job. There’s some things to clean up. A couple just, again, just smoothing out some of those decisions. I’m sure there were some nerves, his first NFL action, third down, kind of throwing into traffic there, but really settled in from that point forward and led us on a nice drive to score and get us on the board at the end of the game.”
Mannion later said that Jalen Hurts was a great resource for the quarterbacks on the sideline, and that QB1 was engaged and helpful throughout the game.
On RB Will Shipley
“Will [Shipley] ran really well. It’s always a group effort. I thought our guys were running off the ball. They were attacking their aiming points. Will had a couple nice creases on a couple different run schemes, and he’s a talented player. He’s been a great special teams contributor here. He’s got great protection ability. It was nice to get him going. Again, unfortunately, we kind of stalled out after a penalty, but you could feel the momentum kind of shifting with our run game there for a minute. We just have to sustain it. That’s the challenge. Will did a nice job.”
On the young OL
“Markel [Bell] did a nice job. We talked about it I think last week. There’s a crop of young linemen that we’re really excited about. Markel, obviously some of our interior players, Willie [Lampkin], Drew [Kendall], Jake [Majors] did a really nice job. A lot of them, and I could name all of them, but a lot of them have done a nice job in practice.
It was cool to see them in live game action. You could feel the play style, the effort. That was the one thing that stood out. I know we didn’t have the performance we wanted, but the effort was there across the board. Markel certainly had a big part of that.”
Mannion also talked about Bell being in a two-point stance at times compared to others in a three-point stance. He explained that they are training all the lineman to be able to use both stances.
The OC also admitted that there may be a way to utilize Willie Lampkin’s unique size and skill set. Right now, though, they’re just excited about what the interior lineman has been doing every day at practice.
“[Lampkin’s] had a really strong camp so far. He competes. He has a great play style, physicality every day, and he’s done a nice job. We’re just going to keep evaluating him from there, and down the road, maybe.”
On the value of joint practices
“The starters, they didn’t get the work in the preseason [game] one. It’s an opportunity for us to see them execute, get aligned, play with great fundamentals. It’ll be a good opportunity for us to see them think on their feet, too. There could be some looks that you see in joint practice that are unscouted, but it’s a great opportunity to see us kind of problem-solve as an offense, to see our players play with great football intelligence, react to maybe an unscouted look, see different fronts, different personnel for our offensive lineman to block a different rusher, maybe as a different arsenal move. There’s a lot of advantages to the joint practice for the starters, especially [since] they didn’t get that live action last week.”
