Before trimming roster to 53, Eagles acquire tight end Albert Okwuegbunam

PHILADELPHIA — Having fallen just short of a world championship last February, the Eagles vowed to regroup and try it again. By Tuesday, they were about as re-grouped as they were going to be after meeting the NFL deadline by weed-whacking their active roster to 53 names.

While there almost certainly will be roster activity before next Thursday and their opener in New England, the Eagles will begin their final regular-season approach with 15 skill position players, nine offensive linemen, three linebackers, a half-dozen edge rushers, seven defensive tackles, four safeties, seven cornerbacks, a kicker, a long-snapper and — in a blast of utter confidence — nary a punter.

That quirk will necessarily change, but as for Tuesday, Arryn Siposs, the punter on the Super Bowl team, was technically out of work as one of 30 Eagles dropped on the cutdown-room floor.

Siposs has had troubles in each of the last two postseasons, when he shanked a fourth-quarter punt resulting in a short enough field for the Chiefs to score a vital touchdown.

“Well, a lot of these guys that we cut today, we’re interested in bringing back,” Howie Roseman said. “I think when you look at Sip, obviously the season didn’t end for us the way that we wanted to, and he would say the same thing. But also have confidence in his abilities.

“We’ll just see what happens in the next 24 hours with him and a bunch of these other guys.”

While nothing that occurred Tuesday was jolting, contributing wide receiver Greg Ward was cut, with Nick Sirianni OK with the four-man wide receiving core. Also bounced: Receiver Devon Allen, linebacker Quinton Bell, quarterback Ian Book, running back Kennedy Brooks, defensive tackle Robert Cooper, return specialist Britain Covey, cornerback Mekhi Garner, guard Julian Good-Jones, receiver Jadon Haselwood, defensive end Tarron Jackson, tight end Tyree Jackson, linebacker Kyron Johnson, wide receiver Johnny King, linebacker Tyreek Maddox-Williams, safety Tristin McCollum, linebacker Nicholas Morrow, wide receiver Joseph Ngata, defensive end Janarius Robinson, guard Tyrese Robinson, tight end Brady Russell, defensive tackle Olive Sagapolu, defensive tackle Caleb Sanders, cornerback Josiah Scott, guard Josh Sills, wide receiver Freddie Swain, linebacker Ben VanSumeren, safety K’Von Wallace and defensive tackle Marvin Wilson.

Running back Trey Sermon was declared waved/injured, meaning he can be claimed by another team or eventually return to the Eagles’ injury list. Wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland was waived with an injury settlement.

Arriving was tight end Albert Okwuegbunam, acquired from Denver with a 2025 seventh-round draft pick for a 2025 selection in the sixth round. That created the four-man crowd at the position with Dallas Goedert, Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra. In three seasons in Denver, the 2020 fourth-round pick out of the University of Missouri had 54 catches and three touchdowns. But the Eagles were oddly intrigued by the 109 yards he produced in a recent 41-0 preseason victory over the Rams.

“That’s not a slight on the tight ends we have here,” Roseman said. “We think Dallas is one of the best players at his position in the league, and we have two young players in Jack Stoll and Grant Calcaterra that we brought in here that we really like.

“For us, any time we have an opportunity to add an offensive player that we think can help us and help our team we look at that. So that’s the reason we brought him in.”

Roseman and Sirianni both stressed that the 53-man roster will be supplemented with a 16-player practice squad that they are likely to liberally tap into.

“This is a hard day for us as an organization,” Roseman said. “We bring in these guys and we ask them to give us everything that they’ve got during the offseason program, during training camp and in the preseason, and we have to sit down with each and every one of them and thank them for their efforts and their energy.

“So it’s not easy having these conversations with those guys. Then we kind of try to shift quickly. So, it’s a hard transition having as many conversations as we do with these guys and then kind of shifting here and kind of thinking about all the good.”

That, the Eagles are convinced they achieved since last they were playing competitive football.

“Obviously you’re thinking about the guys that aren’t going to be with you anymore, and that’s the tough part,” Sirianni said. “Now you’re working towards this step of where we are right now with 53. But that’s something we’ve been thinking going back to OTAs. The process is exhaustive, and we’ve worn it out to the point of where we are right now. But it’s not a moment like, ‘We’re here right now,’ because we’ve been thinking about it for so long.”