Eagles News: Philadelphia needs more offensive firepower

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The move the Eagles have to make - NBCSP
DeSean Jackson will return to practice Wednesday and you would think he’d be available to play after the bye week. But how long will he stay healthy? How much can the Eagles count on a 32-year-old speed receiver coming off a serious abdominal injury? How long will he hold up? And it’s not even worth talking about Mack Hollins or J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. Miles Sanders has been a revelation in the passing game, Dallas Goedert has been fine and you figure at some point Zach Ertz will get back involved again. But running backs and tight ends aren’t enough. There’s just no firepower in the offense right now, and that’s why Howie Roseman really needs to consider all options before Tuesday’s trade deadline. If there’s an opportunity to get a playmaking wide receiver with reasonable compensation, he has to make it happen.

Eagles acquire Genard Avery in trade with Browns - BGN
At Memphis, the book coming out on Avery was his hustle, his untapped rush potential, and his long speed. Tight hips limit his change of direction ability, so it’s tough to leave him in coverage — but powerful hands and a good first step help him win when fighting for the EDGE. Philadelphia figures to put Avery back on the outside as a subpackage rusher, where he’s been most successful in the NFL, and avoid deploying him at off-ball linebacker, where he lacks the agility to be successful. At 6-foot-1 and 250 pounds, Avery’s stocky frame is reminiscent of Brandon Graham, and he wins as a rusher in similar ways. Will Avery break ahead of Josh Sweat and Vinny Curry in the backup rusher role? Neither has had as productive a season as Avery did when he was rushing the passer his rookie year, so if he’s truly a full-time pass-rusher, he’ll likely show it quick. A cheap acquisition that likely only cost the Eagles a Day 3 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, Avery is a savvy if unsexy acquisition given his potential moving forward.

At the Podium: Heating Up at the Trade Deadline - BGN Radio
John Stolnis gives his takeaways from this weekend’s action after a big Eagles’ win over the Bills PLUS the Eagles make a trade and three fresh press conferences for your earballs! Powered by SB Nation and Bleeding Green Nation

When is a Fastball Also a Curveball? - Iggles Blitz
I had mixed feelings on Avery when he was coming out of college. He was 6-1, 248 and had 31-inch arms. I listed him as an ILB because that’s awfully small for an edge rusher. The Eagles had high hopes for Joe Ostman this summer. Ostman was 6-2, 253 coming out of college. Jim Schwartz talked of using Ostman in a stand-up role in some packages. Avery could handle that role now. The only real negative for me is the cost. The Eagles gave up a fourth round pick in 2021 for Avery. That’s a bit more than I would have wanted to pay for a former fifth round pick who had only played a handful of snaps this year. If Avery is able to become an effective pass rusher for the Eagles, that pick could end up being a bargain. There is a flip side. If Avery comes here and struggles to get on the field for whatever mysterious reason, this will prove to be a waste of a good draft pick.

Jalen Mills: Inside my road to recovery - PE.com
I thought that I initially broke my foot, but I didn’t hear anything pop. My foot just felt really, really funny. It happened on the first drive of the game against Jacksonville. The game went on and the pain subsided a little bit. We went in for halftime and I always – always! – change my socks before going back out for the second half. I took my cleats off, put some new socks on, and tried to lace my shoes back up. However, my foot became so swollen that it seemed like my laces were too small now. I struggled to tie them. On the second play of the third quarter, I tried to make a break and felt something in my foot. I immediately dropped to the ground. Initially, I thought it was maybe a minor sprain or a tweak. I got an MRI and started to rehab it, thinking I could come back. A few weeks passed by and it was getting to be crunch time in the season. There wasn’t any progression, so I was placed on Injured Reserve.

NFL Week 8 Team of the Week - PFF
Edge Brandon Graham, Philadelphia Eagles. Among all NFL defensive linemen with at least 25 defensive snaps played in Week 8, Graham ranked first in overall grade (92.6) and run-defense grade (95.5). He had two defensive stops and a forced fumble defending the run on Sunday.

