Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 9/9/22.
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Predicting NFL Week 1 upsets, fantasy football starts and sits, plus buzz and notes around the league - ESPN+ Those are great names for potential extensions, Dan, with Simmons the one player of the 2019 first-round picks I have earmarked for a deal sooner than later, though last I’m hearing the sides might wait until in-season or after the year. The Titans also value safety Amani Hooker, a 2023 free agent, as a key piece, though safety Jalen Thompson’s big deal in Arizona (three years at close to $40 million) probably doesn’t help both sides, since Hooker could get more. Another name to watch: Eagles defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. The Eagles like to do extensions for key players around the start of the season (Jordan Mailata, Josh Sweat last year), and Hargrave, coming off a Pro Bowl year, seems like a logical candidate. And my understanding of the Waller deal — it’s a matter of when, not if. Could be this week.
Eagles offense vs. Lions defense preview by the numbers - BGN When you look at the Lions tendencies on defense, it’s easy to see why they struggled with the run. That 1st down number will have the Eagles coaches very, very excited. So why did they struggle on 1st down? The Lions do not want to give up big plays on 1st down and they played a lot of light boxes and two-high shells (sounds familiar). The number that stands out for me is the 96 snaps of a light box against running plays. That ranked the highest amongst all NFL teams. If the Lions run a light box against the Eagles on 1st down, the Eagles are going to run the ball a ton on early downs on Sunday. It will be interesting to see if the Lions adjust their approach radically.
Eagles-Lions Week 1 preview! - BGN Radio EAGLES FOOTBALL IS FINALLY HERE! Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) and Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) go through the latest news on the Birds, preview matchups to watch in this week’s game against Detroit, and make their weekly NFL picks against the spread.
Eagles mailbag: Who are the gameday backups at each spot along the offensive line? - PhillyVoice Yeah, that’s a good question. Zeke and that stupid eating thing can be irritating, but as you noted, he’s not really that good anymore, which makes him a less compelling villain. The Cowboys have a bunch of good players, like Dak Prescott, Trevon Diggs, Micah Parsons, etc., but none of those guys have embraced that type of instigator role. That’s certainly not what Wentz is, as you note. He’s disliked locally because he packed up and forced his way out of Philly at the first real sign of adversity, but he’s never going to provide bulletin board material with his words. I kinda feel like we need a good intra-division villain, and he probably has to come from Dallas because anyone who tries to be that while playing for bad teams like the Giants or Commanders will just come off as clownish.
Detroit Lions vs. Philadelphia Eagles preview, prediction: On Paper - Pride Of Detroit Combine that with the fact that the Eagles’ biggest strength (running game) matches up against the Lions’ biggest weakness (run defense), and this just doesn’t look like a great opening day matchup for Detroit. But Week 1 is wacky, and everything is not always as it appears “On Paper” this early in the season. Maybe Detroit’s improved run defense throughout the preseason is for real. Maybe the offensive line issues aren’t as bad as they look. Maybe Jeff Okudah balls out and shuts down his side of the field. Those are too many maybes for me to pick the Lions, but I think it’ll be closer than the matchup looks on paper. Eagles 27, Lions 20.
NFL coach: Eagles’ revamped defense with Jonathan Gannon isn’t scaring anybody - Inquirer A team that received a complete face-lift on both sides of the ball; a team that shed past personnel mistakes; a team whose division, the NFC East, remains lousy; and a team whose coaching staff and quarterback are all a year more seasoned? The Birds will remain mediocre because of quarterback Jalen Hurts?“No, not ‘quarterback.’ ‘Quarterbacks.’ It’s not just Jalen. The other quarterbacks. The ones they’re going to play,” he explained. “Gannon hasn’t proved he can stop good quarterbacks.”
A.J. Brown: ‘Let’s not make it bigger than it is’ - PE.com He’s making his Eagles debut on Sunday so, yeah, A.J. Brown is excited about seeing how the offense plays in the opener at Detroit. But in the big picture, Brown is approaching it like any other Sunday. He has a “Dawg Mentality” every day, something he prides himself on. “Let’s not make it bigger than it is. We have to execute the game plan and play our best football, like every Sunday,” Brown said. “We’re approaching every day with the idea that Sunday is going to be the time to play our best football and to do that we have to be focused.” Hanging on Brown’s locker at the NovaCare Complex is a sign that says, “Always Open,” something that he has fun with and that is new to Philadelphia. Brown laughed when asked about the sign and said he should have taken it down before reporters entered the locker room, but it’s there and it has meaning. “It’s most definitely a mentality you have to have as a wide receiver,” Brown said. “Even when I’m covered, I’m open. Give me a chance. That’s my mindset. It’s a good thing Jalen (Hurts, quarterback) knows my mindset. I’m excited. He’s excited.”
Week 1 NFL game picks: Vikings nip Packers; Seahawks surprise Russell Wilson-led Broncos - NFL.com In a battle of two teams that did so much right this offseason, the Lions’ secondary stands out as an unaddressed area. I can’t see the unit holding up against A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert when so much attention will be paid to stopping the Eagles’ running game.
