The Bye week is behind us and the Philadelphia Eagles are now focusing their attention on a Super Bowl rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s been a topsy-turvy season for the Eagles, who have the best record in the NFL. While all eyes are on the Chiefs, it’s time to take a quick look at how each position group has fared through the opening stanza.
Quarterback: B+
Jalen Hurts has been on an absolute tear over the last 3 weeks. He’s thrown 8 touchdowns, 1 interception, and completed 75% of his passes for 805 yards in that span against defenses such as Miami and Dallas. If we were grading these past few weeks’ he’d be at A+.
But we’re not.
Hurts was very wobbly through the opening few weeks of the season. The turning point may well have been the first game against Washington, or the loss against New York, but until that point, he wasn’t playing like a top-5 quarterback.
Part of that was down to teething problems with new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, part of it could be due to a minor leg injury, and a chunk could have simply been rust.
The great news is that Hurts broke out of that ‘slump’ and is now arguably the most dominant quarterback in football. A B+ represents both sides of the coin.
Offensive line B-
The Eagles have one of the best offensive fronts in all of football, but injuries have hampered this all-star group, and this has hardly been their best showing.
With that said, the offensive line have only allowed an average of 2.4 sacks per game, right in line with last years’ total, and of course spear-headed D’Andre Swift’s early breakout.
If we’re being honest, an average game from Jeff Stoutlands choir is still better than most OL’s finest efforts. B- is a fair grade here.
Running back B-
D’Andre Swift has commandeered the Eagles’ backfield and is now a bell-cow reminiscent of the LeSean McCoy era. The Eagles rank 8th in rushing this season and Swift accounts for 614 of those 1,167 yards. Kenny Gainwell has 175, and the other two combine for 62.
As a positional group, D’Andre Swift is keeping everything afloat with an absolutely sensational bounce-back campaign. The rest of the backfield certainly needs to buck its ideas up with a tough slate ahead.
Tight End B
It sucks that Dallas Goedert is going to miss time this season. It feels like he always gets rug-pulled by soft tissue injuries when he’s on the verge of a truly explosive breakout. But we can only grade up to this point, and after a slow start, the SDSU product really picked up the pace.
His 117-yard outing against the Rams signposted a turning point for the veteran tight end, who now has 410 yards on the season and a pair of touchdown grabs. He could well have been on-course for a career-year, but that’s since been derailed by an injury.
It will be intriguing to see what Jack Stoll can do in an expanded role, and we’re yet to fully see ‘Albert O’ unleashed. I’m cautiously optimistic about the depleted tight end spot moving forward.
Wide receiver A+
A.J Brown recording six-straight games of 125+ yards? DeVonta Smith terrorizing opposing cornerbacks in the moments Brown is quiet? This might be the most dominant receiving tandem in the entire league right now.
A.J Brown might be dominating the league, but Smitty still has 533 yards this season. It’s genuinely scary how good this unit is.
It sucks that Quez Watkins was limited due to an injury and we didn’t really see the breakout from Olamide Zaccheaus that some (I) anticipated, but having Julio Jones lining up alongside two gladiators makes for a ridiculously powerful passing offense.
There’s no other way to grade this.
Defensive line A-
Captained by Haason Reddick and Jalen Carter, who have combined for 11.5 sacks this season, the Eagles’ front four has been nothing short of menacing. Josh Sweat is getting better each season, Jordan Davis is just a monster, and Brandon Graham is still as chirpy as ever.
It’s been great to see Carter explode into the DROY conversation and Desai’s creativity has really opened things up for this physically dominant group to do what they do best – wreak utter havoc.
Linebacker C
Well…this is where the fun begins.
The Eagles haven’t valued the linebacker position in a long time and it’s beginning to show. Even in a new scheme, the cracks are there.
Nakobe Dean’s injury in week 1 set the unit back massively…or so we thought. Nicholas Morrow exploded for a 3-sack game and the duo of him and Cunningham actually started to put together some solid performances before the second-year player returned.
Dean then struggled to find his footing and just as things did slow down, injury struck again.
The Eagles don’t have the depth to facilitate another injury setback, so they’ll be hoping that Cunningham and Morrow can do just enough to keep the defense chugging along…which is deserving of a C grade.
Cornerback B-
If we’re being fair here, the cornerback position has been bitten by injuries more than any other position on the roster. Avonte Maddox is out for the season, his replacement, who was signed off the street, was immediately injured, and it was down to players like UDFA Eli Ricks to hold the fort.
Darius Slay has been playing at a very stable level and outside of a few rogue James Bradberry performances, he too has been solid, coming up with big plays when needed.
It’s hard to be overly tough on a cornerback position that has been without key components all year long. Every starter has missed time in some capacity and has had to contain the likes of CeeDee Lamb, Mike Evans, Terry McLaurin, Tyreek Hill etc.
They’ve performed admirably, all thingCovs considered.
Safety C+
Reed Blankenship is very much the D’Andre Swift of the defensive backfield. Who else has been able to even perform adequately at this point?
Blankenship has put together a stellar season while Terrell Edmunds was traded, Justin Evans got hurt, and Sydney Brown also featured on the injury report.
The addition of Kevin Byard will certainly help, but it’s been Reed Blankenship alone simply willing the position to even moderate success at this point.
Special teams B
Coverage on returns hasn’t been great, but Jake Elliott has been at his best (outside of one missed field goal) this season. Even though the punting has been wobbly, it’s an upgrade from Arryn Siposs, and that alone deserves an A+++++.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