Beat back and forth: Assessing the Genard Avery trade, discussing Howie Roseman’s best Eagles deals and more - The Athletic
Before I get to your questions, let me weigh in on the Avery trade. He seems like the kind of player the Eagles should be trading for: a young, controllable player with upside at an important position. I’m sure the team has done its due diligence on why a player who had such a promising rookie season (4.5 sacks in 16 games, including five starts) has played in only two games for the Browns this season. He has a clear path to playing time on the Eagles as a rotational defensive end ahead of Vinny Curry, who has underwhelmed (although I thought Curry played his best game of the season against the Bills). The price — a 2021 fourth-round pick — seems like too high given Avery’s presence in the Browns’ doghouse. This makes it three fourth-round picks spent on defensive ends in two-plus years spread across four drafts. The Eagles need one of Avery, Josh Sweat or Shareef Miller to turn into something meaningful. And by the way, the Eagles literally chose Sweat over Avery two years ago. On Vaitai, I think it was probably a misjudgment for the Eagles to hold onto him as long as they did. I would take a fifth-round pick, but would also try to get creative by packaging Vaitai and a pick for an upgrade at a different position.

Inside the players-only meeting that might have saved Eagles’ season - ESPN
Jenkins hammered home the importance of every player fulfilling their role: for the best players to be the best players, and for everyone to detail their work at the level that the job demanded. It was part of a greater overall message -- delivered at the players’ meeting and throughout the week -- of tuning out the noise, avoiding the blame game and concentrating on self-improvement for the greater good of the team. It hit home, helping to get the Eagles’ season back on track. ”The more and more we allow each other to be our own selves and own our role on the team, then the better we are collectively,” Jenkins said.

Eagles’ run game is nice, but best recipe needs Carson Wentz as main ingredient - Inquirer
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that the Eagles shouldn’t run the ball a lot. They should. Especially when they get the lead. But there’s a reason the Eagles signed Wentz to a $128 million contract extension in June, and it wasn’t to hand the ball off. It wasn’t to be efficient. “We just want to establish the line of scrimmage,” Wentz said after Sunday’s game. “The big guys up front that we have, that’s one of their biggest strengths — establishing the line of scrimmage. “And I think everything else that we do, from the play-actions, from the bootlegs, the nakeds, all of that stems from those guys controlling the line of scrimmage. So to be able to come in here and control it the way we did was huge for us.” It was. But there are going to be days like others this season, when the offensive line won’t be able to dominate the line of scrimmage, and the run game will struggle, and Wentz will need to grab the offense by the scruff of the neck and do what he did in 2017.

Browns trade LB Genard Avery to Eagles - Dawgs By Nature
Avery was a pleasant surprise as a rookie after being selected in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Heralded as one of general manager John Dorsey’s “finds,” Avery made five starts and finished with 39 tackles and 4.5 sacks. Expectations were high for Avery entering his second season as he looked to be a viable part of a defensive end rotation with starters Myles Garrett and Olivier Vernon. That role never materialized under defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, however, as Avery was a healthy scratch most weeks and appeared in just two games as the Browns opted to go with Chris Smith and Chad Thomas as the backup defensive ends.

What Offensive Revolution? The Undefeated Niners and Patriots Are Winning With D - MMQB
Trade deadline. We’re going dive deeper into this in the MAQB. For now, a hot list of names to watch could legitimately be moved, for the right price over the next 36 hours: Jets WR Robby Anderson, Falcons DE Vic Beasley, Browns CB TJ Carrie, Falcons LB DeVondre Campbell, Bengals TE Tyler Eifert, Broncos CB Chris Harris, Browns WR Rashard Higgins, Redskins CB Josh Norman, Eagles OT Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Jets DL Leonard Williams, Colts DB Quincy Wilson.

Gardner Minshew shouldn’t be benched and Nick Foles shouldn’t be the starter - Big Cat Country
From a short-term perspective, he gives you the best opportunity to win games this season. From a long-term perspective, he gives you a bright future at the most important position in professional sports. I’m trying to find a reason to make Foles the starter once again and I can’t do it. Minshew is throwing fewer interceptions less often than Foles has in his career. He’s throwing more touchdowns more often. He’s passing for more yards, running for more yards, and getting nearly 1.5 yards more attempt. If the Jaguars put Foles back into the starting lineup, they are fools. And if you think Minshew should be benched you’re a fool too.

