The Eagles insisted that they remained united through everything, especially after the White House released statements Monday night and Tuesday saying the team used the planned visit as a political stunt, and that the Eagles abandoned their fans.

This is going to be a blanket statement, and then I’m not going to discuss it further, Pederson said. I was looking forward to going down, obviously. We did something last season that was very special. It’s a milestone here in the city of Philadelphia, our organization, and I was looking forward to going down and being recognized as world champions. It is what it is. We’re here today. We’ve got an OTA practice. I’m focused on these next couple of days, getting through next week and onto training camp. So that’s where we’re at.

The players had met often during the three weeks since the invitation was extended in May. That included right up until the event was canceled Monday. Through it all, they kept saying they hadn’t formalized a plan. Some, such as Jenkins and Long, had said they planned to perform community service in Washington instead of going to the White House.

Sarkisian said having another year with Matt Ryan will benefit the offense because there is a huge trust factor after working together a full season.

As we see players make leaps in their second season on the job, play-callers can explode after becoming more comfortable with the playmakers on his new team. Shanahan’s tenure in Atlanta is instructive in this regard. The Falcons were 21st in scoring in Shanny’s first season before leaping to the top spot in his second.

Sarkisian would love to follow that example.

I think the biggest thing for me is just overall comfort level, Sarkisian said of beginning his second season. When I came in a year ago, it was learning the system that was in place. It was learning the players that were in place. In Year 2, I have a year in the system. Now I can make some of the tweaks that I feel like are needed for this offense to continue to grow. I’ve got a really good understanding of every player — and the things that they’re really good at, the things that they maybe need to work on, and things that I would be wrong in putting them in position to do.

Free agent running back Adrian Peterson is in shape, and he wants NFL teams to know it.

Peterson has been posting videos of himself doing grueling cardio workouts on the treadmill, jumping onto boxes with a barbell on his back, and so on. Peterson said this week on ESPN that he’s hoping teams will notice those workouts and give him a call.

There’s no question that Peterson is in the kind of shape most people could never fathom, and he says the neck injury that ended his 2017 season is totally healed. But whether any team thinks he can still contribute remains to be seen.

Darnold’s development has included lots of rewinding and fast-forwarding through plays, and dissecting every move. He’s got that type of time now, because football is the only thing that matters these days.

I don’t have class, so I’m spending every single day in the film room or on the practice field, he said. So in regards to that, just being able to spend time watching football and playing football is awesome. To be able to come in here every single day and do it for a living, that’s pretty sweet.

Darnold also recognizes the value of working with McCown and Bridgewater on and off the field.

Avril said on Dave Dameshek’s podcast that a lot of guys got turned off to Carroll when the Super Bowl ended with Russell Wilson throwing a game-losing interception to New England’s Malcolm Butler, rather than the Seahawks calling a handoff to Marshawn Lynch, which Seattle players thought would have given them a game-winning touchdown. Avril said that if the Seahawks had won that Super Bowl, which would have been their second in a row, they probably would have won another one after that, too, because the team would have been more united.

If we win that Super Bowl I think we would have won another one, Avril said. I do think the team would have bought in more to what Coach Carroll was saying, instead of going the opposite way.

As it turned out, the Seahawks began to decline amid reports that key players were increasingly not on the same page. After losing that Super Bowl after the 2014 season, the Seahawks lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in 2015 and 2016, then failed to make the playoffs in 2017. Avril attributes that decline directly to seeing players start to wonder whether Carroll’s coaching was still effective.

Guys started kind of questioning him more instead of following his lead if we had won the Super Bowl, Avril said.