Late heroics avoid shutout in ugly preseason loss to Ravens.

If it wasn’t for some heroics by rookie 4th-string quarterback Cole Payton in the final minutes, this would have been a complete disaster.

It was still a near-disaster.

Yeah, it was only a preseason game, but it was an ugly one. The Eagles opened their 2026 preseason Saturday night with a 24-7 loss to the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Cause for panic? Nah. Cause for concern about depth and effort? Sure

Payton, the 5th-round QB from North Dakota State, led the Eagles on their only scoring drive, running three times for 45 yards – including a 17-yard gain on a 4th-and-3 - and throwing a 6-yard TD pass to Erik Ezukanma with three minutes left.

He was the Eagles’ leading passer and leading rusher.

With Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee in the game, the Eagles netted 77 yards and two first downs on eight drives and didn’t have a play longer than 13 yards.

Here’s our 10 Instant Observations on a forgettable preseason opener in Maryland:

1. This was about as lifeless start as you could imagine for the Sean Mannion offense. Yeah, no starters. Yeah, first preseason game. Yeah, new scheme. And yeah, Payton’s efforts in the final minutes helped them avert an embarrassing shutout. Still, you’d like to see more than this. Even with this rag-tag collection of backups, practice squadders and NFL hangers-on, this just shouldn’t happen. Not this bad. I get that you’re vanilla and I get that you don’t want to show anything. But let’s at least try to look like a real NFL offense maybe? I don’t want to get too carried away. We’re still a month away from the regular-season opener, there are joint practices with the Patriots next week and two more preseason games and obviously none of the Eagles’ starters and most key backups were watching from the sideline. But not an auspicious debut for Mannion.

2. That competition for the No. 2 quarterback job didn’t have a winner Saturday night. Neither quarterback competing to back up Jalen Hurts did much of anything, but in both cases it wasn’t totally their fault. Andy Dalton, who got the start, was victimized by a couple drops, including one by the normally reliable Darius Cooper that would have been a first down. McKee had the Eagles moving in the second quarter, but the drive was derailed by a holding call on Jake Majors and a holding that wasn’t called on the Ravens when McKee had Danny Gray open for a first down. Take the stats for what they’re worth in a game like this, but Dalton was 3-for-6 for 20 yards and McKee was 6-for-10 for 35 yards. Neither threw a touchdown or interception. I still think the 26-year-old McKee makes more sense as a No. 2 than the 38-year-old Dalton. But it’s a competition that is going to continue throughout the rest of camp.

3. Sometimes you can learn more by who doesn’t play than who does. And the fact that Dontayvion Wicks didn’t dress speaks volumes. He is clearly the No. 2 right now behind DeVonta Smith and ahead of Makai Lemon. Smith and Lemon have both been dealing with hamstring injuries, but Smith looks close to returning while Lemon – who desperately needs the work – doesn’t. Wicks has been outstanding in camp and with a month to go before opening day it’s hard to imagine Lemon not just getting healthy but making enough plays in the limited number of days he’ll have to leapfrog Wicks. Honestly, Elijah Moore and Darius Cooper both deserve to play more than Lemon. They both played Saturday night, but seeing Wicks on the sideline tells you everything you need to know about how strongly the Eagles feel about him. If they don’t think he needs a preseason game at this point, it’s hard to imagine he won’t be WR2 when the season starts.

4. Very cool to see back-to-back impressive snaps from the Eagles’ two international rookies, Uar Bernard and Joshua Weru in the third quarter. Bernard, in his first snap of organized football, showed his strength when he pushed back Ravens tackle Emery Jones, a 3rd-round pick last year, on a bull rush. And then Weru got some serious pressure on Fagnano, forcing him into an incompletion to Adam Randall on a 3rd-and-9. Weru has been ahead of Bernard at practice, and I wondered if the Eagles would even send Bernard out there just three weeks after he put on shoulder pads and a helmet for the first time in his life. Both these guys are still long-term projects who aren’t going to help the Eagles this year. But they’re also both fascinating physical freaks who could be players in the future. In the first football game of their lives, they both gave us a glimpse of what that future might look like. HowieBall.

5. It’s been an uneventful summer for Will Shipley, the 3rd-year running back, whose touches and scrimmage yards were both down from his rookie year to last year. There are legit questions whether there’s a roster spot for Shipley, a 4th-round pick out of Clemson in 2024. But he had some nice runs on an evening where pretty much nobody on offense did anything worth mentioning. Shipley ran six times for 25 yards before finishing with a two-yard loss that turned his final stats ugly. But he runs hard and has a good sense for where the hole is. He can catch the ball, return kicks and play special teams, so he’s got some value. Injuries to Dameon Pierce and Elijah Mitchell may help clear a path for Shipley to find his way back to the 53-man roster.

