Eagles News: NFL analyst makes case for Doug Pederson as the league’s most underrated head coach

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“This guy beat [Bill] Belichick in a Super Bowl. Every time they go on Thursday night, they win. They’re 5-0. Pederson is NEVER the — oh, we talk about Sean McVay’s genius, and Sean Payton, his genius, and, wow, look at how amazing Kyle Shanahan’s play-calling is. Well, Pederson just quietly wins every big game. And when their backs are against the wall, he finds [a way to win]. Oh, and by the way, when his starting franchise quarterback went down two years in a row, he found a way to get this team not only to the playoffs but to win games in the playoffs. Doug Pederson, your most underrated head coach in the NFL.”

Eagles vs. Jets Game Preview: Five questions and answers with the enemy - BGN
“I doubt Sam Darnold plays this week. At least I hope he doesn’t play. Enlarged spleens due to mono are no joke. He has, hopefully, a long career ahead of him. No need to take risks with his health just to get back one game earlier. However, the doctors and coaches may feel differently. As far as my confidence level goes, I’m not sure Sam Darnold’s return, whenever that happens, is going to cure all the Jets ills. Certainly Darnold is an improvement over Luke Falk. But there are problems with this team that go well beyond the quarterback position. To expect Sam Darnold to right this ship is probably unrealistic. Will the Jets be improved when Darnold returns? Surely. How much improved from the current train wreck remains to be seen. If Luke Falk is again the starting quarterback for the Jets on Sunday, I would expect more of the same for the Jets offense; that is, complete ineptitude. If Falk starts I will be shocked if the Jets manage more than two scoring drives on offense.”

Grading the Eagles’ First 4 Weeks - BGN Radio
Jimmy Kempski and Brandon Lee Gowton talk a little Jets-Eagles and go through each position (from front office to positional groups) and give grades on their performance through the first 4 weeks of the season! Powered by SB Nation and Bleeding Green Nation.

NFL Week 5 PFF Preview: Players to watch, fantasy football advice and betting projections - PFF
It feels like we aren’t talking enough about how good quarterback Carson Wentz has been in 2019. Our highest graded quarterback in the league among players with at least 50 dropbacks, Wentz struggled in Week 2 against the Atlanta Falcons, but has been impressive the rest of the way. His numbers for the year are modest, but he’s also been the unluckiest quarterback in the NFL when it comes to drops, with his receivers failing to hold onto 12 catchable passes through four weeks.

A look at the likely sellers at the NFL trade deadline, and players who could interest the Eagles - PhillyVoice
WR Emmanuel Sanders: At the age of 32, through 4 games, Sanders is on pace for just under 100 catches and 1200 yards. He is set to become a free agent at the end of the season, and once again, would be a no-brainer for the Broncos to trade to save money and add draft pick compensation. Sanders is a player that Nelson Agholor was commonly compared to when he came out of college, but he has not quite lived up to that comp. While/Whenever DeSean Jackson is out, Sanders would be a better replacement on the outside than Agholor is, and he’d be better than Agholor in the slot whenever Jackson and Alshon Jeffery are both able to play. An 11-personnel package of Jackson-Jeffery-Sanders could be deadly. Of course, if you trade for a guy like Sanders, your fourth receiver, Agholor, is getting paid high-No. 2 receiver money. You better be able to work out a deal with the Broncos or elsewhere to get rid of Agholor, and hopefully garner some sort of return for him.

Eagles film breakdown: Doug Pederson is once, twice, three times the caller of the same play - Inquirer
The Eagles’ offensive playbook is vast. There are hundreds of plays that, dressed up in different formations and personnel groupings, could bring the variations close to a thousand. On game days, that number is whittled down to a select 100 or so. The plays will then be divided into various categories -- base-package plays, nickel plays, third-down plays, red zone plays, etc. -- and printed out in an easy-to-read laminated card for coach Doug Pederson. Even if there are only a dozen possible choices in the, for instance, backed-up plays section, rarely will play callers select the same play on successive downs. Three times in a row is virtually unheard of. And yet, Pederson dialed up the same play with the same personnel in the same formation on back-to-back-to-back calls in last week’s 34-27 win over the Packers. “It’s a credit to Doug. I believe in that also,” Eagles offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland said this week. “Make somebody stop you first. … He doesn’t always do that, but there’s times where he’ll feel so strong about something that he’ll go with his gut. I think when you’re on to something like that, then ride with that.”

Will Sidney Jones ever become what Eagles thought they were getting? - NBCSP
My takeaway from that comment after four years around Pederson is that if he weren’t concerned about Jones, he would have said so. But he didn’t. And it’s understandable if the Eagles privately are starting to wonder about Jones. His big thing in college was his speed. He ran a 4.47 40-yard dash before he got hurt. I don’t know what that figure would be now, but he sure hasn’t played like a 4.47 guy when he’s been healthy. I worry that there’s a cumulative effect of the injuries — a blown out Achilles and an endless series of hamstrings — that could prevent Jones from ever becoming the sort of consistent playmaking corner the Eagles need him to be.

Three days in Nigel Bradham’s life: His brother is released from prison, a game-clinching INT and a long-awaited hug - The Athletic
Franklin has not watched his brother play competitive football in person — not in high school, not in college, not in the NFL. That will change on Sunday. Franklin will be at Lincoln Financial Field when the Eagles take on the Jets. He’ll see No. 53 flex after big plays. He’ll see someone who has found an identity in Philadelphia, becoming what defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz once described as the “heart and soul of our defense” — good enough to never come off the field and savvy enough to wear the defensive headset for the Eagles. Because the only thought that made Bradham smile more than catching the interception one day after his brother’s release was realizing Franklin could see it happen in person. “It’ll be great,” Bradham said. “You’ll have to ask me after the game.”

