Eagles News: The defending Super Bowl champions are facing “unprecedented disrespect”

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Unprecedented Disrespect for Defending Super Bowl Champions - Sharp Football Analyis
The linesmakers opened the Eagles as 4 point favorites against the Falcons. In primetime, a typical home field advantage of 3 points is considered industry average.* As such, with the opening line, linesmakers effectively said the Eagles were slightly better than the Falcons (1 point better, after removing home field). But then something happened. Both the public and the sharp bettors bet against the Eagles and on the Falcons, lowering the line. The line dropped to 3, which would indicate the teams were equivalent, but for home field advantage. And both the public and sharp bettors continued to hammer the Falcons. So much that the current line is down to a consensus Eagles -1 at most offshore books. This is a historic level of disrespect from both linesmakers and bettors.

Falcons writer gives three reasons why the Eagles will win on Thursday night - BGN
The Eagles opened their Week 1 game against the Falcons as heavy favorites but the line has been moving in Atlanta’s favor ever since Nick Foles was confirmed as Philadelphia’s starting quarterback. If you’re among those who might not be feeling super confident in the Eagles for some reason, today’s post might have you feeling a little better about the reigning Super Bowl champs.

PHI-ATL Week 1 Preview, East Picks, Season Predictions - BGN Radio
Super packed show with John Stolnis and Brandon Lee Gowton! Looking back to the playoff game with the Falcons and looking ahead to week 1, plus injury updates on Wentz, Alshon, Mack Hollins and Jay Ajayi. Bonus topics: Doug’s presser, NFC East picks and division/wild card predictions!

3 reasons why the Philadelphia Eagles will lose to the Atlanta Falcons Thursday night - The Falcoholic
The twist: Bleeding Green Nation wrote this from an Eagles perspective.

Safety Blitz with Malcolm Jenkins: ‘It’s time to turn that page’ on Super Bowl season - PhillyVoice
“No, Doug hasn’t changed at all,” said Jenkins, laughing. “Doug is still the same Doug.” Jenkins also felt the Super Bowl LII sign in the locker room was blown out of proportion. “It wasn’t really a big deal until a reporter asked me about it,” No. 27 said. “Up until that point, I didn’t even look at it. I knew for me, it became this huge media story, when actually, we all met about it and we all generally felt we should move on as a team. “[The sign] was there all off-season to celebrate. We earned it. As we go into the regular season, it’s time to turn that page. This team didn’t earn that. This is a brand new team that has to do its own thing. The difference is, within every way, we all want to look at last year’s team and project that on this year’s team, even when it comes down individuals.”

Carson Wentz: What’s The Hold Up & What To Expect - The Injury Insight
The medical staff is looking for Carson’s surgically repaired left leg to be within 90% of his non-injured right leg (asymmetry has been associated with an increase in injury risk for high speed and cutting sports like football) while showing no indicators of compromised movement during on-field drills or significant residual soreness/pain after activity. By many accounts, Carson is very close to meeting the parameters but the Eagles coaching and medical staff is taking the right approach and not taking any risks. My educated guess is that he will be back around week 4.

Carson Wentz can’t be both close, 100 percent - SDUT
So I believe they will either bring him back early when he looks good at practice and try to protect him with play selection or they will wait until later in the season when he is really closer medically to 100 percent and then open up the playbook. He may be close to playing, but medically he will not be close to 100 percent for up to several months.

How Will Eagles Handle Emotions For Opener? - PE.com
“Yeah, that’s the biggest challenge,” head coach Doug Pederson told me earlier in the week. “It’s a long day and the guys are going to be amped up, I believe, and so being able to control the emotion of the atmosphere and the type of playoff atmosphere that this is going to be is the key. We don’t want to expend all that energy early in the day. We want to be able to save it and bottle it up for the game, so how we approach that day is going to be critical in how we start this football game.”

What We’re Most Excited to Watch This NFL Season - The Ringer
Claire McNear: I’m excited for Nick Foles to never throw another touchdown pass again, thereby confirming Super Bowl LII to be the beautiful dream/miracle we all know it was. Carson Wentz, who led the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles to an 11–2 record before tearing his ACL in Week 14, still hasn’t been cleared for contact, so Philly is starting Foles at QB as the 2018 season begins. That would be Foles, touchdown rainmaker, Brady vanquisher, and hero of the Eagles’ first-ever Super Bowl victory this past winter, and also Foles of the, uh, 16-for-26 2018 preseason passes, good for 171 yards and—[checks notes]—two interceptions and—[squints]—um, zero touchdowns. In short, we are about to see Nick Foles look an awful lot more like Nick Foles than he did at U.S. Bank Stadium in February. And that’s fine! He is, after all, Nick Foles. This return to reality might be a letdown at first, but let’s take it for what it is: proof positive that the Eagles’ Super Bowl run was nothing short of a gift from the almighty football powers—who, alas, are probably inclined to leave it a one-off. But don’t worry too much about Nick, who will have two things forever: a ring and BDE.

