3 Eagles bold predictions for 2026 NFL season: Can Sean Mannion unlock Jalen Hurts?

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3 Eagles bold predictions for 2026 NFL season: Can Sean Mannion unlock Jalen Hurts?

Matty Breisch, ClutchPoints

Sat, September 5, 2026 at 11:07 PM UTC ·

7 min read

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3 Eagles bold predictions for 2026 NFL season: Can Sean Mannion unlock Jalen Hurts? appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

It's here, Philadelphia Eagles fans, it's finally here: Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season.

After eight months of waiting, a busy free agency, the 2026 NFL Draft, and not one but two big-time trades involving nine-figure players, the Eagles will be taking the field for a regular season game on September 13, when they will challenge the Washington Commanders at the Linc for the right to begin the season undefeated.

Will the Eagles continue their recent trend of making it to the Super Bowl following an ugly first-round exit? Or has yet another season of radical changes left Nick Sirianni's team simply too diminished to make it back to February football, especially with teams like the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks sitting as preseason favorites? Needless to say, there's a lot to be excited about for the Eagles heading into 2026.

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1. Sean Mannion finally unlocks the middle of the field for Jalen Hurts

After turning in some of the ugliest performances an NFL fan will ever see in 2025, hopes – and expectations – are at an all-time high for first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion to get the Eagles' offense back on track.

On paper, that task shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, as Kevin Patullo's unit went entire quarters without recording a first down due to his offensively predictable game plan. And yet, going from the 10th percentile to the 55th percentile is a massive jump, but still results in a failing grade. No, for the Eagles to really get where they want to be, Mannion has to effectively pull a rabbit out of his hat and ensure that his spin on Sirianni's general offensive framework can firmly place Jalen Hurts into the MVP race for the first time since 2023.

Based on the preseason, the jury remains firmly out on that particular pursuit.

Granted, Mannion made a point that he wouldn't be showcasing the full breadth of his offense in the preseason, but there were signs of what things could look like, namely an increased volume of targets to running backs in the passing game, with Carson Steele effectively turning himself into a preseason hero with a steady diet of passes from Tanner McKee and Andy Dalton. Now signed to the practice squad, Steele could eventually fill that role once more, but the image of what Saquon Barkley could do with the same passes might just be more enticing, as the Penn State rusher remains one of the most lethal players in the NFL when afforded a chance to shake and bake in the open field.

Will it work? Will Mannion be able to add some much-needed ingenuity to Philadelphia's offense, instead of forcing Hurts to call his own play with the season on the line ? And speaking of Hurts, will he finally let it rip across the middle of the field, now that Philadelphia has loaded up on YAC specialists who can pick up their own yards when they are given the ball in stride? While it's impossible to know, the arrows are pointing straight up on Philadelphia's offense and should remain so until proven otherwise.

2. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. outplays Jihaad Campbell

When Nakobe Dean opted to leave his first NFL home for a three-year, $36 million contract with the Las Vegas Raiders , the pressure on 2025 first-round pick Jihaad Campbell launched into the stratosphere.

Lauded extensively for being the ideal inside linebacker for the modern NFL defense – of which Vic Fangio is the architect – Campbell flashed some serious potential at times as the sort of do-it-all interior renaissance man, equally capable of dropping into coverage as providing support against the run. While the return of Dean, when coupled with a lack of depth at edge rusher, ultimately limited his run down the stretch, in the end, the Eagles clearly felt comfortable enough in his play to let one of their Georgia Bulldogs hit the road in search of paydirt.

Logging a few snaps of preseason action, Campbell looked solid, but much like in 2025, he wasn't the linebacker most fans left the summer excited about. No, that belongs to Jeremiah Trotter Jr., who, after spending two years on the bench learning from Fangio, commanded the middle of the field like a certified MIKE.

Awarded for his efforts with a rest day against the Cincinnati Bengals, admittedly the same honor afforded Campbell, the talk around the Eagles' defense is that Trotter looks like a potential 10-year starter at inside linebacker, with the Eagles having an ability to pair him with Baun or Campbell on the inside depending on how the next few seasons shake out.

Now granted, the Eagles almost never play three inside linebackers at the same time, which could limit Trotter Jr. to defensive subpackages or a rotational role alongside Campbell and Baun, but if he does see the field and outplays the 2025 first-round pick? Well, considering how Fangio has treated Kelee Ringo, benching him for all sorts of short-term options, there is a world where Axman Jr. goes from playing more on special teams than defense in Week 1 to starting a playoff game even if Campbell is fully healthy.

3. Makai Lemon looks more like DeVonta Smith than Jalen Reagor

Much has been said, written, and posted about Makai Lemon's ceiling in 2026, and for good reason.

After missing much of the summer with a hamstring strain, Lemon made his preseason debut in the finale against the Bengals and, needless to say, it didn't go particularly well. Despite earning plenty of action, Lemon finished the game with just three catches on five targets for three yards and infamously muffed his lone punt return attempt, nearly suffering an injury and a turnover on one of the strangest plays of the summer.

Lemon struggled to get much separation, didn't look particularly explosive coming out of his breaks, and just generally looked disconnected from McKee in what many hoped to be a coming-out party.

And yet, is that too surprising? While Lemon was injured for much of the summer, when he was on the field, he was firmly playing with the 1s, working on his chemistry with Hurts, who didn't log a single preseason snap.

With McKee and Dalton both relegated to the bench for (hopefully) the foreseeable future, Lemon's offensive diet will be directly tied to Hurts, who has spent the summer working on the exact kind of plays the USC product thrived at during college.

Sliding in firmly as the Eagles' WR3, a slot option with an ability to run any route available, Lemon will be the biggest beneficiary of Mannion's new McVay-inspired theme, with the first-year signal caller likely putting the collegiate Trojan into motion before the snap to give his quarterback more information before the ball gets snapped. As a result, Lemon will be able to start a good number of his routes in motion before the ball hits Hurts' hands, allowing him to already be in stride by the time the ball goes his way.

Will Lemon finish out the season flirting with 1,000 yards like DeVonta Smith's rookie season? Probably not, what with Smith and Dontavion Wicks ahead of him in the picking order, plus other options like Hollywood Brown and Darius Cooper vying for targets, but it's unlikely he has a Jalen Reagor-esque rookie season either, catching just 32 balls for 396 yards and a single touchdown . If Lemon can finish out the season with, say, 700 yards and four touchdowns, that would be some of the best production a Nick Sirianni offense has even received from a WR3 during his Philly tenure and a great sign of things to come.

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