Camp Is Open: The Five Eagles Questions South Jersey Should Be Asking

PHILADELPHIA — Six days from now, the pads come out of storage, the whistles start blowing at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, and the only season that truly matters in this region gets underway. The Eagles report for 2026 Training Camp on Tuesday, July 28, and if you grew up here the way I did — Camden kid, Birds on the radio before I could read a defense — you already know the calendar in your gut. Football is back. Everything else is just waiting.

But this is not last year’s team, and that is the first thing to understand before you drive up to camp with your kids and a cooler. There is a new voice running the most important room on the roster, and how his message lands will shape the whole season.

A new voice in the most important room

That voice belongs to Chris Kuper, the new offensive line coach the Eagles hired back in February to replace Jeff Stoutland — a name that had become almost sacred in this town. Stoutland didn’t just coach linemen here; he built a culture, a standard, a way of doing business that turned late-round picks into Pro Bowlers. Replacing him is one of the quietest high-stakes jobs in football. Kuper, a former NFL guard himself, has said plainly that he isn’t trying to be Stoutland. “I’d rather be myself,” he told reporters this spring. Smart answer. Now he has to prove it with a group that doesn’t need fixing so much as protecting.

The best line in football

And what a group it is. Kuper inherits arguably the best line in football: All-Pro left tackle Jordan Mailata, three-time Pro Bowl guard Landon Dickerson, two-time Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens, and Lane Johnson, who will one day give a speech in Canton. You don’t rebuild that. You keep it healthy and you keep it hungry. Jurgens said this offseason he’s “excited” for the new-look offense, and that word — new-look — is the second thing worth watching. Continuity up front, evolution behind it.

A South Jersey kid to watch

The third question is a young man a lot of South Jersey families already claim as their own. Jihaad Campbell, the Gloucester Township product and the Eagles’ first-round pick in 2025, is the kind of local story this newspaper exists to tell. He started ten of seventeen games as a rookie, piled up 76 tackles and an interception, and did it while learning on the fly. The catch: Campbell underwent shoulder surgery in March, and there were real questions about whether he’d be ready. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has said the recovery is on track and Campbell should be good to go for camp. If he takes the leap alongside Zack Baun that a lot of people around the building expect, this defense gets scary.

Talent wins games; culture wins Januarys, and this franchise learned the hard way that the second thing is fragile.Samuel Banks

The edge, and the fifth question

Fourth: the edge. Jonathan Greenard arrived to bring pressure off the corner, and by every account he’s embracing more than just sacks — he’s taking on a mentor role for the younger rushers. That matters. Talent wins games; culture wins Januarys, and this franchise learned the hard way that the second thing is fragile.

Fifth, and simplest: stay healthy. Camp is where seasons are quietly saved or lost, long before anyone keeps score. The reps in late July don’t show up in a box score, but they show up in December.

So here’s my advice. Get up to Broad Street or plan a trip to open practice. Bring the kids. Let them see how hard grown men work at a game. Because come September, when the noise at the Linc rolls down off the upper deck like weather, you’ll want to have been there when it was just sweat and installation and a new coach finding his voice.

Camp is open. Around here, that’s a holiday.

Based on reporting from The Philadelphia Inquirer, PhiladelphiaEagles.com, Bleeding Green Nation, and PhillyVoice. The Neighborhood Gazette covers South Jersey at neighborhoodgazette.town.