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Eagles OC Describes Seasonal Intersection

Originally posted on Philadelphia Eagles on SI
By John McMullen | Last updated Aug 19, 2025 4:39 PM ET

Jim Schwartz once described the modern NFL fashion succinctly.

“The offseason is for teaching, training camp is for evaluation and the regular season is about preparing for the next opponent,” the former Eagles’ defensive coordinator said.

It’s not quite that clean, and Schwartz, who was back in Philadelphia last week for joint practices and a preseason game as the DC of the Cleveland Browns, added the context that some teaching bleeds over into the beginning of camp and evaluation is always continuing even when things count.

For the most part, though, the weight of the three prongs was accurately described by Schwartz.

On Tuesday, before the Eagles' penultimate training camp practice of 2025, Eagles OC Kevin Patullo described the crowded intersection Philadelphia is hitting with the final camp practice set for Wednesday, and the necessary evil of the last preseason game at the New York Jets following on

Next is the initial cutdown to 53 set for Tuesday of next week before ramping up to regular-season mode for the NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 4.

“It's difficult how these weeks work for us. They are kind of fast paced,” Patullo admitted. “The other day we were literally working on two practices, a Jets preseason plan for the young guys, and then what we're doing the next week in between that kind of dead period before the Cowboys."

A day off for the players after a preseason loss to Schwartz and the Brows was no off day for the coaches, who are working on three plans at once, coupled by evaluations further complicated by the arrival of wide receiver John Mechie, who was officially acquired from the Houston Texans on Monday.

“There are three and four things happening that day off that we had [on Sunday],” said Patullo. “There was a lot going on just for this week, kind of a final install stuff, rep some things in practice today and tomorrow that we want to make sure we get full speed before we get into that [Dallas] game week.”

Ironically, the finish line to Stage 2 is the starting block for everything counting and perhaps even a little bit of a breather for the coaching staff if the teaching and evaluation was done correctly.

“There's a lot going all at once and we're trying to sort through it, but I think once we get through this week it calms down,” Patullo said. “We kind of shift our focus, which will be nice and get ready for the game.”

This article first appeared on Philadelphia Eagles on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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