NFL Insiders predict: Week 1 upsets, fantasy flops, sleepers, more - ESPN In$ider
Mike Sando, senior NFL writer: Falcons (+2) over Eagles. Philly did such a great job planning around Nick Foles during the playoffs, but with opponents having a full offseason to prepare, I expect life without Carson Wentz (and even with him) to be tougher for the Eagles. On a side note, I don’t know how the Colts are favored against the Bengals.

5 matchups to watch as Eagles kick off season vs. Falcons - NBCSP
Jay Ajayi vs. Falcons run D. The Eagles weren’t able to run over the Falcons in the playoff game, but they clearly wanted to use Ajayi a ton. He got 15 carries, while LeGarrette Blount got just nine. Ajayi (foot) returned to practice this week and will play Thursday; if he’s healthy, expect him to play a lot. A big game for Ajayi starts with the offensive line, but it could really help take some of the pressure off Foles.

How Mailata rejected Souths’ $5000 offer, only to score $3.5m NFL deal - Sidney Morning Herald
Last year, Souths threw their offer on the table for Jordan Mailata and let’s just say it didn’t land with a thud: a one-year, $5000 deal to play for their feeder team, North Sydney. If he stripped another 15kgs from his hulking 142kg frame, and started playing in stints longer than 10 minutes, the Rabbitohs would consider a fulltime contract. Mailata rejected it … and is now on the verge of making his NFL debut for defending Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles on a four-year deal worth $3.4 million.

2018 NFL rookie rankings: Top 25 newcomers entering Week 1 - NFL.com
21) Dallas Goedert - The Eagles have a lot of weapons on offense, but Goedert has earned quality playing time with his preseason performance. His catch radius is enormous.

2018 DVOA Projections - Football Outsiders
In all simulations, Philadelphia DVOA is -5.0% lower in Week 1 due to the Carson Wentz injury. In the playoff odds simulation, we gave Wentz a 40 percent chance of returning Week 2, 60 percent chance of returning Week 3, 80 percent chance of returning Week 4, and 100 percent chance of returning Week 5.

2018 PFF ELO NFL Power Rankings – Week 1 - PFF
1) After winning the Super Bowl without their starting quarterback, left tackle and middle linebacker, the hope is that the Eagles simply need to stay healthy to improve in 2018. The eventual return of Carson Wentz is a significant upgrade as his EPA per dropback was second in the league at 0.19 before his knee injury last year.

Philadelphia Eagles earn spot on famous wall in Philadelphia - PennLive
One wall at the Palm Restaurant in Philadelphia is bleeding green. Figuratively, of course. The iconic steakhouse chain is known for decorating its walls with caricatures of loyal customers and famous residents of the city’s its in. The Philadelphia location has a new addition: the Philadelphia Eagles. On a wall near a window with a view of Broad St., the 24 square-foot mural by Palm resident artist Zack Bird includes current Eagles players Nick Foles, Carson Wentz, Jason Kelce (in full Mummer gear), Malcolm Jenkins as well as owner Jeff Lurie, President Howie Roseman, Coach Doug Pederson and Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins.

Jeremy Maclin wants to play this year, but nursing a hamstring injury - PFT
Free agent wide receiver Jeremy Maclin still wants to play in 2018, but it may be a while before he can. Maclin is currently nursing a hamstring injury and will need a couple weeks before he’s ready to work out for NFL teams, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.

The Fight Continues - The Players’ Tribune
With a new football season upon us — and the continuous arguments over who is protesting and who isn’t circulating among owners, fans, the media and politicians — the governing board of the Players Coalition feels the need to refocus attention back on the systemic issues that plague the lives of millions of Americans, and remind you why we are in this fight.

NFL Panic Index 2018: What are the Raiders even doing? - SB Nation
Panic index: The long run is what’s really important here. Philadelphia has a star for the next decade or longer in Wentz, and there’s little reason to think he’s going down the Griffin route. But it’s reasonable to expect him to look like less than the version of Wentz, who was less than a month away from being MVP in 2017, especially right away.

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