DeVonta Smith is finally back on the practice field, and that alone should calm some nerves in Philadelphia. The Eagles’ wide receiver 1 had been sidelined with a hamstring injury, but his return to practice signals the team is trending in the right direction heading toward Week 1. To me, it sounds like more of a precautionary thing. The Eagles have maintained that Smith is fine and will be ready in a couple weeks for the regular season opener, but they want to make sure their top target is healthy enough to give it a full go without pushing anything.

The same cannot be said for rookie wide receiver Makai Lemon, who has not practiced. That situation continues to be concerning, and honestly, it’s trending toward a point where I don’t even think Lemon is going to be out there in Week 1. That puts even more pressure on the rest of the receiver room to step up, and we’ll see who separates themselves over the next couple weeks.

Mannion pumps the brakes on preseason panic

Now, the other big storyline coming out of practice is what Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion had to say to the media. If you suffered through that preseason game, you know it was horrendous. Philadelphia got blown away. The defense couldn’t stop a nosebleed, and the offense looked like it had a first-time play-caller, which it does. But Mannion made it clear that the performance wasn’t indicative of what this offense will look like when it matters.

Mannion said the Eagles kept things pretty close to the vest. And I’m glad he came out and stopped the panic, because everybody was saying Mannion had a terrible debut and he’s going to be a terrible play-caller. He said it himself: they didn’t reveal any of their cards. They called a few different plays, they didn’t run anything from their actual scheme, and they usually get beat pretty bad in the preseason anyway. We’ve seen over the past couple years that Philadelphia is pretty much sending a message: they don’t care about the preseason. Simple as that.

The other thing Mannion mentioned was that the process of calling plays from the sideline went well on Saturday. He wanted to try that approach first, and now in the next preseason game he’s actually going to call plays from the booth. So we don’t really know yet if Mannion will be on the sideline or up in the booth during the regular season, but I think it’s smart to get that different experience and figure out what works best before Week 1.

Don’t hit the panic button yet

Look, it was his first time being out there as a play-caller. He’s never done it before at this level. There’s going to be an adjustment period, and that’s fine. I wouldn’t go 100% panic mode thinking this is what the Eagles’ offense is going to look like, especially because they weren’t really playing any starters. A few guys were sprinkled in. Darius Cooper had a big drop, and there were some other rough moments, but you can’t put a lot of stock into a preseason game where the ones aren’t even on the field.

The Eagles have a track record of mailing it in during the preseason and then flipping the switch when it counts. Nothing about Saturday changes the way I feel about this team’s potential. Smith is back, the offensive scheme is being installed behind closed doors, and Mannion is figuring out his comfort level as a caller. We’ll see how the next few weeks play out, but there’s no reason to spiral right now.