Week 1 NFL Picks Against the Spread - The Ringer This preseason did not go according to plan for Eagles fans. Ideally, they wanted everyone to pick the Cowboys to win the division and say mean things about their team. Instead, pretty much everyone jumped on the Eagles bandwagon. Now, if the team is good, there will be no one to antagonize. And if the team is bad, it will feel like a huge letdown. This is pretty much the worst-case scenario, and the Eagles haven’t even played a game yet. The bar is not nearly as high for Detroit, but Lions fans are feeling optimistic about a team that at least has the potential to be frisky and likable. The problem? I just don’t think this team has above-average talent on either side of the ball. If some of their young players have surprisingly significant impacts, maybe I’ll be proved wrong. It won’t get as ugly as last year when the Eagles blew the Lions out 44-6, but I still like them to cover. The pick: Eagles (-3.5)
Eagles’ undrafted rookies open up about the moment their dreams came true - NBCSP Josh Sills was in his hotel room when he got the call. When the undrafted offensive lineman from Oklahoma State found out he made the Eagles’ 53-man roster, he jumped around, he screamed, he laughed, he smiled. “I was over the moon ecstatic,” he said. Then he called his family. And they were even more excited. “Both my parents cried,” Sills said, “My sister cried, my brother-in-law, he was at work so he couldn’t really talk very long but I talked to him later that night. He cried. It was a pretty special day.” Sills is one of three undrafted rookies to make the Eagles’ 53-man roster in 2022, along with safety Reed Blankenship and cornerback Josh Jobe.
15 NFL veteran addition debuts to watch in Week 1: Davante Adams, La’el Collins and more - PFF WR A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles have thrown a lot of draft capital at the wide receiver position in recent seasons, but the young players have all failed thus far to emerge as No. 1 stars. Brown should change that. He has shown to be an elite receiver against the most difficult coverages, particularly press coverage, and brings a physical tool set that was absent from the receiving corps before his arrival. Brown has the chance to improve everything about the Eagles’ offense this season.
2022 Staff Picks: Faith in Matt Ryan and the Colts - Football Outsiders TEAM MOST LIKELY TO BEAT ITS FOA 2022 PROJECTION. Dave Bernreuther: New Orleans Saints. I was tempted to take the Eagles here, because I know DVOA loves them and I’m not at all sold on Jalen Hurts or even Nick Sirianni, but that roster still feels better to me than the Dream Team of 2011 and thus unlikely to universally underwhelm. Ultimately, I think they’re a solid bet to win the division even if Hurts does what I expect him to do (which is not much). But the Saints? Sure, I appreciate their defense. But they lost a great offensive head coach and have a turnover-prone quarterback coming off an injury and minor question marks on their two best skill position guys. Maybe I’ll be proven very, very wrong here, but I don’t see this being a top-10 DVOA team at all. They won’t go 4-13 or anything, but I can’t imagine they’ll be a serious playoff contender either. The vibes they give me are much more “any random decent Bears team from the last two decades” than “any random scary Ravens team from the last two decades.” I view their upside as “thoroughly average.”
Carson Wentz: It’ll be fun to compete against Doug Pederson - PFT On Wednesday, Wentz said his relationship with Pederson was meaningful — particularly in the early stages of Wentz’s career as the No. 2 overall pick in 2016. “He meant a lot, meant a lot with the kind of whirlwind that year was — learning I was the starter eight days before the season, all those things,” Wentz said in his Wednesday press conference. “I thought he was a great coach, great guy, fun to be around. Meant a lot over the years. Went through a lot of good and some of the bad, obviously, altogether. But he means a lot to me.”
Cowboys vs. Bucs injury report (Thursday): Dak Prescott limited in practice for an unusual reason - Blogging The Boys Not exactly the news Dallas Cowboys fans wanted to hear on a Thursday of Week 1 on the NFL schedule. Dak Prescott was limited in practice with an ankle issue. Of course, everyone thinks about the ankle injury from a few years ago and wonder what happened. It turns out that Dak is blaming the issue on some new cleats that appraently didn’t fit well and casued him issues. Hopefully it is as he said... nothing. But definitely not something Cowboys fans wanted to hear.
The Giants really were interested in trading for Russell Wilson, per report - Big Blue View But while the Giants are just a footnote in Henderson’s piece, their interest in Wilson is definitely significant from our perspective. Trading for a quarterback of Wilson’s stature would have been an incredible opening move by new GM Joe Schoen. Not only would the trade package have to be massive, but the cap implications would have been far-reaching.
Our expert NFL picks for Week 1 of 2022 - SB Nation So, in addition to getting to lord it over the rest of the SB Nation staff, our picks winner will hold a very special power over our last place expert each week. The winner will get to write a tweet that our loser MUST tweet out from their personal Twitter account. Everyone will have their own plans for how they want this to go down, but personally I’m giddy with the possibility that I (a die-hard Panthers fans) could force Jeanna Thomas (a Falcon fan through and through) to tweet out her love of the New Orleans Saints, confusing and enraging the Atlanta faithful — sorry Jeanna, love you. We’re still deciding on an end of season reward/punishment, and we’re all ears. You’re a part of this picks process as much as we are. It will be on you to share our embarrassing tweets, signal boosting them to the moon to maximize the pain they cause each week. If you have a particularly devilish idea for what the end-of-season loser should do — we’d love to hear it in the comments.
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