Eagles vs. Saints snap count analysis: Philadelphia decimated by injuries in loss to New Orleans

Here’s a breakdown of the snap counts from the Philadelphia Eagles’ 20-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints in the Divisional Round of the 2019 NFL playoffs.

OFFENSE

Nelson Agholor had a quiet day despite missing just five snaps. He had one catch for six yards and one run for 12 yards.

Alshon Jeffery led the Eagles in receiving with five receptions for 63 yards despite playing through cracked ribs.

Stefen Wisniewski had to enter the game to play right guard with Brandon Brooks suffering an Achilles injury. The Eagles had six carries for 34 yards (5.7 average) prior to his injury and 10 carries for 15 yards after his injury (1.5 average). Brooks might begin the 2019 season on the PUP list.

As he often did in 2018, Jason Peters had to leave the game early. This time it was a back issue that was bothering him. Peters, a future Hall of Famer, turns 37 years old next week. Have we seen the last of him?

Darren Sproles couldn’t get anything going as a runner with three carries for four yards. He did have three receptions for 21 yards. No disrespect to Sproles but ideally the 35-year-old will not be playing the most snaps of any Eagles running back during 2019 games. Philly seriously needs to upgrade their backfield this offseason.

Golden Tate had two receptions for 18 yards while playing 47% of the Eagles’ offensive snaps. The trade wasn’t as disastrous as it could’ve been ... but it also could’ve been a lot better.

Wendell Smallwood had 33 yards on 10 carries. His longest run was eight yards. Also had one reception for six yards. Smallwood runs hard but his talent is clearly limited. He leaves yards on the field.

Zero receptions for Dallas Goedert. Feels like he should’ve been a little more involved.

Jordan Matthews caught one of his two targets for one of the Eagles’ two touchdowns on the day. JMatt ended up being a good role player for Philly in 2018.

Boston Scott played three total offensive snaps in the playoffs but didn’t get any touches.

DEFENSE

Malcolm Jenkins made it through the entire regular season and playoffs without missing a single defensive snap. He also played 157 special teams snaps. The guy is a warrior.

Avonte Maddox got banged up in this game.

In what might’ve been his last game with the Eagles, Brandon Graham had two tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble, and one quarterback hit. He left it all out on the field despite having to get evaluated for injury at one point. It’s just too bad the Eagles couldn’t capitalize by recovering his strip sack.

Michael Bennett, who also got banged up in this game, had two quarterback hits and one tackle for loss.

Cre’Von LeBlanc made his presence felt on the first play of the game with an impressive leaping interception on an underthrown Drew Brees deep shot. Strap had a pretty solid game, all things considered. He’s under contract for 2019 and could be a nice piece as a starting nickel corner.

Rasul Douglas had to miss some time with an ankle injury, which forced 10th string cornerback Josh Hawkins into playing time. The Eagles originally signed Hawkins to their practice squad on December 11 before promoting him to the 53-man roster two weeks later. Hawkins gave up one of the two touchdowns allowed by the Eagles’ defense in this game.

Fletcher Cox had to miss some time but did his best to gut out another injury. Great quote after the game, via The Athletic: “I’ll tell you what, I would do anything for this team, man. You definitely, you’d probably have to cut one of my limbs off for me not to be out there with those guys.”

Chris Long was evaluated for injury early in the game.

Timmy Jernigan played a season-high snaps in New Orleans. He had one quarterback hit, 0.5 sacks, and 0.5 tackles for loss. Zero chance he’ll be back on his current contract but maybe the Eagles can find a way to rework his deal.

Add Kamu Grugier-Hill to the list of players to get banged up in this game. Hence the playing time for Nathan Gerry and LaRoy Reynolds.

Daeshon Hall, who only signed with the team in December, was forced into playing time with Bennett, Graham, and Long all getting hurt at points in this game.

SPECIAL TEAMS

D.J. Alexander wasn’t limited in his first game back from injury.

Deiondre’ Hall did a nice job of drawing a special teams penalty on a punt return coverage play.

DID NOT PLAY

INACTIVE: Carson Wentz, Sidney Jones, Mike Wallace, B.J. Bello, Bruce Hector, Matt Pryor, Chance Warmack

ACTIVE: Nate Sudfeld, Josh Adams

Adams received a single carry on the first drive of the Eagles vs. Bears game last week. Then he didn’t play for the rest of the season.

Warmack carried a $2.03 million cap hit to play just seven offensive snaps and 42 special teams snaps in 2018. Not the best use of resources.