6. One kid who showed up was cornerback Shaun Wade, who the Eagles signed in June from the Dallas Renegades of the United Football League. Wade, initially the Ravens’ 5th-round pick back in 2021, made a couple big-time plays against his former team. Wade, who played at Ohio State, has bounced around from the Ravens to the Patriots to the Chargers to the Bears before landing in the UFL. Wade did a nice job breaking up a long pass near the left sideline from Fagnano to Dayton Wade. It looked like Wade initially made the catch, but Shaun Wade got a hand on the ball and pried it loose. Later in the third quarter, he got beat on a pass from Fagnano to Elijah Sarratt but recovered and got back in the play, caught Sarratt and clubbed the ball loose and the fumble was recovered by Eagles corner Ambry Thomas. Wade is another one of those extreme longshots, but plays like that can potentially get you a spot on the practice squad. We haven’t seen a ton from Wade at camp, but some guys are just gamers and when the lights are on and the stands are full they make plays, and that’s what Wade did Saturday night.

7. Everybody saw what we’ve been seeing all summer. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. flying around all over the field making plays. On a 1st-and-10, Trott sniffed out an Randall run and met him at the point of attack, dropping him after a short two-yard gain. Three plays later, Ravens QB Tyler Huntley tried to take off on a 1st-and-10 and Trotter sacked him. Trott has been doing this throughout camp, just running around making plays. Trott also threw a punch at a Raven after a holding penalty on Baltimore. Love that. Didn’t get a flag, so it was a smart play. Trotter finished with five tackles, two QB hits and the sack. There’s no doubt in my mind Trott can start in this league. What he lacks in elite measurables at 6-foot, 225 pounds with 4.60 speed he more than makes up for with his instincts, intelligence and toughness. Outstanding player having an outstanding camp.

8. Was nice to see 2nd-year interior lineman Ty Robinson make a big play because he really hasn’t made many at practice. But on a 2nd-and-8 from the Eagles’ 28, he stormed up the middle and sacked Huntley for a seven-yard sack. The Ravens picked up four yards on the next play, but they still had to attempt at 49-yard field goal instead of a shorter kick without the sack and Tyler Loop missed it wide right. Robinson also had a nice pressure on a Huntley incompletion later in the first quarter. He also picked up a stupid roughing the passer personal foul late in the game Robinson, a 4th-round pick last year, is in a fight for a spot on the 53-man roster, and it’s rare for a 4th-round pick to be released in his second season – in the last 25 years, Jamaal Green in 2005, Trevard Lidley in 2011 and Donnel Pumphrey in 2018 are the only Eagles 4th-round picks who haven’t made it to Year 2. Robinson is behind Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo, as well as Byron Young. And if the Eagles decide to keep Uar Bernard on the 53 to avoid having him poached, that’s five interior lineman, and that leaves Robinson and Gabe Hall competing for a sixth spot that may not even exist. Robinson needed an active performance to get himself back in the roster mix, and he delivered it.

9. It’s been a quiet summer for Kelee Ringo – and his evening certainly got off to a shaky start when he gave up a touchdown to rookie 3rd-round pick Ja’Kobi Lane on a pass from undrafted UConn rookie Joe Fagnano and then committed a DPI on Xavie Guilory at the 3-yard-line. But Ringo, a career underachiever, made a highlight-reel interception on the very next play when he picked off Fagnano in the end zone, diving in front of Guilory and making a circus grab, holding onto the ball as he fell to the ground. If Ringo is going to make the 53-man roster, it’s going to be because of his special teams ability. But he’s got to at least be a functional cornerback or it doesn’t make sense to keep him. Because that special teams ability won’t help him if he’s got to go into a game at corner. A guy in Ringo’s position needs all the big plays he can make, and plays like that – a diving TD-saving interception, even in a preseason game - get the attention of everybody in the organization.

10. The backup defense held it together for a while before falling to pieces under the weight of having to play 41 minutes and allowing 14 4th-quarter points. Other than the handful of guys we already mentioned, the deep backups didn’t put up much resistance to a collection of three Ravens backup quarterbacks, giving up 435 yards, 30 first downs, over 140 rushing yards and just under 300 passing yards. The defense got a couple takeaways, which was good to see, but I don’t care where you are on the depth chart or who you’re playing against, giving up 441 yards and 31 first downs in a preseason game is unacceptable. The thing got embarrassing with five minutes left when 4th-string undrafted quarterback Austin Reed ran untouched 14 yards for a touchdown while the entire defense was turned the other way. No starters but some questions about whether the Eagles’ depth is what we thought.

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