In Roob's Observations: Mike Vrabel's insight on what makes the Eagles elite

In Roob's Observations: Mike Vrabel's insight on what makes the Eagles elite originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Mike Vrabel on what makes the Eagles such a strong franchise, an unknown but terrific position coach and what if Jeff Lurie bought the Patriots instead of the Eagles.

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That’s just a few of the topics in today’s Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Training Camp Observations.

THE KEY TO SUSTAINED SUCCESS: Mike Vrabel knows a little bit about sustained success and how difficult it is to achieve in a salary-cap era. He played on three Super Bowl-championship teams in a four-year span with the Patriots, had four straight winning seasons as head coach of the Titans and after taking the Patriots to the Super Bowl in his first season back in New England with a 23-year-old MVP runner-up quarterback seems to have them primed for long-term success as well. So what he said about the Eagles during joint practices carries a lot of weight. “This is a very good football team,” Vrabel said about the Eagles. “It has been for quite some time. They’re really good at the line of scrimmage, big physical lines of scrimmage. Certainly, an excellent quarterback. They’re well-coached, good defensive scheme. Sustained success in the National Football League is tough, difficult. We know that the system isn’t set up for that.” The Eagles are one of only two NFL teams – along with the Bills – to reach the postseason each of the last five years and one of three – along with the Bills and Steelers – with a winning record each of the last five seasons. “I think they’ve drafted well, they’ve retained their players, and they found a quarterback that they want – a franchise quarterback. I think that that’s a good place to start. When you can draft well, you can develop players and get them re-signed, and then find a quarterback that leads your football team, that’s a good place to start.”


IT’S GOOD TO BE THE KING: When you look at the talent and depth the Eagles have at linebacker, you have to look at the guy coaching them, and nobody does it better than Bobby King. Think about his body of work since joining the Eagles in 2024 along with Vic Fangio. He took a career special teamer in Zack Baun and helped him become the Eagles’ first 1st-team all-pro linebacker since Jeremiah Trotter in 2000, he got Pro Bowl-caliber play out of Nakobe Dean last year, he has Jihaad Campbell playing at a high level, he helped Jeremiah Trotter Jr. become a starter-level talent and he’s developed kids like Smael Mondon, Chance Campbell and Deontae Lawson to the point where the Eagles are going to have to release a couple really good backers. King, who was with Nick Sirianni in San Diego for three years, is an elite teacher, communicator and motivator and all you have to do to understand what sort of coach he is is watch his guys practice and play. “Bobby King, I just think is a phenomenal linebacker coach of coaching the fundamentals,” Sirianni said after the Patriots game Saturday night. “At the end of the day it’s about how you get off blocks and it’s how you tackle and how you can lead the unit and get everybody lined up. I can’t say enough good things about Bobby of how he’s developed these guys as well. And so, yeah, I love that room and I think they’re playing good football right now.”

JALEN HURTS STAT OF THE WEEK: Jalen Hurts has had four streaks of at least five consecutive starts without an interception – two in 2024 and two last year. Since his rookie year of 2020, no other NFL quarterback has had more than two streaks of five games without an INT. Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Daniel Jones, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, C.J. Stroud, Tua Tagovailoa and Russell Wilson have each had two. Only four QBs have had more five-game steaks without an interception in their entire career: Aaron Rodgers (9), Tom Brady (8), Wilson (6) and Drew Brees (5). Only Hurts has had four such streaks in his first six seasons.

MORE JALEN: It will surprise a lot of people – the whole “he’s not a good passer crowd” – to learn that Jalen Hurts last year threw touchdowns more frequently than all but four NFL quarterbacks. Hurts averaged a TD every 18.2 pass attempts, and only Matt Stafford (one every 13.0), Lamar Jackson (one every 14.4), Drake Maye (one every 15.9) and Jared Goff (one every 17.0 passes) threw TDs on a higher percentage of pass attempts than Hurts. Of those five, Hurts threw interceptions at the lowest frequency – one every 75.7 attempts. Hurts threw the 17th-most passes in the NFL in 2025 but had the 9th-most touchdown passes. And that was in a down year under an offensive coordinator who got fired. Maybe he can throw the football after all.

SAQUON PAVED THE WAY: When Saquon Barkley signed his groundbreaking two-year, $41 million contract last spring, it re-set the market for running backs, who for years had been under-paid. Barkley was one of the running backs who was vocal about how the league under-valued running backs, and it took a while but his contract did open things up for some other elite running backs. Earlier this month, Jahmyr Gibbs of the Lions signed a three-year, $67.5 million deal, Jonathan Taylor got $44 million over twov years from the Colts and the Falcons paid Bijan Robinson $67 million over three years. Just like that, Barkley dropped from the highest-paid running back in NFL history to 4th-highest-paid in the league. And he’s fine with that. “I love it,” he said. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. Christian (McaCaffrey did it before me (two year, $3 million). I did it after Christian. And now we got three in a row. I love it and look forward to the next guy to do it. You know, for a little short period of time it went like that for every other position besides running back, and you kind of can see that coming back to life. And those guys are well deserving of it. They’re hell of a players. They make a lot of impacts and gains for their teams. Their team is different when they’re not on the field, so, you know, hopefully in the next five, ten years it keeps going higher, and that’s how it’s supposed to go, in my opinion.” Barkley said he’s still not convinced that league-wide running backs are valued the way they should be. “Every team and every G.M. is going to have a different opinion. When I rush for 2,000 yards, there’s still some G.M.s who probably don’t think that I would make that difference on the team. You have a guy like Howie (Roseman), who believed in me, and really that’s all it takes. You need one or two people to believe in you. I appreciate Howie for the opportunity and what we were able to do in ‘24, and hopefully we’re able to do that again this year.”

