The Eagles finished the preseason with a third loss in as many weeks.

Here are five thoughts off the game, which featured some shaky quarterback play, a rookie’s preseason debut, and some serious implications for the initial 53-man roster due less than 48 hours after the final whistle:

The next chapter in a peculiar QB2 battle

Full disclosure: I originally had written that Friday night was the final chapter in the Eagles’ awkward battle for the backup quarterback job, but the performances from both Tanner McKee and Andy Dalton left things all the more uncomfortably unsettled going into cut-down day Sunday evening.

McKee looked like a shell of his former self in a half of preseason action against the Bengals defense, going 12-for-22 for 55 yards and one interception with a handful of errant passes. The outing served as a direct contrast from one of McKee’s brightest moments: Exactly 386 days prior when the 26-year-old went 2o-for25 for 252 yards and two touchdowns. The discussion after that game was whether a Day 2 pick would be enough for a quarterback-needy team to pry him away from the Eagles at some point, but now it’s hard to envision McKee garnering anything near that on the trade market.

Dalton, who came in at the beginning of the second half after starting each of the previous two games, was slightly better. He went 12-for-19 for 104 yards and a touchdown, although it’s still hard to argue he clears the bar as the No. 2 quarterback for a team that has valued the role so highly for more than a decade.

It’s also hard to know whether the Eagles can recoup draft assets for the 38-year-old in a trade between now and Sunday at 6 p.m., which beckons the question: If the Eagles can’t find a trade partner for Dalton or McKee, will general manager Howie Roseman be willing to keep four quarterbacks on the roster to regain leverage?

And if not, which of the four will fall victim to the crowded room? Cole Payton has been encouraging enough this summer to argue he’s shown enough be on the initial roster, but it’s at least worth mentioning just how limited his exposure to the rest of the league has been in each of the last two preseason games as a somewhat-unfair byproduct of the quarterback competition lingering this long into the summer. The sixth-round rookie was utilized as a personal protector on the punt unit Friday night, but took his first snaps under center until after the five-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Could the Eagles been trying to hide him as a way to get him through waivers? It’s unlikely, but there’s no impossibilities in this summer’s strange quarterback carousel.

The Makai Lemon experience

The Eagles’ decision to give Makai Lemon a chance to get his feet wet in live action before the regular season backfired to some degree, with the first-round rookie making a few notable miscues in his preseason debut.

Lemon was targeted five times. Let’s go through each:

• First play of the game, McKee hit Lemon in stride on a quick out route against third-round rookie cornerback Tacario Davis
• Two plays later, Lemon ran a sail route against Davis and gained little separation as the former Washington defensive back batted the pass away
• Lemon makes a catch on an underneath route in the middle of the field for a one-yard loss.
• McKee’s pass to Lemon on an in-breaking route goes through Lemon’s hands and straight to Davis for an interception. The pass was high and slightly behind Lemon, but he got both hands on it and undoubtedly should have made the catch.
• McKee finds Lemon on a shallow crosser for a one-yard gain.

Lemon finished the game with three catches for three yards, a statline that is emblematic of his usage before and after suffering the hamstring injury that sidelined him for most of the summer. The sail route in particular also shows something that was apparent during the pre-draft process with Lemon: He’s not the type of receiver to create consistent separation against press man coverage. He possesses the intangible qualities (strong hands, run-after-catch ability, and a feel for space against zone coverage) to be productive in Sean Mannion’s system, but it will require creativity from the first-time offensive coordinator. That’s probably not something they’d show in a preseason game.

One final note on Lemon: When Lemon was sidelined, Roseman pointed to Cooper DeJean’s rookie season to argue that the missing time in training camp doesn’t always spell trouble for a young player. After Friday night, I’d suspect the Eagles would make a similar comparison to DeJean’s preseason debut in 2024. The defensive back struggled against the Minnesota Vikings and didn’t start playing meaningful snaps until midway through the regular season that year, but was eventually instrumental in the group becoming a dominant force en route to Super Bowl LIX.

That’s not to say Lemon is going to follow a similar trajectory of course, but it is a reminder that drawing conclusions off preseason debuts is often a futile task.

The trades yet to come?

The exercise of going through the final few names on the Eagles’ 53-man roster this year reveals how flexible Eagles general manager Howie Roseman can be over the next 48 hours without causing too much of a logjam. There are a handful of players who Roseman could stash on the practice squad for Week 1 to accommodate trade targets, and I’d keep my eye on the tight end market in particular.

There’s an argument to be made the Eagles could actually use reinforcements at two separate spots on the depth chart there. Most went into training camp expecting Eli Stowers to at least be part of the equation as a depth option should Dallas Goedert get hurt, but the second-round rookie’s summer revealed he’s far from ready to play a meaningful role in the offense even when he returns from a hamstring injury suffered in the last week of camp.

If Goedert does miss time — something that’s happened in four of the last five seasons — the Eagles don’t have a reliable receiving option in the room behind him. And if Sean Mannion plans to utilize three-tight-end sets, Johnny Mundt is the lone tight end who can check every box this scheme asks of its inline tight ends.

Perhaps one trade can address both needs. Someone like New York Jets tight end Jeremy Ruckert or Rams tight end Davis Allen could check both boxes, but signing Zach Ertz and trading for or claiming a more dedicated blocking option could fill out the room, especially if Stowers begins the season on injured reserve and leaves the team with just Goedert and Mundt on the 53-man roster.

The bubble player I’m having the hardest time with

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