Philly Leader

The performance matches the evaluation. In fact, in the case of cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, his play through this summer's Training Camp and preseason matched up favorably to the scouting report Eagles Assistant General Manager Alec Halaby spent weeks detailing.

"You don't always know what the translation is going to be, so when we looked at him in college, you saw a guy who could play in a lot of different styles," Halaby said. "He was comfortable playing off (in off coverage), you saw that he could close very quickly, he could run with any vertical (route by a receiver), he was very ball aware, he was hyper-competitive, and I think that is what we've seen out here in a new system and environment. We've seen him in the nickel as well and when he's outside, he looks the same.

"Quinyon is going against better players than he did in college and that has been great for him. You see all of those underlying traits and his competitiveness."

Halaby is part of the Eagles' personnel department that has spent months strategically building this 2024 team and he's had a hand and a significant voice in every part of the construction – the model for spending, the analytics of salary cap allocation, the evaluation of NFL free agents as well as the rookie class, the balance of trades – and the roster is one that has, from Halaby's perspective, the right stuff.

"I think we have high-end talent and I think we have depth," Halaby said. "Those are two drivers and two things that we think about, so we think we're strong in both of those dimensions."

Halaby is in his 17th season with the Eagles and has worked his way up the organizational ladder: He started as a football operations intern in 2007 and 2009, moved to player personnel analyst in 2010, bumped up to special assistant to general manager Howie Roseman after that, and then became vice president of football operations and strategy before his rise to assistant general manager in 2022.

There is still roster movement and ultimate evaluation of how players will fare in regular-season action but as far as Halaby sees it, things are going according to plan.

"These guys have done a really good job in camp so far," Halaby said. "There are occasionally times when players come in, and they're not the player you expected. Here, what we've seen; there has been a real analog between the player and people we thought they would be on and off-field in Training Camp's first month or so during preseason.

"I think everybody feels good about how the plan has been executed and how things have gone. We're like everyone else in the league; regular season starts to really tell the story so we are going to see how it plays out. To this point though we feel good; we know we still have to develop and really work every day to accomplish what we want to accomplish."