Eagles News: Carson Wentz reportedly wants to play through his back injury

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Three numbers that matter for the Eagles’ big Week 16 game against the Texans - BGN
52 - Sacks allowed by the Texans, most in the NFL. Houston’s o-line has clearly done a terrible job of protecting Deshaun Watson this season. The Texans’ offensive line is very bad. It ranks 32nd in pass protection by Football Outsiders. It ranks tied for 29th by the Pro Football Focus pass blocking efficiency metric. In addition to allowing a league-leading 52 sacks, they’ve allowed 29 quarterback hits (seventh most) and 125 hurries (fourth most).

Eagles vs Texans, Wentz vs Foles - BGN Radio
John Stolnis and Brandon Lee Gowton take on the debate surrounding Carson Wentz and Nick Foles, preview an Eagles-Texans game with huge implications, and give their NFL Picks of the week! Powered by SB Nation and Bleeding Green Nation.

Mailbag: Should the Eagles trade for Jalen Ramsey this offseason? - PhillyVoice
Ramsey is going to cost $7,429,863 on the final year of his rookie deal in 2019, which is a more than affordable price for an All-Pro corner. His fifth-year option in 2020 will probably be in the ballpark of around $14 million. However, any team trading for him would of course also be looking to lock him down long-term, and Ramsey himself wants a new contract. That’s going to be expensive. There are three things working against the Eagles having interest: They will be tight against the cap in 2019 and beyond. They are not going to be major players in free agency like they’ve been in the past, and Ramsey is going to get “free agent money.” They need all the cheap labor from their draft picks that they can get, and cannot afford to trade them away. Corner isn’t among their biggest needs. Ramsey would make more sense for other teams around the league with money to spend, should he get moved.

Winning Up Front - Iggles Blitz
Thankfully the OL is peaking now and it shows. The team is averaging 26.5 points per game over the last four weeks. They haven’t been close to that level the rest of the year. The run game has been good in the three wins. Pass protection has been good as well. Nick Foles wasn’t sacked even once last Sunday night. The OL has a huge challenge again this week. They just shut down Aaron Donald and their reward is to face J.J. Watt and Jadaveon Clowney. Yikes. If the OL can stay healthy and hot, the Eagles can win the next couple of games and will have a real shot at the playoffs.

Nick Foles’ future: The contract, potential suitors and more - ESPN
Most likely outcome: From a cap perspective, it would be very difficult for the Eagles to carry Foles as a backup at the price tag of $20 million, especially with Wentz, their franchise QB, due for a massive pay day before long. Recent injuries aside, Wentz is still viewed as the guy in Philly. Foles will be looking to run his own show starting next year, making it unlikely that he would co-sign the option unless he anticipated a dry market. Trying to trade Foles after triggering the option would be tricky because Foles’ side has the ability to void the contract. It’s unlikely a team would deal for him unless it had a guarantee that it could get a new, longer-term deal done. All things considered, the most likely scenario appears to be that the Eagles will decline to use the option, allowing Foles to hit free agency.

QB Stock Watch: Nick Foles Has the Eagles’ Fate in His Hands, Again. But Will He Fly the Coop in 2019? - Sports Illustrated
Will Foles be with the Eagles next season? Probably not. Entering his eighth season, Foles will likely join Teddy Bridgewater, Joe Flacco and a handful of other capable, pro-style starters and hit the market before a draft that isn’t expected to contain many right-away NFL starters. While his off-field interests are significant and pronounced, it’s unclear what that means for his vision of the future. He enjoyed the mentoring role behind Wentz enough that he didn’t fight and claw his way out of Philadelphia after the Super Bowl. Perhaps he’ll gravitate toward a similar situation this offseason. That being said, Wentz’s back injury is still a major unknown, and if Foles somehow leads the Eagles on another scamper through the playoffs, it would cause the fan base to melt down if they let Foles go. These next few weeks will certainly complicate a developing picture.

Nick Foles, the importance of the deep ball, and the misconception that the Eagles’ offensive scheme changes without Wentz - PFF
The consensus train of thought is that the Eagles look to get rid of the ball more quickly with Foles at quarterback than they do with Wentz, who can hold on to the football and try to play magician at times. If you look at the average time to throw for each guy, though, that isn’t the case. This season, Foles has an average time to throw of 2.65 seconds this season while Wentz actually has a shorter average at 2.62 seconds. That matches up almost identically with Foles’ average time to throw across the final two games last year when he was playing so well at 2.63 seconds.

Eagle Eye: Deshaun Watson’s Alarming Stat - PE.com
Watson has struggled with his poise, vision, and decision-making in the pocket. No quarterback in the league has been sacked more than the former Clemson star. He’s also taken more sacks in the red zone than anyone in the league as well, a bad stat to have on your mantle. Are all of the sacks on him? No, of course not. He’s also able to wiggle out of pressure when needed, but he puts himself in harm’s way too often in the pocket by holding on to the football longer than necessary. I know much has been written about the Eagles and their pass protection woes at times this season, but for comparison’s sake, Watson has been sacked 52 times (again, most in the league), with 19 sacks coming on third down and 14 in the red zone. Carson Wentz and Nick Foles have been sacked a combined 36 times with 11 sacks on third down and just four in the red zone. Watson has been a bit erratic at times, but at any point he’s able to turn it on and make plays that the Texans envisioned when they traded up to take him in last year’s draft with the 12th overall pick.