Week 8: Nick Bosa, Defensive MVP? Plus, inside Watson’s incredible TD pass and Belichick stories - FMIA
I think if I were the Jags, as painful as it it’d be for Nick Foles, I’d stick with Gardner Minshew when Foles is healthy enough to return from his dislocated shoulder. Just look at the scramble/presence/keeping eyes downfield of Minshew, when he found Chris Conley for a 70-yard touchdown. You’ve got to be mobile, with confidence, and a great sense of where you are to make that play. Those are the traits we’ve seen in Minshew for six weeks.

Stock up, stock down: Bears-Chargers - Windy City Gridiron
Mitch Trubisky, QB - I get that this is going to cause a ton of venom in the comments; it wasn’t a great game through and through. The two turnovers in the second half absolutely KILLED the team and their momentum. However, with where expectations have been, I think Trubisky actually showed a little life. He was much better going downfield, although he still missed some throws. I am not absolving him and I definitely haven’t changed my mind that he still isn’t the longterm answer, but I am saying he showed some signs of life by answering with a decent performance when his back was totally against a wall and there was seemingly no hope.

The Starting 11: The Futures of the Falcons and Jets and Bears … Oh My! - The Ringer
1. The Bears, Falcons, Jets, Broncos, and Browns have all fallen well short of their preseason expectations, and Chicago’s lackluster first half just might be the most disappointing of them all. After finishing 12-4 and winning the NFC North last season, Matt Nagy’s team came in to 2019 with championship aspirations. The Bears were set to return 19 of their 22 starters, and with the entire offense entering its second season in Nagy’s system, improvement on that side of the ball—where Chicago finished 20th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA in 2018—seemed likely. That improvement hasn’t come. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky looked sharper in Sunday’s 17-16 loss to the Chargers than he’d been earlier this season, but it says a lot when a quarterback averages 7.2 yards per attempt, doesn’t throw a touchdown pass, and turns the ball over twice and it’s considered one of his better games. Trubisky delivered plenty of well-placed throws throughout the day, particularly on the Bears’ final two drives. But he was shaky all game in the red zone, and his turnovers sabotaged crucial drives in the fourth quarter and gave the Chargers a pair of short fields in a game where points were at a premium.

Report: Jets Trade Leonard Williams To Giants - Gang Green Nation
If Joe Douglas was not interested in re-signing Williams, then the right move was to trade him to the highest bidder. Doing so while obtaining more draft pick compensation than would have been possible under the compensatory pick system is a feather in Douglas’ cap. In addition, this trade frees up additional cap space for the Jets. The Jets have reportedly agreed to pay $4 million of the more than $7 million remaining out of Williams’ 2019 salary. The Giants will pick up the other $3+ million, saving the Jets $3+ million in 2019 salary cap space. With the Williams trade the heavy lifting of the Joe Douglas era has begun. There’s a whole lot of work still to be done, but this was a good start.

NFL Trade Deadline: Now is the time for the Lions to trade Darius Slay - Pride Of Detroit
It would hurt to lose Darius Slay. It would be frustrating to call it quits on the 2019 season. But if the job of the front office is to position this team for long-term success, it would be irresponsible to not try to move Slay before this deadline. The Lions’ roster is absolutely moving in the right direction, but the job is not done. Slay has been a fan favorite and a huge part of this team, but objectively looking forward, a pair of future firsts and a chunk of cap space are simply more valuable.

The NFL’s top trade candidates, broken down into 4 groups - SB Nation
Robby Anderson, WR, Jets. New York’s inconsistent deep threat has been tough to figure out so far in his career. Now, he’s averaging just 2.8 receptions per game in 2019. That lack of production may push the Jets to move on from Anderson. The booming market for receivers makes now a good time to do it.

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