Eagles News: 2 players named to PFF Week 8 Team of the Week

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Week 8 NFL Team of the Week - PFF
Jason Peters, Philadelphia Eagles – 82.9. Peters missed some time during the game but his ability to return and perform at a high level was key for the Eagles. Solid as a run blocker, it was in pass protection where he really made his mark, allowing zero sacks, hits or hurries from 25 pass-blocking snaps, good for a 100.0 pass-blocking efficiency rating. — Brandon Graham, Philadelphia Eagles – 90.5. Graham didn’t record a sack on Sunday but he did rack up a hit and eight hurries from 43 pass-rushing snaps. Like has been the case for much of his career, Graham doesn’t consistently bring the quarterback down, but he does consistently getting pressure, with Sunday’s game taking him to 38 total pressures on the year.

ESPN suggests the Eagles make a trade with the Lions - BGN
The NFL trade deadline expires tomorrow at 4:00 PM ET on Tuesday, October 30. We’ve already seen the Eagles rumored to be interested in a number of players: Le’Veon Bell, LeSean McCoy, Emmanuel Sanders, etc. Most of the trade rumors involving the Eagles have been focused on running backs, wide receivers, or cornerbacks. It only makes sense since those are positions of need for Philadelphia. But those aren’t the only positions where the Eagles could use some help.

At the Podium #8: Double Doug & Wentz On the Win in London - BGN Radio
Triple-decker press conferences as Doug Pederson reacts to the Eagles’ 24-18 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars after the game and on Monday. Plus Carson Wentz chimes in on his thoughts about the offense finding a way to finish!

We Want Action! - Iggles Blitz
DeSean would be an interesting addition. His speed would give the offense a huge boost. The problem is that the Bucs aren’t going to give him away. Do you really want to overpay for an older player like him? There easily could be a few names I haven’t even listed on here. No one thought Jay Ajayi was available last year. Part of the issue is finding a team with a losing record that is willing to deal a key player. They aren’t giving up on the season exactly, but they are willing to take a chance on a younger guy. Would the Jaguars be willing to deal DT Malik Jackson? They are 3-5 and have some issues to work through.

Upon further review: Carson Wentz’s improvement among reasons to believe Eagles still have high ceiling - The Athletic
Wentz ranks fifth in completion percentage and 11th in YPA. He’s improved both those numbers from last year and has thrown 13 touchdowns against two interceptions. Yet Wentz is averaging 6.7 net yards per pass play — the same number as last year. That’s because he’s taking sacks on 8.5 percent of his dropbacks, up from 6.0 percent last year. The two key negatives right now for Wentz are sacks and fumbles. When he has time and is getting rid of the ball, good things are happening. He’s somehow made a sizable leap as a passer even though he’s coming off of a serious knee injury. It’s entirely possible that the Eagles struggle to remedy the sacks and fumbles, and the offense never reaches its ceiling. But because of Wentz, they can easily talk themselves into staying in the playoff hunt and making a run late.

Eagle Eye: A Sign Of Things To Come On Defense? - PE.com
This was a very interesting game to break down defensively against the Jacksonville Jaguars, mainly because the Eagles did things philosophically that they haven’t really done in the two-plus years with Jim Schwartz as the defensive coordinator here in Philadelphia. There was a HIGH volume of blitzing against the Jaguars and quarterback Blake Bortles. There have been a couple of games here and there over his tenure where Schwartz may have called 12 or even as high as 16 or 17 blitzes. I haven’t crunched the numbers on this so I may be completely wrong, but I do not recall a game where Schwartz blitzed 22 times on 65 snaps (33.8 percent of the time, the highest of the season).

Carson Wentz’s Quiet Reemergence and the Seven Plays That Explain NFL Week 8 - The Ringer
An MVP contender before tearing his ACL last year in Week 14, Wentz has returned to his elite, pre-injury form—he’s now thrown 13 touchdowns and just two picks with a 109.6 passer rating on the year—but has been overshadowed by other young standouts in Patrick Mahomes II and Jared Goff, as well as the team’s overall struggles. The Eagles have suffered from a litany of injuries, they’ve had difficulty defending the pass, and they’ve dropped a handful of winnable games en route to a 4-4 start. A now-healthy Wentz may be on the outside looking in for the MVP race this year, but he’s talented enough to give a less-balanced Philly squad a shot to catch the 5-2 Redskins in the NFC East.

Eagles sense new life as they close book on season’s first half - ESPN
The first half of the season has been a struggle for identity. Wentz remarked a few weeks back that the team was still fully trying to figure out who they are. Pederson wanted them to rip off the dog masks and embrace the target, only to shift to a “nobody believes in us” and “pressure’s off” narrative. The offense went from high-flying to lower octane, the defense from closers to questionable. What lies ahead in the second half? It’s hard to say. But as they boarded the bus Sunday for the first leg of their trip back to the United States, the team felt lighter as they left the first act of the 2018 season behind. ”This game right here was very, very important,” Jenkins said. “Now the meat of our entire season is in front of us. We’re kind of starting over.”

When Eagles needed him, Rasul Douglas was ready - NBCSP
Saying you’re ready and actually being ready are two completely different things. And Rasul Douglas keeps proving over and over that whenever he’s asked to play, he’s ready. He did it last year as a rookie when Ronald Darby got hurt. He did it in the opener against the Falcons when Jalen Mills missed a couple snaps and he picked off Matt Ryan in the red zone. He did it against the Giants when Sidney Jones got hurt, Avonte Maddox moved into the slot and he had to play safety for the first time. He did it again Sunday at Wembley when Mills again got banged up. Douglas wants to start and there are certainly plenty of people who think he should be starting.

Midseason grades for Eagles not what they should be - Morning Call
Jalen Mills, Ronald Darby and Malcolm Jenkins have been guilty multiple times of biting on double moves and pump fakes, and the unit hasn’t been the same since losing safety Rodney McLeod to a season-ending injury. The group has just three interceptions. Still … rookie Avonte Maddox looks like a player and, as is the case with the linebackers, this group stiffens in the red zone and breaks up more than its share of passes. Once again, only six teams give up more points per game than the Eagles, though their ball-control offense has been a major factor.

Eric Reid expounds on his Malcolm Jenkins “sellout” remarks - PFT
Panthers safety Eric Reid has gotten plenty of attention since calling Eagles counterpart Malcolm Jenkins a “sellout,” and after Sunday’s win over the Ravens, Reid went into greater detail about their disagreement. In short, Reid thinks Jenkins and other players “co-opted” Colin Kaepernick’s protests of police brutality and racial inequality for their own ends, and their disagreement came to a head last week. Reid said it was clear to him last fall when Players Coalition members met with owners that the goal was simply to make the noise created by the protests to go away.

4 realistic candidates to be the Browns’ next coach — and 1 dream option - SB Nation
John DeFilippo, offensive coordinator, Vikings — DeFilippo is familiar with the Browns’ inner workings; he was the team’s offensive coordinator in 2015 before being swept out when the club fired Mike Pettine and brought Jackson in to oversee what historians will later describe as an act of aggression toward the citizens of northeastern Ohio. He didn’t do much that year — his offense gained just 5.1 yards per play, worse than all but three other NFL teams — but many of those struggles can be attributed to a depth chart that relied heavily on quarterbacks Johnny Manziel, Josh McCown, and Austin Davis. Their receiving corps were led by Travis Benjamin and Brian Hartline. The fact he was able to turn Gary Barnidge into a Pro Bowler that fall should be worn like a badge of honor.

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