Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 10/12/23.

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What We’re Hearing on NFL Coaching Changes and Trade-Deadline Targets - SI
Let’s start here—I’d never rule that out as long as Howie Roseman’s the GM of the Eagles. So where would they be looking this year? It seems, to me, like the two positions of greatest need are linebacker and safety. Justin Simmons would be, for sure, a really good fit for the Eagles, both because Simmons has Vic Fangio–system experience and because he’s a really strong locker room guy who could become a leader quickly in a locker room full of them. I don’t think the Cardinals will move Budda Baker, but he’s another name that I’m sure will be connected to the Eagles in the coming weeks. Linebacker is a little tougher one to fill, but I like the idea of Josey Jewell in Philly—he’s another Bronco who played for Fangio, and he could steady the middle of the defense. The question there would be health (he’s already been banged up this year). After that, running back might be the one other spot I’d look at, just because, as good as D’Andre Swift has been, he’s been injured a lot, too. Otherwise, the Eagles still have a good, balanced roster that’s capable of another deep playoff run.

5 thoughts on the Eagles 5-0 start - BGN
This is mostly about the red zone, but also about some player usage. Getting down the field hasn’t been a problem for the Eagles, only the Dolphins, on a historic pace to start the season, have more yardage. The Eagles have the fourth most trips to the red zone, but once they get there they grind to a halt. Last season they were 3rd best in scoring rate, this season the Eagles are 27th in red zone scoring, worse than the Giants. That’s inexcusably bad. One correction should be changing personnel usage. The Eagles have handed off the ball to a RB in the red zone 26 times, 13 each to Kenneth Gainwell and D’Andre Swift. 14 of them have failed to gain the Expected Points, and 10 of those were by Gainwell. Getting Gainwell the ball before the red zone is fine, D’Andre Swift is on pace to set a career high in touches in his 12th game this season, the Eagles have to manage his workload. But once in the red zone, the Eagles already have five great options in AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, D’Andre Swift, and Jalen Hurts. Giving the 2nd string RB the ball is not the best use of the Eagles offense. Throwing a short pass to deep threat Quez Watkins on the Rams 15 yard line on 3rd and 2 is not the best use of the Eagles offense. The Eagles have the talent to dominate in the red zone, they need to lean on it more.

BGN Draft #23: Top Eagles CFB prospects to watch Week 7 + Game of the Week breakdown - BGN Radio
Shane Haff, Mark Henry Jr. and Chris Deibler recap their player of the week predictions from Week 6 and then each make their case for Eagles targets of the week to watch this upcoming week.

Eagles at Jets: Five matchups to watch - PhillyVoice
Becton is a 6’7, 363-pound behemoth whose career has been disrupted my injuries. He missed 16 games in 2021, and did not play at all in 2022. As noted above, he was the Jets’ Week 1 starter at RT, but moved to LT, where he would prefer to be. Jets beats largely believe that Becton has been better so far than Brown was the first two games before he got hurt. However, Becton reportedly has knee pain that forced him to the sideline Week 5 for a half dozen snaps. He’ll have to deal with the uber-athletic Josh Sweat. Tomlinson has played in 134 games, and started 126. Solid starter. McGovern is experienced as well. 100 career games played, 89 starts with the Broncos and Jets. Just a guy. Tippmann was a center in college who is filling in at RG. Mitchell started five games last season, and PFF (who are typically very forgiving with sack allocation) had him down for 3 sacks. The Eagles have an obvious matchup advantage against Mitchell with Haason Reddick, should Mitchell start. The Jets will have no choice but to chip Reddick often with tight ends and running backs.

Week 6 NFL Picks Against the Spread - The Ringer
For perhaps the first time this season, Jalen Hurts looked like his usual self in the Eagles’ win over the Rams last week. I’m specifically referring to how Hurts ran the ball. The Eagles used Hurts more in the designed run game, and he made plays as a scrambler outside the structure of the offense. The Jets beat the Broncos last week, but it came at a price as guard Alijah Vera-Tucker suffered a season-ending Achilles injury. I can sell myself on this Jets defense slowing down the Eagles offense. But I just can’t get there on the other side of the ball. The Eagles pass rush against the right side of the Jets offensive line is a huge mismatch. I think Jets QB Zach Wilson turns it over a couple of times, and the calls to trade for Kirk Cousins heat up by Monday morning. The pick: Eagles (-7)

Week 6 NFL picks: Chiefs win 16th straight over Broncos on Thursday; 49ers, Eagles stay perfect - NFL.com
Why Brooke is taking the Eagles: This would have been a phenomenal quarterback matchup, but Jalen Hurts vs. Zach Wilson just doesn’t have the same ring to it. The Eagles are still far from perfect in certain areas (SEE: 25th-ranked pass defense), but look for their dependable and unstoppable rushing attack to take full advantage of a poor Jets run defense, controlling the clock in the process. I don’t expect this one to be close due to the disparity at quarterback, but there are two intriguing matchups to keep an eye on: A.J. Brown vs. Sauce Gardner and Breece Hall vs. Jalen Carter.

