Eagles fans are feeling pretty confident these days.
This week the Dallas Cowboys return to NFC East play by welcoming the Philadelphia Eagles to AT&T Stadium. We spoke with Brandon Gowton at Bleeding Green Nation for more information about the Eagles.
Blogging The Boys: Saquon Barkley appears to be one of the best offseason signings in the NFL. How is he being utilized and what does it do for the Eagles offense overall?
Bleeding Green Nation: Saquon’s been even better than the biggest optimists could’ve reasonably expected. He’s unreal.
The Eagles are really leaning into him as the cornerstone of their offense; they’re the most run-heavy team in the NFL since returning from their Week 5 bye. Who ever said Kellen Moore doesn’t like to run the ball? I mean, besides Mike McCarthy.
Barkley’s being utilized in basically every way imaginable. He can obviously handle the workload as a high-volume ball carrier. He can break off explosive runs. He can get the tough yards running through contact between the tackles. He can make over-the-shoulder catches on the wheel route. He can juke a defender, spin away from a second, and then reverse hurdle a third like he did against the Jaguars.
The vision was always that Barkley would have more success running behind the Eagles’ good offensive line than the Giants’ bad blocking. And that much has come to fruition. As a result, Barkley has been pretty unstoppable. He’s logging 5.9 yards per carry (previous career high: 5.0 in 2018) and 6.1 yards per touch (previous career high: 5.8 in 2018). He’s currently on pace for 2,276 yards from scrimmage, which would be the 13th-most ever in a single season.
Barkley’s success has certainly lessened the need for Jalen Hurts to carry the offense with his arm. Hurts has been able to be incredibly efficient as a lower volume passer.
BTB: What’s the update on A.J. Brown’s injury for this week and what other injury issues could affect this game?
BGN: The Eagles’ Wednesday injury report was pretty long with 15 total players listed.
I’m gonna shamelessly plug all the injury analysis I already did here:
A few simplified highlights: A.J. might be able to play, DeVonta Smith might be out, Dallas Goedert could return.
BTB: There has been plenty of talk about head coach Nick Siriani over the past few seasons. What’s your opinion of him now? Has he improved things this season? If so, how?
BGN: I thought Sirianni should’ve been fired after he oversaw an unprecedented collapse late last season. While many pointed to his strong win-loss record at a reason to keep him, I felt like those numbers didn’t tell the whole story. The case can be made that the Eagles have often won ‘with’ or ‘in spite of’ Sirianni as opposed to ‘because of him.’ He didn’t appear to have answers and it was hard to point to the value he brings as a head coach. He was demoted from play-calling duty, he hardly aces game management decisions, and the culture wasn’t strong by the end of last year.
Early on this season, it looked like bringing Sirianni back was a mistake. The 2024 Eagles looked a lot like the 2023 Eagles through Week 6. With the Eagles winning their last four games, some of the heat has been taken off. I’ll give Sirianni credit for helping to get the culture back on track and having the team look more put together recently. Still, the game management issues are glaring. Ideally, you want your coach to give your team an edge. You want him to maximize your talent. And it feels like Sirianni can drag the talent down. They’ve been at their best when he manages to stay out of the way.
Entering this season, I was high on the Eagles’ outlook (I predicted them to go 13-4) because I really believed in the talent. But I also only had them winning one game in the playoffs because when the margin for error shrinks in the postseason, I don’t trust Sirianni to make the right in-game decisions. I’m all for being aggressive but his approach comes off as erratic and haphazard, which goes part and parcel with his personality.
BTB: Talk about the Eagles defense and how they are doing this season.
BGN: The Eagles rank fifth in success rate, fifth in opponent yards per play, sixth in opponent offensive points per game, 10th in defensive DVOA, and 12th in EPA per play. And that’s with being a bit unlucky in the turnover department; only six teams have fewer takeaways this season. And it’s also with the Eagles ranking as the fourth-lowest spending team on defense this season, per Over The Cap.
Clearly, Vic Fangio is doing a good job of doing more with less, which is what good coaching is all about. It’s not like the Eagles have a bunch of household names on his side of the ball.
That said, they do have some emerging talents. 2024 first-round pick Quinyon Mitchell has hardly looked like a rookie; he’s allowing just a 74.7 passer rating when targeted. He’s really due for an interception after coming so close multiple times thus far. Fellow rookie Cooper DeJean also looks really advanced for a 21-year-old; he’s allowing just a 84.4 passer rating when targeted. The Eagles’ defense has been playing their best football as a unit since DeJean took over for the struggling Avonte Maddox in the slot.
Elsewhere, the Eagles actually have really good linebackers for the first time in forever. Zack Baun has been a revelation; it was originally thought the Eagles signed him to be a rotational pass rusher (Baun himself even talked about being used like this in his opening press conference) but Fangio has turned him into a versatile off-ball linebacker who’s had success stopping the run, rushing the passer, and dropping into coverage. Nakobe Dean is finally looking like the player many believed him to be as a “steal” who fell to the Eagles in the third round.
Jalen Carter hasn’t had box score success in recent weeks but the film shows a disruptive player that offenses have to account for. The Eagles’ edge rush isn’t quite as fearsome as many would hope it would be but that group might be good enough to ultimately get the job done. While Bryce Huff has been disappointing, 2023 first-round pick Nolan Smith has shown signs of developing into a quality starter.
All told, the defense is playing pretty well. They’ve only allowed four touchdowns over their past four games. Fangio will certainly be tested by some better offenses coming up. For now, they’re more than carrying their weight.
BTB: Conjure up a scenario where the Eagles could actually lose this game on Sunday.
BGN: Jalen Hurts gets knocked out of the game and Kenny Pickett has to play. Pickett struggled in training camp practices and preseason games.
A scenario where the Eagles lost while Hurts stays healthy? That involves him getting back to turning the ball over at a high rate, which he was doing prior to his last four games without a giveaway. He had seven turnovers in his first four starts this season.
Micah Parsons has the potential to make either of the preceding two scenarios possible, especially since he might be going up against a third-string left tackle.
There’s also the X-factor of the Eagles not playing well in Dallas for a long time; they haven’t won at AT&T Stadium since their Super Bowl victory season in 2017.
Thanks for the knowledge, Bleeding Green Nation.