Jalen Ramsey to the Eagles: What are the chances? - ESPN
2. The sense here is the Eagles, while interested, aren’t as likely to open the draft-pick vault for Ramsey as other teams -- including the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks -- might be. Philadelphia has to weigh the immediate need versus keeping the franchise’s long-term interests in mind. With the Jags in a keep-him posture, it likely will take a big offer (two first-rounders?) to make it reconsider. The Eagles are in on Ramsey at a certain level, but they’re not going to go overboard, and it might take that to land him. Given those two factors, the current odds don’t appear to be in favor of Ramsey ending up with the Eagles in 2019.

Week 5 Rankings - Rotoworld
Carson Wentz completed only 16 Week 4 passes. Thankfully, three of them found the end zone. With or without DeSean Jackson (abdomen), Wentz won’t face much resistance from the Jets.

Message for Sunday: Go 1-0, like every other week - PE.com
Malcolm Jenkins considers the question: “Have I ever taken an opponent lightly in the NFL?” “Ever?” he asks. “Yes, ever. In your career. And learned a lesson from it.” Jenkins thinks some more. “Hmmmm …. No. No. I guess what I’ll say is, yes. Yes, I learned that early,” Jenkins said. “But on the flip side of that, I do know when I’m better than an opponent and I know if I don’t show up that way and if I don’t prepare and do what I’m supposed to do, then anybody in this league can beat you. “There are matchups you should win. There are games you should win but that doesn’t mean anything. You have to show up with your ‘A’ game. The reason you think you should win is because your ‘A’ game is better than their ‘A’ game and if you don’t bring that game, you can get beat by anybody in this league. I’ve been part of teams when we’ve lost when we weren’t ‘supposed’ to lose. This is a game of professionals. Anybody has the talent to win in the NFL.

Sam Darnold will play if doctors clear him but wants to make sure he’s safe - PFT
Sam Darnold will play Sunday if doctors clear him, the Jets starting quarterback said Thursday. But he wants to make sure he doesn’t die on the field because of an enlarged spleen. It seems a reasonable request.

Kyle Van Noy credited the ‘dumb Philly special’ for his flag against the Bills - Boston
How did Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy feel about the 15-yard penalty he got during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 16-10 win against the Bills? He takes responsibility, but thought the “dumb Philly special” was happening. “I mean, when you’ve been hit with that dumb Philly Special, that’s an everlasting thought in your mind,” he said. The AFC defensive player of the week is referring to Super Bowl LII against the Eagles, in which Eagles QB Nick Foles called a trick play on the 1-yard line that resulted in a touchdown. He thought Bills’ quarterback Matt Barkley was also calling a trick play.

Jalen Hurd is headed to the IR; 49ers plan to re-sign WR Jordan Matthews and Dontae Johnson - Niners Nation
Matthews will rejoin the roster, but his involvement remains to be seen. There was a place to put Hurd. Red-zone matchups, against smaller nickel defenders, etc. I don’t see the same for Matthews, but this could also be a move to bolster Special Teams as well. We’ll see.

Cowboys vs. Packers injury report: La’el Collins, Tyron Smith only Cowboys to not practice - Blogging The Boys
The injury report for the Dallas Cowboys is in and only has two players on it who didn’t participate in Thursday’s practice. Unfortunately, those two players just happen to be the Cowboys starting offensive tackles. La’el Collins and Tyron Smith were not able to practice today, but that was expected for Smith who will likely not play on Sunday. There was some hope Collins could do a little today but the team played it safe and held him out.

20 years of Dan Snyder’s ownership has completely destroyed the Redskins fan base - Hogs Haven
No Redskins fan needs the latest FanPulse results to tell them about the confidence they have in the direction of the franchise: it is non-existent. The fan base has had its spirit broken — not by a few losses on the field of play, but by the consistent destructive decisions and embarrassing actions of the owner, Dan Snyder, and the incompetent yes-men he has employed to insulate him from the previously angry, but now simply apathetic fans that used to be the backbone of this once-proud franchise.

Stefon Diggs Is Mad As Hell. Where Do the Vikings Go From Here? - The Ringer
On Thursday, four days after the most scrutinized loss of Kirk Cousins’s Vikings career, three days after Stefon Diggs tweeted the mouthless emoji, and one day after the receiver missed practice despite not being listed with an injury, reporters asked Diggs whether he’d requested a trade from Minnesota. Diggs neither confirmed nor denied it but acknowledged he was frustrated. He also said he was not aware of whether his agent had asked for a trade on his behalf, and NBC Sports’ Tom Curran reported that the Vikings were not interested in trading Diggs. “There’s truth to all rumors,” Diggs said in his first public comments since mid-September. “And what I mean by that, so I can politely explain, there was a lot of speculation of me being frustrated. Of course. Being a receiver, and wanting to have success and wanting to win, if you want to win and you’re not winning, of course you’ll be frustrated.”

The 6 best offensive lines in the NFL right now, sorted by tier - SB Nation
It’s no surprise the Eagles are in this upper tier. They are monsters in the trenches, even with some injuries hampering them. What makes the Eagles’ offensive line so unique is they have big bodies. Brandon Brooks at right guard and Jason Kelce at center are playing at their usual high levels. Both tackles, Lane Johnson and Jason Peters, are ranked in the top 10, according to Pro Football Focus. As a unit, the Eagles are 12th in adjusted line yards, second in power rank (needing 2 yards or less on third or fourth down), and eighth in stuff rate, all of those according to Football Outsiders. These rushing numbers are all without having an elite-level running back. In pass protection, they are a physical group, highlighted by Johnson. Their tackles are almost always on an island and give Carson Wentz plenty of time for work.

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