Eagles rookie Jalen Carter is producing historic stats - ESPN
Carter, who landed No. 2 in ESPN’s first edition of rookie rankings behind Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, is seventh overall and first among defensive tackles in QB pressures through five weeks with 25, per NextGen Stats. “Man, he’s just been playing phenomenal. A young guy with a lot of energy, a lot of juice,” said veteran edge player Haason Reddick. “Everybody knew that he had this type of ability. I’m extremely happy for the young man.” Coach Nick Sirianni echoed those sentiments but struck a more measured tone as he zoomed out to look at the bigger picture. “We won’t put him in Canton yet. He’s got to just keep going each and every day and getting better, and it’s about consistency,” he said. “He’s got the ability to do it. He’s just got to be consistent with it, and that’s by working hard and growing each day.”

Eagles insights: Jalen Carter emerging into one of NFL’s top DTs, blitz rate rising, deep look at red zone - PHLY
For those Eagles fans who want to see blitzing, you’ll be happy to know how the defense is trending. The Eagles blitzed on 31.7 percent of the Rams’ dropbacks, which was their highest rate of the season. It came one week after they blitzed 28.8 percent of the dropbacks. They did not blitz more than 20 percent in any of the first three games. “I think we keep evolving as a defense,” Desai said. “We keep growing, and the teams that we’re playing are different. We’ve got to be able to adapt and adjust to the teams we’re playing and what we think gives us the best chance each week to impact the opposing offense. And that philosophy won’t change. Whatever we think is the best as a staff with our players and putting them in the best positions, that’s what we’ve got to do. And we’ve got to give our guys the best chance to win because our guys care and they’re fighters and they’re going to work and they take ownership of it.”

Game Review – PHI 23, LAR 14 - Iggles Blitz
James Bradberry moved back outside and played better. He broke up a pass that Morrow almost picked off. Bradberry did give up a TD to Nacua. JB was in good position, but that was a better throw and catch. Darius Slay had 4 tackles. This wasn’t his strongest coverage game. He’s not built for smaller, quicker receivers. Mario Goodrich got some slot reps and was up and down. I thought he was better in the 2nd half. He was too passive early on. Eli Ricks played some and I thought he showed good promise. Bradley Roby made his Eagles debut. He should be the slot moving forward. He showed the ability to cover and blitz.

How Sua Opeta approaches the defensive tackle gauntlet he’s facing - NBCSP
Sunday in Los Angeles was just Opeta’s fifth career NFL start in the regular season. It was just the second game in the NFL he’s started at right guard. And he had to face one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history in Donald, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year. “I feel like overall I did a good job,” Opeta said. “As far as what you learn, you just realize that you can play with these guys. Because he’s obviously the best player I’ve ever gone against. That was a pretty big confidence booster.” While it wasn’t like the Eagles just let Opeta block Donald 1-on-1 — it truly was a group effort with a ton of attention being paid to the perennial Pro Bowler — Opeta played well. Opeta has been with the Eagles since 2019 and has proven himself to be a steady backup and reliable fill-in. In Jurgens’ absence, he’s the starting right guard over Tyler Steen and Jack Driscoll. One of those players was a third-round pick and the other has started way more games at the position. But there’s a reason the Eagles went with Opeta.

Robert Saleh: If Jalen Hurts carries the ball, we have to give him 11 kisses - PFT
“You know the reality is they’re really good at it and it feels like the quarterback is wearing a bulletproof vest when you look at him,” Saleh said, via SNY. “He’s got all that padding on. We’re gonna do our best to try to stop it. . . . If the quarterback carries the ball, we’ve got to give him 11 kisses.”

Eagles take over LA for HUGE win vs. Rams | Mic’d Up - PE.com
Presented by DraftKings, Jordan Davis was Mic’d Up for the Eagles’ win over the Rams. Relive the amazing triumph as Eagles fans made the team feel as if it were a home game.

