Tim McManus covers the Philadelphia Eagles for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2016 after covering the Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine’s Birds 24/7, a site he helped create, since 2010.
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PHILADELPHIA — Eagles general manager Howie Roseman set the expectations for NFL free agency during a pre-combine session with local reporters in late February.
“From a big-picture perspective, we want to build a team that every year has a chance to compete for championships, that drafts really well and signs their own players, and just sporadically goes into free agency. That’s what we’re trying to do. And sometimes as much as you want to add from outside and you want to change it up, you’ve got to make a decision to keep the players you know, have played well and are part of your culture,” he said.
Nobody likes a splash move more than Roseman — and given his history, it would be foolish to rule one out — but he was setting the stage for a start to the league year on March 11 that will likely be more steak than sizzle from a player-signing standpoint.
It’s the reality for a team that has crushed it in the draft over recent years.
Consider the hit rate in Rounds 1 through 3 from 2021 to 2024.
All of them turned into starters. Three (DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens) have signed sizable second contracts with the Eagles, and Williams cashed in last offseason with a megadeal from the New England Patriots, the Eagles opting not to pay that price because of their depth at the position.
The Eagles also have a number of quality players from their stacked roster poised to hit free agency in the coming days, including edge Jaelan Phillips, Dean, safety Reed Blankenship and tight end Dallas Goedert.
That’s a whole lot of financial considerations for a team that already has much invested in stars such as Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown, along with its offensive line.
“Can we keep all our guys considering we have, for example, a lot of key defensive players coming off rookie deals in next few years? No, we are going to have to make choices,” Roseman said.
The expectation here is Philadelphia will make a push to re-sign Phillips.
Acquired from the Miami Dolphins before the November trade deadline in exchange for a 2026 third-round draft pick, Phillips helped solidify Philly’s defense over the second half of the season and finished with two sacks, seven QB hits, four passes defensed and four tackles for loss. He was a disruptor against the run and pass, a must for an edge player in Vic Fangio’s scheme.
Phillips is just 26, plays a premium position and has proved to be a system and culture fit, checking boxes the Eagles look for before writing a big check. His injury history could keep his numbers down, but there should be a healthy market for his services. It is yet to be seen whether his value exceeds the Eagles’ walkaway number.
Dean has been a strong player in the middle of the defense when healthy, not to mention a leader for that unit, but could be on the move with Zack Baun and last year’s first-round pick Jihaad Campbell occupying two of the primary linebacker slots. Goedert took a pay cut to stay in Philadelphia last season. If he’s going to cash in on his 11-touchdown season in 2025, the most likely scenario appears to be him doing so elsewhere. Similarly, it’s fair to wonder whether Blankenship will remain within the front office’s price range.
Depending on how these scenarios shake out, the Eagles will have more incentive to add at tight end and safety — two positions that were thin last season even with Blankenship and Goedert in the fold. Philadelphia will have opportunities in free agency and April’s draft to address those needs.
The other spot that stands out is offensive line. The group underperformed last season, largely due to injury. Some uncertainty followed with Lane Johnson and Dickerson both contemplating retirement this offseason. A smart play would be to bolster their depth in the trenches with modest signings in free agency and be on the lookout for eventual long-term replacements at guard and tackle through the draft.
Roseman noted that with the continual rise in the league’s salary cap, teams have done a good job of late retaining their own players. The effect is fewer difference-makers who reach free agency.
That’s all the more reason to focus on their draft, develop and re-sign model, which has served them well in recent years.
“That doesn’t mean that we can’t do splashy things, but from a broad perspective, if we can keep our players, if we can keep a lot of these young, really good players that we know that we live with, so we know who they are as people, and then it’s like a cake, it’s like a layer cake,” Roseman said. “Then you build on top of it with more good draft picks and more good young players, and then the cycle starts again.”
Curiosity Mars rover inspects cracked wheel photo of the day for July 27, 2026
A photo of one of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover’s wheels, taken by the rover using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on July 23, 2026, or Sol 4963 of its mission. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has experienced some serious wear and tear during its nearly 14 years on the Red Planet.
A new photo posted to Curiosity’s raw image server offers a close-up of the damage one of the rover’s wheels has experienced as it explores the Martian surface.
What is it?
