OTAs are fun for a couple of reasons. It’s the first time we really get to see the new version of a team together, and everyone looks fantastic because it’s not a real football practice. We get to find out which guys aren’t happy with their teams, then we spend the summer talking about how they want to be traded. It’s perfect.
So let’s look at three of the big overreactions from the second week of OTAs. We’re looking at the Eagles, the Cardinals (or maybe not the Cardinals), and the Cowboys.
The Eagles' offense is immediately going to be better.
Based on the small snippets that we’ve seen from practices, what the beats have reported, and what the players have straight-up said, it sounds like the Philadelphia Eagles' offense is going through a massive overhaul this offseason … which is amazing.
Jalen Hurts was talking about the differences between the offenses the last couple of years and the one Sean Mannion is running. He said, “... the base of the offense was running inside zone, and that’s not typical for this West Coast type of style. So I think that’s a natural difference. Then I think from a pass game standpoint, as things evolved, we were very one-on-one dependent. Trying to find a matchup instead of a full flow West Coast style offense.” (8:02 in the video below)
That’s huge because if you watched the Eagles' passing game all over the past four years, you saw isolated routes and wildly simple and predictable route combinations. It was all about a pass catcher being a better athlete than the guy across from them … And the results from that vary.
They were dominant and explosive in 2022. They were stale in 2023. They were inconsistent but explosive in 2024. They were disgusting and brutal to watch in 2025.
So now, they’re going to the Shanahan-style scheme that deliberately tries to get pass catchers in space. As far as a passing game goes, it’s significantly more quarterback-friendly than their old, ‘Try to decipher the disguised coverage and find a guy who’s the least covered’ scheme.
We’ve seen a bunch of worse quarterbacks and worse athletes than Jalen Hurts do very well in that kind of offense, so this all seems good.
But … there’s going to be a learning phase.
This is an entirely new offense for the Eagles players. Jalen Hurts has never run anything like this in his career, and Saquon Barkley and the offensive line have never played in an outside zone-centric run scheme (and they have a new O-Line coach).
There are a lot of changes. Sure, the offense will run better than last year (which isn’t a high bar), but it might take a second for them to really start vibing.
Josh Sweat’s not getting traded?
OTAs are not mini-camps. Mini-camps are the mandatory workouts, and OTAs are optional. As a blanket rule, healthy players who are happy with their situations show up to OTAs … and Josh Sweat has not been at Arizona Cardinals OTAs.
He breaks that blanket rule; he’s one of those veterans who has earned the privilege and leeway from the team to go and do his own workouts in the offseason. But that’s not the part that gets reported. It turns out, you can just ask the guy about it.
On Sweat’s last Instagram post (from December 2025), someone named @CMFNY commented: “Man TF up and show up to OTA’s and put in that work to get better.” Sweat aptly replied, “tf are you talking about?” @CMFNY answered, “Passsionate fan who wants to see you succeed with the team amid buzz from insiders that you aren’t happy Gannon is gone and might want out after 1 year.” Sweat put it to bed, “I do my own training every offseason. This is nothing new…”