The burden of expectations: Quarterback Zach Wilson and his perceived level of performance - Gang Green Nation
Additionally, we don’t need to hold him to the second overall pick standard anymore. He isn’t supposed to be the franchise QB. That’s supposed to be Aaron Rodgers. He isn’t supposed to carry this team to victory. That’s supposed to be on the defense. In reality, he’s a backup QB thrust into a starting role and I can’t imagine too many teams would be upset about a backup QB who had a 70% completion rating, over 7.5 yards per attempt, and minimal turnovers. Within that context, he’s been nothing short of exceptional the last 2 weeks and we can praise that even if it isn’t the Hall of Fame caliber QB that we all dreamed of when he was drafted. And who knows? Maybe in a few more weeks we’ll be talking about how everything seemed to click for Zach Wilson after game 25 like it seems to have happened for Trevor Lawrence. At that point, we might have yet another QB controversy, but for a change it would be which of the good options to play instead of which of the bad... now wouldn’t that be nice?

Mike McCarthy could be coaching for his job for the remainder of the season - Blogging The Boys
If that’s the way they are going to stack up against playoff caliber teams down the road, just making the playoffs looks as if it will be a daunting task to accomplish. And, even if they make the postseason, another early exit seems to be a real possibility. That, of course, is pure speculation considering there is a lot of football yet to play, but also very realistic considering what’s already taken place this season. As far as Jerry Jones is concerned, he is hungry. Hungry for some playoff success and especially hungry for another Super Bowl victory. If Mike McCarthy can’t do what the Jones’ hired him to do, get over the playoff hump, he could look elsewhere to find someone who can. That could mean McCarthy only has the remainder of this year to prove himself, and if not, find himself unemployed. It’s going to be really interesting to see how everything continues to play out for McCarthy the rest of the season. He has a lot of room to improve as a head coach, play-caller, and game manager to keep this team in the running as a legit Super Bowl contender this year. If they continue this Jekyll and Hyde routine though, he could find his time in Dallas come to an abrupt end.

Giants-Bills injury report: QB Daniel Jones missing second straight practice - Big Blue View
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones will not practice again on Thursday, casting doubt on whether or not Jones will be able to play Sunday when the Giants face the Buffalo Bills. Jones, dealing with a neck injury suffered last Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, also did not practice on Wednesday. Head coach Brian Daboll is not ruling Jones out for Sunday. Usually, though, players who do not practice do not play. Tyrod Taylor will start if Jones is unable to play. Tommy DeVito, an undrafted free agent rookie currently on the practice squad, would be the backup.

Stats & Snaps: Week 5 Commanders vs. Bears - Hogs Haven
The one 2023 Commanders’ draftee who has seen significant playing time has certainly made a huge impact on the field. Through Week 5, Commanders’ first round pick Emmanuel Forbes has allowed 344 receiving yards in coverage (68.8 yds/game), which leads all NFL defenders, not just rookies. That accomplishment is particularly impressive considering that he has only averaged 60.6% of defensive snaps. To put that figure in perspective, if Forbes played receiver, he would currently rank 16th in the league in total yardage.

Taking the Points #6: Chiefs will outscore the Broncos - The SB Nation NFL Show
Chris Dunnells (Canal Street Chronicles), JSpence the King (Buffalo Rumblings), and producer Rob “Stats” Guerrera break down Week 6’s Chiefs Broncos game from a betting perspective. Each week, you’ll get spread advice, same-game parlays, our Thor of the Week Award, fantasy advice, and more!

What if god was one of us? Phillies 10, Braves 2 - The Good Phight
Harper’s two home runs give him the most career long balls in NLDS history with 10. Nola’s home ERA on the season is 3.05 and 1.42 in his 12.2 IP this postseason. In the postseason history of Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies are 25-11, including 6-2 last year and 3-0 this season. The Phils can punch their ticket to the NLCS tomorrow night. In a rematch of Game 1, Ranger Suarez will face off against Braves’ ace, Spencer Strider. 9 more, Topper. [BLG Note: Let’s go Phillies!!!!]

The Bryce Harper-Braves beef, explained - SB Nation
Prior to Game 3 of the NLDS between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos arrived at Citizens Bank Park paying tribute to Deion Sanders, the current head coach of Colorado. The timing was interesting, as it came 21 years to the day Sanders appeared in an NFL game with the Atlanta Falcons, and then flew to Pittsburgh to suit up for the Braves as they took on the Pirates in Game 5 of the NLCS. Was this a tribute to Sanders and what he is doing at Colorado? A nod to his feat that October Sunday 21 years ago? Or something more ... personal? After what we saw in Game 3, it certainly seems the latter.

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