Curiosity landed in Mars’ Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012, touching down while hanging under a ‘sky crane’ that lowered it to the planet’s surface. Since then, the rover has traveled over 20 miles (32 kilometers) across the rocky Martian soil, searching for potential signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.
All of that mileage has taken a toll on the rover, as these new images show. Curiosity weighs over one ton, and the terrain on Mars can be quite rocky and rugged.
NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) periodically use the rover’s cameras to check on the wheels, and despite the holes and cracks, the agency said in a 2024 statement that they’re “holding up well despite taking some of the worst abuse from Mars.”
Images of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover’s wheels, taken by the rover on July 23, 2026, or Sol 4963 of its mission. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Why is it amazing?
We’ve been exploring Mars for decades now, so it can be easy to take for granted how incredible it is that we get new images beamed from the surface of another planet to Earth daily from NASA’s two robotic explorers.
These images of Curiosity’s wheels help illustrate the incredible feats of engineering and science it took to place wheeled robots safely on the surface of another planet where they spend years and travel dozens of miles to bring us answers about what other worlds are like.
While they might not be human, Curiosity and Perseverance nonetheless represent humanity’s first foray into becoming an interplanetary species. The groundwork laid by the rovers and other Mars orbiters, landers and probes could someday help humanity take its first steps on another planet.
Trump says U.S. has sold more than $13 billion of Venezuela oil since Maduro’s capture
US President Donald Trump makes an announcement on American Nuclear Innovation in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2026.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has collected more than $13 billion from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil since the overthrow of former President Nicolás Maduro.
The U.S. seized control of Venezuela’s oil exports after capturing Maduro in a military raid on Jan. 3. Trump was responding to a question about a Financial Times‘ report that estimated how much money his administration had collected from the sales.
“$13 billion from Venezuela? I think even more than that,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan to tour a General Motors’ facility. “We’ve paid for that war many times over.”
Trump said the money is used to run Venezuela. “We’re taking in a lot of money — billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela,” Trump said.
The U.S. has largely left the Venezuelan government in place after ousting Maduro. Washington has been closely cooperating with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who served as vice president under Maduro.
Democrats in Congress have pressed the administration to disclose how much money it has collected from the sales, how the funds are spent, and how the program is monitored.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Semafor in an April interview that the U.S. had sold around 150 million barrels of Venezuelan oil since January.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress in June that the oil sales are audited by KPMG. The money is held in a Citibank account, Rubio said.
“It’s an ongoing audit, so it’s not a once-a-year audit, it’s on every expenditure, every single disbursement is audited by KPMG,” Rubio told Congress.
The Trump administration initially deposited $500 million in sales to an account in Qatar that was controlled by the U.S. government, Wright said in February. The U.S. subsequently set up a Treasury account and stopped sending money to the Qatar account, he said.
State Department official Michael Kozak told Congress in April that around $3 billion had been disbursed from the Treasury account. Kozak said the money was used to pay the salaries of Venezuela’s government workers, buy supplies for the nation’s oil industry and other approved uses.
Rubio authorizes the disbursement of the funds under an executive order issued by Trump on Jan. 9. The president’s order states that the money is the property of the Venezuelan government held in a custodial capacity by the U.S.
Chicago weather forecast: Tornado Warning in effect for Cook, Will counties| Radar
CHICAGO (WLS) — Severe weather spawning tornado warnings are moving through the Chicago area Monday afternoon.
A Tornado Warning is in effect for Cook and Will counties until 1:15 p.m. A warning for DuPage County has been canceled.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning is in effect for Cook and Will counties until 1:30 p.m.
Large hail was spotted in the west suburbs amid a tornado warning
Ground Stops are in effect at O’Hare and Midway.
Storms began moving in late Monday morning, with quarter-size hail reported in some suburbs such as Clarendon Hills and potentially baseball-size hail in Bolingbrook. Radar was indicating rotation near the Darien area around 12:15 p.m.
Heat index values in western parts of the Chicago area could exceed 110, while the rest of the area could see heat index values more than 100, ABC7 Accuweather Meteorologist Tracy Butler said.
An Extreme Heat Warning is in effect for DeKalb, Grundy, La Salle and Livingston counties until 9 p.m. Monday.
A Heat Advisory is in effect for Boone, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will counties in Illinois and Lake, newton, Jasper and Benton counties in Indiana until 9 p.m.
