The Philadelphia Eagles no doubt learned a lot from Saturday night's preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens. They may have learned that, in some ways, they didn't learn very much. Philadelphia rested nearly all of its projected starters. They kept their offensive game plan relatively basic and relied heavily on players competing for backup roles and roster spots.
The result was a 24-7 loss that produced plenty of numbers and data but relatively few meaningful conclusions. We still don't know who the backup quarterback is. We can make guesses about who will make this team's 53-man roster in September, but there's more work to be done and two more preseason games to play.
That's why the Eagles' upcoming joint practices with the New England Patriots could be far more valuable. Preseason games serve an important purpose, but these days, they come with limitations. More often, we're seeing coaches place greater emphasis on the work done during these sessions than on other teams.
The Eagles will finally get a more realistic test.
Teams are careful about what they reveal during the preseason. Playing time is heavily managed, and the quality of the competition can vary dramatically from one period to the next. Coaches are more focused on evaluating individuals than on trying to win the game. Joint practices change some of those variables.
Philadelphia is expected to get significantly more work from its starters against the Patriots, creating opportunities to evaluate Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, Dallas Goedert, and the rest of the first-team offense against another team's established defense. The Eagles will also gain a better sense of how their defense responds against a more complete offense. That matters even more this year because of the changes Sean Mannion is introducing.
The Eagles have spent training camp installing a new system built around more under-center work, motion, play-action, and outside-zone concepts. The preseason opener offered only a glimpse of that structure because Philadelphia had little reason to put its full offensive blueprint on film.
Joint practices should provide a better balance. There will still be things Mannion keeps private, but competitive periods against another team force players to communicate, adjust, and execute in ways that closely resemble regular-season football. There is also less opportunity to dismiss mistakes as a product of unfamiliar teammates playing limited snaps together.
The same applies to Philadelphia's position battles. As mentioned, the backup quarterback competition between Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee remains unresolved. The receiver room still has difficult decisions to make.
Players such as Darius Cooper, Mac McWilliams, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Ty Robinson have generated plenty of camp buzz and now have an opportunity to prove that production translates against unfamiliar competition. Perhaps most importantly, joint practices create a more useful test without requiring Philadelphia to treat a preseason game like a playoff contest.
The Eagles don't need to win every rep. They need to learn. Saturday's loss to Baltimore provided a reminder that preseason results can be misleading. The next two days in New England should offer something much more valuable: evidence. For an Eagles team undergoing meaningful offensive changes while sorting through several depth-chart decisions, that may be the best evaluation opportunity of the summer.
This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Eagles starters face an important test in joint practices with Patriots