The Eagles hit the practice field in preparation for their primetime matchup against the Chicago Bears for the first time Thursday afternoon.

With the first Monday night game of the season pushing everything a day behind, let’s look through one thing we’ve learned about each position group:

Quarterbacks: The offseason skepticism about Jalen Hurts’ ability to read defenses has been overblown and overstated.

Couch it however you’d like. It’s only been two weeks. The Eagles have faced what most expect to be bad defenses. The way the offense has operated is very likely unsustainable. Still, it’s been hard to ignore the way that Hurts has operated in Sean Mannion’s scheme given the discourse surrounding the franchise quarterback all offseason.

Hurts has made a handful of well-timed, anticipatory throws in each of the last two games. The exact type of throws many have harped on the absence of when evaluating Hurts in the past and, more pointedly, the types of throws some members on previous iterations of the Eagles coaching staff didn’t believe he was capable of making.

Under Sean Mannion, we’ve seen a new version of Hurts. One with cleaner footwork, more willingness to let it rip into dangerous areas of the field and a newfound openness to operating from under center to unlock things over the middle. According to SumerSports, Hurts is attempting throws between the hashes at a higher rate than any other season since he became a full-time starter in 2022. It’s admittedly a small sample size, but still shows just how different Hurts has operated in this new scheme.

Running backs: Saquon Barkley is still one of the league’s elite runners despite a worrying lack of opportunity

Saquon Barkley’s longest run of the season coming off an explosive jump cut at the line of scrimmage in Week 1 has been a fitting illustration for the Eagles’ run game overall the last two weeks.

While Barkley still looks like one of the league’s most talented running backs, the space he’s getting from the Eagles offensive line ranks worryingly close to the bottom. According to SumerSports, Barkley’s yards before contact per attempt (- .26) rank 59th out of 60 running backs with at least 10 touches this year. Tank Bigsby, who spelled. Barkley in the Titans game after the Eagles’ star running back suffered a stinger, ranks 58th and gives the Eagles two of the three backs with negative yards before contact average in the league.

For Barkley in particular, this stat has a compounding effect. When the Eagles signed Barkley in free agency, the vision was to put him behind an offensive line that would allow him more yards before contact with the evidence to suggest the 29-year-old’s yards after contact would actually increase as well. Analytics aside, it’s not hard to understand that Barkley’s often at his best when given the opportunity to pick up a head of steam into the second level where he can either run around slower linebackers or through smaller defensive backs.

That’s not something the Eagles have afforded him so far.

Wide receivers: DeVonta Smith is who we thought he is. Plus, Dontayvion Wicks has earned Jalen Hurts’ trust.

I couldn’t decide on just one thing we’ve learned about the wideouts, although you could make an argument Dontayvion Wicks’ play has been more of a revelation than Smith.

Wicks has achieved the rare feat of earning Hurts’ trust without an extended lead time building what Hurts has referred to as “in-game chemistry” several times this summer. He plays bigger than his 6-foot-1, 206-pound frame might suggest and Hurts hasn’t been shy targeting Wicks downfield even in tight coverage dating back to training camp. According to Next Gen Stats, Wicks leads the Eagles in average air yards per target and catch rate over expectation, underscoring the trust Hurts showed in Week 1 and overall to reward Wicks with downfield opportunities.

Smith had a statement game against the Titans and I’d expect his featured role to only grow as the season progresses. The Commanders used a heavy dose of cloud coverages to keep him contained, but Mannion did a nice job of moving Smith around the formation and varying his route concepts against Tennessee to ensure he’d have a heavy workload. Even though he’s currently near the middle of the pack in yards per route run and target share because of a quiet season opener, I’d still expect him to finish the season at or around the top 10 in each this year.

Tight end: Howie Roseman’s view of the position needs to evolve

I wonder, if given truth serum as he often likes to say, if the tight end position is the group Howie Roseman would most like a mulligan on from this offseason.

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