Eagles-Texans scouting report and prediction - Daily News
Sunday, the Eagles faced a Rams defense that owned the league’s worst opponent rush average (5.1). This weekend, they’ll face one with the best (3.6). The Texans haven’t given up more than 124 rushing yards in a game this season. In their last three games, against the Jets, Colts and Browns, they allowed just 2.7 yards per carry. They have held teams to 3.3 yards per carry on first down, which, like their overall opponent rush average, is the best in the league. They’ve given up just 29 runs of 10 yards or more, third fewest in the league. The Eagles ran the ball 30 times in their win over the Rams (for 111 yards), including 16 times in the first half. They had three rushing touchdowns for the first time since 2016. The Eagles use a three-back rotation with rookie Josh Adams, Darren Sproles and Wendell Smallwood, though Adams has received the largest share of the carries lately. Smallwood, who had just four carries in the previous five games, had 48 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries against the Rams.

Michael Bennett Q&A, Part 1: The challenges of transitioning to Eagles - NBCSP
Q: “Were you disappointed you didn’t make the Pro Bowl team?” A: “I think not starting at the beginning of the season is the reason why you don’t have a chance to be there, but to me it’s one of my best seasons because I felt like there was a lot of adversity, a lot of change for me. I switched from being on the left to doing it on the right and I still made plays. So for me, I feel like it was a productive season. Quarterback hits, pressures and tackles for loss, I was leading (the team) in a lot of those categories, and I think it’s just exciting, actually. And I think next year’s going to be even better. I don’t know if I’m going to be next year, but if I am here.”

DeSean Jackson Sells His Tampa House - JoeBucsFan
DeSean Jackson didn’t deny asking for a trade from the Bucs two months ago, but he did say how much he loves Tampa and desires to end his career here. The mixed signals continued this week when Jackson accepted an offer to sell his Tampa mansion. Jackson’s crib, seen prominently on Hard Knocks last summer, went up for sale last week and received a quick offer. The Coldwell Banker listing linked here lays out the details.

Buffalo Bills sign Matt Barkley to two-year contract extension - Buffalo Rumblings
Now he’ll be taking an extended stay in Buffalo. The Bills announced on Friday that they’ve signed Barkley to a two-year contract extension that will keep him on the roster through 2020. This is a win-win for both sides. Barkley, who spent the 2017 season either out of football or as a healthy scratch, successfully parlayed his spot start into a longer term contract. Buffalo locks up an experienced quarterback who can pair up with Allen in the locker room and mentor him through the next couple years of development.

Police: Green-Beckham tried to flee via a window as cops served search warrant - PFT
“At approximately 8:30 PM on December 19, 2018 Springfield Police Department Special Response Team served a search warrant,” Springfield Police Public Affairs Officer Jasmine Bailey told PFT via email. “While attempting to make entry, officers observed [Green-Beckham] inside the residence attempting to flee from a window. Officers were able to restrain DGB with handcuffs and found marijuana in his pocket. A search of the residence revealed about one pound of marijuana inside a backpack belonging to DGB along with several vials of THC oil. Inside the residence officers also uncovered about seven more pounds of marijuana. DGB was arrested for drug charges and resisting arrest and Keenen Sharp was arrested for drug charges pertaining to the seven pounds of marijuana.”

The 5 O’Clock Club: If the Redskins beat the Titans, who should start at QB in Week 17? - Hogs Haven
Jay Gruden, in a press conference this week, expressed confidence that Colt McCoy will be ready to play soon; perhaps as early as Week 17. A bit of a twitter war has broken out over the question of whether the Redskins should plan to start Colt if he’s healthy or if he should be a backup in the game against the Eagles. This questions is especially vexing if Josh Johnson manages to lead the team to a victory over the Tennessee Titans on Saturday.

How the 2018 Season Answered the NFL’s Great Running Back Value Debate - The Ringer
From James Conner in Pittsburgh to Phillip Lindsay in Denver, teams found rushing success from unheralded options this season — and that could have repercussions throughout the league

11 weird NFL playoff scenarios that could *technically* still happen - SB Nation
The Eagles win the NFC East, with a little Nick Foles deja vu. The Eagles’ best shot at making the playoffs is to win out, hope the Vikings lose a game, and sneak into the No. 6 spot in the NFC. But the defending NFC East champs can still keep the divisional crown in Philadelphia for another year, with another dose of that Nick Foles magic. Foles, who’s filling in for Carson Wentz while he deals with a stress fracture in his back, already delivered a respectable performance in the Eagles’ upset win over the Rams. Now, he needs to do that twice more — at home against the Texans and on the road against Washington. Not easy, but it can be done. The second part of this equation is a bit tougher. The Eagles also need the Cowboys to lose out, at home to the Bucs and on the road to the Giants. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? Not in a world where Nick Foles is the reigning Super Bowl MVP.

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