How The Philadelphia Eagles Arrived At Their 53-Man Roster

How confident are the Philadelphia Eagles in their 2023 offense? They’re not even carrying a punter.

Okay, expect that to change, but incumbent punter Arryn Siposs was among the final cuts that reduced the Eagles’ roster to 53 as mandated by the league this week. While Siposs was signed to the 16-person practice squad, Philadelphia is auditioning three other punters to potentially kick on the occasions the offense doesn’t score.

But even among that group, some of the units are smaller than in past seasons. Philadelphia executive vice president and general manager Howie Roseman kept just four wide receivers — A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins, Olamide Zaccheaus — and four running backs in Rashad Penny, Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainwell and D’Andre Swift.

Instead, the Eagles traded for oversized fourth tight end Albert Okwuegbunam, who impressed Philadelphia brass with a 100-yard performance receiving during the preseason with the Denver Broncos. The Eagles gave up a 2025 sixth round pick for Okwuegbuman and a 2025 seventh round pick.

“Yeah, first thing you talk about Albert, you talk about the physical ability,” Roseman told assembled media on Tuesday. “He is 6’5″. He is almost 260 pounds. He runs a 4.4. He’s got a huge wing span. He has really good lower body flexibility for a big guy.

“We had a chance to watch him together, and obviously Coach has had tremendous success with that position and some guys who look like this. So, bring him in here. He is 25 years old. We have some people in the building who were with Denver when they drafted him and give him an opportunity.

“That’s not a slight on the tight ends we have here. We think [TE] Dallas [Goedert] is one of the best players at his position in the league, and we have two young players in, [TE] Jack Stoll and [TE] Grant Calcaterra, that we brought in here that we really like.

“For us, any time we have an opportunity to add an offensive player that we think can help us and help our team we look at that, so that’s the reason we brought him in.”

On the defensive end, the Eagles continued their tradition of finding undrafted rookies to play in their secondary, with Eli Ricks joining the group of seven cornerbacks on the final roster. Josh Jobe and Mario Goodrich, too, are undrafted corners who will start the season in Philadelphia.

“Obviously you talk about pedigree,” Roseman said of Ricks. “He was the No. 1 corner in the country coming out of high school and going to LSU. Then didn’t have his last season that he wanted to there, and he was a guy that we spent a lot of time on in the draft process.

“He came in with an opportunity, and I think what we saw is this is a long, instinctive player with good athleticism and ball skills. Those guys are hard to find. His work ethic, his care factor was really high.

“So that’s a great success story for him when he had a lot of adversity here as a guy who really thought he would be a high pick going into the year. He came in with the right attitude, and we called him and told him he was on the team.”

In a bit of a surprise, former first-round pick Derek Barnett made the team after expressing his desire to play elsewhere for a bigger role. While Roseman kept the contents of his conversation with Barnett private, he expressed confidence that the understanding reached would allow the Eagles to get production from Barnett this season.

“Tremendous respect for Derek and the player and person that he is and what he brings to this football team. Love having him here. That’s why we bring him back.

“That’s a position for us which you see with the 53-man roster, it’s a priority. So, we’re going to keep as many of those guys we possibly can. Last year we got in a little bit of a bind and had to give up a pick and had to sign guys in the middle of the year.

“So, for us having those guys lets us sleep a little bit better at night, and Derek is certainly one of those guys.”

Both Roseman and head coach Nick Sirianni were stingy with details of who will start come September 10, when Philadelphia opens the season at New England. But while Sirianni wouldn’t reveal much, he did announce that he’d deprive the world of a sight no football fan would ever forget.

“Well, you know, we’re not going to pick Jordan Mailata or something like that, but you have a lot of guys to choose from and guys that have been working all offseason and all training camp catching punts, so we feel good about our options there,” Sirianni said, ruling out his 6’8, 365-point tackle.