WHAT IF JEFF LURIE OWNED THE PATRIOTS? Before he bought the Eagles in 1994, Jeff Lurie was close to buying the Patriots. In 1993, Patriots owner James Orthwein wanted to move the franchise to his hometown of St. Louis, who had just lost the Cards to Arizona, and name them the Stallions. So he put the Patriots up for sale, and Lurie, a native Bostonian, was interested in acquiring the franchise. But Robert Kraft owned the old Foxboro Stadium, and the Patriots’ lease ran for another seven years, so that gave Kraft control of any potential moves. You can’t move a pro sports franchise with seven years left on the lease, and Kraft wouldn’t accept a stadium lease buyout offer from Orthwein, which blocked him from moving the team to St. Louis. Orthwein was left with only one option – to sell the team to Kraft, who three decades later still owns the Patriots. Out of the picture in New England, Lurie turned his attention to the Eagles and bought the franchise from owner Norman Braman in May 1994. The ultimate Butterfly Effect – without Lurie, there’s no Howie Roseman, no Andy Reid, no Doug Pederson, no Nick Sirianni, no Jalen Hurts and most likely no parades up Broad Street. None of it happens.

MONOPOLY ON RUNNING QBS: Five different Eagles quarterbacks have rushed for 100 yards in a game and no other team has had more than three in their history. Randall Cunningham and Donovan McNabb both had three 100-yard games, Michael Vick and Jalen Hurts have two apiece and back in 1966 Jack Concannon ran for 100 yards in a game. The only other team with more than two 100-yard quarterbacks is the 49ers, with Billy Kilmer (3), Colin Kaepernick (two) and Steve Young (1). Several teams have never had a quarterback run for 100 yards, including the Bears, Browns, Broncos. Cowboys, Chiefs and Dolphins.



WHO THE HECK IS ZION WILSON? One of the more interesting guys in training camp has been Zion Wilson, an undrafted rookie defensive tackle who spent his first two years as a walk-on at East Carolina playing offensive line before finding a home on defense. Wilson planned on transferring to Virginia, but his appeal for a sixth season of eligibility was denied by the NCAA in June and a couple days later the Eagles signed him. Wilson, 6-foot-3, 315 pounds, is having a strong summer and really shined in joint practices over the weekend in Foxborough and even got a small helping of 1st-team reps. He’s made plays in both preseason games and has definitely gotten the coaches’ attention. Count Jordan Davis as impressed: “I like Zion and his story is really cool. And you know, just going through this camp with him and just seeing him go through the rookie process, you know, it was one of those things that kind of flew under the radar for a lot of people because he wasn’t drafted, he signed late in the game. But seeing him go and seeing him get coached up by coach Clint (Hurtt), I think you know, when Coach Clint gets his hands on you and he gets a chance to coach you up, you’re bound to get better.” The Eagles are loaded on the interior line, but if the Eagles can get Wilson through waivers he’s a lock for the practice squad.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TURNOVERS: We can break down every facet of the roster, the schemes, the coaches, the matchups. But the reality is the one thing that matters more than everything else is turnover differential. Under Nick Sirianni, the Eagles are 42-4 when they are plus-1 or better and 53-13 when they’re plus-zero or better. When they’re minus-1 or worse they’re 12-17. Pretty simple. Force more turnovers than you commit and you’re going to win around 90 percent of the time.

THE CRAZY HURDLING MADMAN CARSON STEELE: How do you not love this kid? To put Carson Steele’s 6-catch, 88-yard receiving performance Saturday night into some perspective, the most yards he ever had in a college game was 57 in Ball State’s 20-16 loss to Eastern Michigan in Muncie, Ind., in 2022. The most he’s had in an NFL regular-season game is nine, in the Chiefs’ 2024 win over the Panthers in Charlotte, N.C. Steele’s 88 yards were the most by an Eagles running back in a preseason game since Raheem Mostert had 93 against the Jets (along with 69 rushing yards) in a loss to the Jets in East Rutherford in 2015. Steele, who finished at UCLA after two years at Ball State, really shined Saturday night. He showed soft hands, a great feel for running in space and tremendous toughness in traffic as well as plus athleticism hurdling defenders twice, including on his touchdown. You never want to get carried away with strong preseason perrformances against backups, but there’s a lot to like about Steele’s game. Steele spent his first couple years with the Chiefs and played in all 17 games in 2024, rushing 56 times for 183 yards with seven catches for 26 yards. There isn’t a roster spot for him here, but assuming the Eagles can get him through waivers he’s precisely the kind of player you want on the practice squad. Smart, tough and productive.

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