Eagles News: Steelers writer suggests what a Philadelphia trade for Le’Veon Bell could look like

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

3 trades that make sense for the Pittsburgh Steelers - Behind The Steel Curtain
Trade 1: Le’Veon Bell to the Eagles for Ronald Darby and a fourth-round pick. I don’t know about this one, but it seems to benefit both teams. Bell and Darby are both in contract years, and neither team is likely to retain both of these players due to cap constraints or the overall position of the contract disputes. The Eagles may not be considering a run at Bell, but if they want to win the Super Bowl again, their running game must get up to speed with the rest of the team. After losing Jay Ajayi to a torn ACL, the already-putrid running game took a bigger hit, and it has yet to show any improvement. Bell would provide an immediate solution to that issue, and he’s be working behind an elite OL. Bell also would give them a great receiving back to pair with Carson Wentz. In many ways, the Eagles’ offense is similar to the Steelers’ and it would be an easier transition for Bell to make than with most other teams in the league.

Eagles vs. Panthers Game Preview: Five questions and answers with the enemy - BGN
The Philadelphia Eagles (3-3) and Carolina Panthers (3-2) are set to play on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. In order to preview this Week 7 matchup, I reached out to our enemies over at Cat Scratch Reader. The wonderful Walker Clement (no relation to Corey) took the time to answer my questions about the upcoming game. Let’s take a look at the answers.

Eagles-Panthers Preview Extravaganza - BGN Radio
John Stolnis and Brandon Lee Gowton get you up-to-date with all the news entering the Eagles crucial Week 7 match-up with the Panthers! Keys to the game, depth issues on the defense, Cam vs Carson and much much more on a loaded BGNR!

Safety Blitz with Malcolm Jenkins: How the leader of the Eagles defense wound up in the fashion industry - PhillyVoice
Christian McCaffrey poses a lot of match-up problems, too. He can swing out of the backfield and catch the ball, and possesses the kind of explosive speed to dart through holes in the defensive line. “If you’re in base personnel, do you try to match up a linebacker with him in space, or do you assign a DB to take care of him, then you’re undersized with a DB in the box?” Jenkins said. “That’s an issue that we’ll have to figure out. They do a lot of jet motion, speed options, zone-read, power-stretch plays, orbit motion, when the receivers motion into the backfield. I only played safety against the Giants, which is weird for me. It’s the first time I think in the last two seasons that I played exclusively safety.

Back? - Iggles Blitz
We really won’t know until we see this team play for a month. A game here…a game there. That isn’t going to tell us who this team is. We need to see this group play for several weeks to really know if the Eagles are back and the rest of the NFC should be worried. I will say this. I think it is important for this team to be confident, to be aggressive. That is how they had success last year. While you don’t want the players being too cocky, this isn’t a humble group that is at their best playing a workmanlike style. When the Eagles play with an edge, it brings out the best in them.

A new hope: Playoff chances for struggling NFC contenders - ESPN In$ider
Philadelphia won the Super Bowl last season with a balanced team, but this season the Eagles are balanced ... in mediocrity. The Eagles are close to average in all three phases of the game. Philadelphia’s offensive DVOA has gone up each week since Carson Wentz returned. If we looked only at the three most recent games, the Eagles would be 12th in offensive DVOA instead of 19th. But the defense is going in the other direction. If we removed Philly’s opening game against Atlanta and looked only at the past five weeks, the defense would rank 20th in defensive DVOA instead of 11th. (The third phase, special teams, ranks 18th.) One reason the Eagles have come back to earth this season is that they are no longer getting extreme positive outcomes in the most important situations. Last season, the Eagles were among the best passing games we had ever tracked in two major splits: passing on third down and in the red zone. So far this season, the Eagles are just eighth passing on third down and just 15th passing in the red zone.

Do We Know What To Expect From Eagles On Sunday? - PE.com
Do you feel like you know what to expect from the Eagles on a week-in, week-out basis? We’re six games into the season. The Eagles have had an unusual number of injuries and players in and out of the lineup. At 3-3 and coming off the big win last Thursday night over the Giants, have the Eagles gained their 2018 identity? “I don’t think I can answer that question yet,” center Jason Kelce said. “We’ll see. I know that we played the kind of game against the Giants that we’ve been hoping to have. We were much more consistent with our performance all around and we cut down on our self-inflicting mistakes, we scored in the red zone, we scored early in the game, and we were balanced. It was encouraging. It feels good to go out and execute. But I don’t know what that game means looking ahead. We have to go out and play the same way on Sunday against Carolina.”

Gold jacket, brother’s memory and ‘disrespectful’ omissions all part of Fletcher Cox’s motivational plan - The Athletic
“You’ve noticed an edge to him,” said Jason Kelce. “He’s always been a phenomenal player. But he’s definitely been more vocal. You noticed it in training camp, much more of a commanding presence as a centerpiece of that defense. I think he knows the importance that he has to the ‘D’ as well as that he’s getting older and he’s being put in that (leadership) position more and more. I thought you noticed it in training camp even before the season started that this guy was fired up to have a good year.” Added Pederson, “I think a lot of it just comes from maturity. Just growing up in the league, and just having the responsibility of — more responsibility put on you. I think for me as a head coach, when I can lean on guys like Fletcher and leaders on the team and say, ‘Hey, I’m looking at you to take care of this situation over here.’ They embrace that. He’s embraced that.”

Eagles tight ends are giving opponents matchup headaches - Daily News
In a league where three-wide-receiver sets have become the norm, the Eagles have gone back to the future. They are playing a ton of two- and three-tight-end sets this season, though, unlike the old days, they aren’t using them to play three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football. In their first six games, the Eagles have used “12’’ (1RB, 2TE) or “13’’ (1RB, 3TE) personnel on 50.4 percent of their offensive plays, which is a dramatic increase over last year, when they used 12/13 personnel just 31.3 percent of the time. Even more startling: The Eagles have thrown the ball 60.8 percent of the time with 12/13 personnel. ”Those numbers are kind of crazy,’’ said rookie tight end Dallas Goedert. “But I thought we’d have a good chance of doing that, especially with Zach [Ertz] out there. The dude’s unguardable.

Panthers’ Torrey Smith reflects on being ‘a part of a special team’ during year with Eagles ahead of return - PennLive
Smith told reporters in North Carolina that he’s looking forward to seeing the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII banner that hangs in the rafters at Lincoln Financial Field. Smith played a part in bringing that to Philadelphia, and he knows his season in the city is one that will always remain with him. ”It was everything that I thought it would be,” Smith said. “Very emotional, both highs and lows, in terms of the fans, very demanding, and very passionate. That’s something I always saw from afar but to be a part of it, it was special and I’m very thankful for the year I was able to be a part of the city.”

Alshon Jeffery, 3rd-down defense and Wentz in this week’s Roob Stats - NBCSP
1. Carson Wentz has gone 19 straight games with at least one touchdown pass and one or fewer interceptions. That’s the second-longest streak in NFL history, two behind Matt Ryan’s 21-game streak over the 2015 through 2017 seasons.

32 NFL Observations, Week 6 - PFF
Philadelphia Eagles: Since 2013, Fletcher Cox has 137 pressures on third downs, which is the most for interior defenders in that time span.

Silva’s Week 7 Matchups - Rotoworld
Carson Wentz took an exciting Week 6 step in his comeback from last year’s ACL/LCL tear, dicing up the Giants in what amounted to a must-win game for 292 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns in Philly’s 34-13 statement-making victory. Back to every-week QB1 status, Wentz has turned in three straight top-13 fantasy results to face a Panthers defense that struggles to generate pass rush with the NFL’s eighth-fewest sacks (12) and fifth-lowest QB hit rate (12.8%). It’s a convenient matchup since Wentz has taken a concerning 32 hits through four starts. Since entering the league, Wentz has a 30:9 TD-to-INT ratio at home versus 27:13 on the road. … Although Wendell Smallwood out-snapped him 62% to 38% and out-touched him 19 to 14, Corey Clement was more effective in the run and pass games on Week 6 Thursday Night Football and is coming off a few extra days to rest his previously-troublesome quad. The Panthers’ defense has failed to limit run-game efficiency, surrendering an 88/447/2 (5.08 YPC) rushing line to enemy backs. Clement has also drawn 13 targets over his last three games. Favored at home in a plus draw with a 15-19 touch projection, Clement is a strong RB2/flex play. … Smallwood couldn’t make anything happen on the ground in last week’s win over the Giants and has dropped three passes in the last four games. Still, Smallwood has another shot at 15-plus touches and remains in the flex-play mix.

Lane Johnson High Ankle Sprain: Detailing His Limitations - The Injury Insight
First things first, a high ankle sprain is really painful. Whenever Lane Johnson has to move dynamically, the area is stressed which results in pain. He’s really gutting through this injury to stay on the field (I don’t tend to be a fan of that mindset but it is what it is). As a right tackle, the high ankle sprain is even more troublesome because the position has specific demands that put a constant high level stress on the tib-fib syndesmosis. First and foremost, he constantly has to deal with delivering or absorbing huge external forces from defensive lineman, linebackers, etc.

Eagles’ Josh Adams collected $500,000 insurance policy after going undrafted - PFT
After going undrafted this year, Josh Adams did pretty well for himself: He signed with the Eagles as a free agent, started out on the practice squad but then made the active roster, and in Week Three made his NFL debut, rushing six times for 30 yards in a win over the Colts. And Adams also did pretty well for himself in another respect: He collected on a $500,000 insurance policy after he went undrafted.

NFL Week 7 Picks: Schedule, Odds For Every Game And Expert Predictions Against The Spread - Forbes
Brandon Lee Gowton noted the referee assigned to this contest may be a good omen for the Eagles, who are 9-1 in games officiated by Clete Blakeman.

5 questions with Bleeding Green Nation - Cat Scratch Reader
SB Nation’s Philadelphia Eagles blog was kind enough to answer some questions about the upcoming Week 7 game against the Carolina Panthers.

The Eight Best Players of the 2018 NFL Season So Far - The Ringer
At this point in the schedule, the MVP race is far too close to call. So instead of trying to predict who’ll wind up taking home the hardware, we’re celebrating the players who have defined the first six weeks of the season.

Report: Cowboys WR Terrance Williams has been suspended for three weeks - Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys placed Terrance Williams on injured reserve not even two weeks ago so him being suspended hardly impacts their football operations. Dallas has been somewhat deep (from a numbers perspective) at wide receiver all season long, plus they brought back Brice Butler so again this is definitely not the end of the world for them.

Rookie contract hero: Is Saquon Barkley gonna be worth it for the Giants? - SB Nation
The trouble with predicting what that could cost is the outright volatility of the tailback market. Running back is, by average salary, the lowest-paid non-special teams position on the field aside from fullback. In the past decade alone, we’ve seen top-heavy depth charts eschew the idea of the lead runner in favor of a multi-faceted platoon, only to turn back to clear-cut No. 1 guys in the case of truly special runners/receivers from the backfield. It’s only been six games, but Barkley looks like the kind of guy who can take up residence in that Gurley/Bell tier. Come 2021, assuming he’s locked down a couple of 2,000 total yard seasons, the Giants could be looking at a five-year, $80-85 million deal with $30 million guaranteed to keep him in the northernmost reaches of New Jersey.

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