Eagles vs. Washington snap counts: The Greg Ward Game

It’s time for a breakdown of the snap counts from the Philadelphia Eagles’ 37 to 27 win over Washington in Week 15 of the 2019 NFL season.

OFFENSE

Always good to see Carson Wentz and the starting offensive line make it through the entire game.

JJ Arcega-Whiteside played the most snaps of any Eagles skill player and didn’t have much to show for it. The second-round rookie had zero receptions on two targets. JJAW dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone and got called for a holding penalty. It’s not difficult to understand why the coaching staff has been hesitant to play him this year. JJAW only has eight receptions for 130 yards and one touchdown on 424 snaps this season. That’s one reception for every 53 snaps played, which is ... not good! Contrast that figure with Washington rookie receiver Terry McLaurin, who played 47 snaps and had five receptions for 130 yards and one touchdown in this game alone.

Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert combined for 10 receptions, 116 yards, and one touchdown. Good game by the tight ends.

You have to be happy for Greg Ward making the most of his opportunity since getting called up from the practice squad. He caught seven of his nine targets for 61 yards, six first downs, and the game-winning touchdown. The Greg Ward Game.

Miles Sanders once again got the bulk of playing time at running back with Jordan Howard out (related: Howard might be back this week). Huge game for the rookie: 19/122/1 on the ground and 5/50/1 through the air. Very encouraging performance.

Boston Scott’s combined 65 yards from scrimmage is quality production from a No. 2 running back. Five of his 13 touches went for first downs so he was helpful in moving the chains. Good to see the Eagles rewarded him with more playing time following his performance against the New York Giants.

Robert Davis didn’t see a single target in his first game with the Eagles. The team was mostly playing with just two wide receivers in JJAW and Ward. And with JJAW doing nothing good, it’s really like they were playing with just one in Ward.

DEFENSE

Malcolm Jenkins still hasn’t missed a single defensive snap since Week 17 of the 2017 season. So, nearly two years ago now.

Fletcher Cox nearly played the entire game. He had four tackles and 0.5 tackle for loss but zero sacks and zero quarterback hits. Not a single Eagles defender logged a sack or a quarterback hit against a rookie quarterback in Dwayne Haskins who’s ranked towards the bottom of the league in terms of release time this season. Not great.

Jalen Mills played most of the game despite being limited in practice with an elbow injury leading up to Sunday.

Nathan Gerry — not Kamu Grugier-Hill — was the second linebacker after Nigel Bradham. Grugier-Hill didn’t play much in his first game back since suffering a concussion; he actually saw fewer snaps than Duke Riley. Was this discipline for lying about his injury?

Ronald Darby was ruled questionable heading into Sunday’s game due to a hip flexor. He started but had to come out at times and Rasul Douglas filled in for him. Perhaps a rotation was part of the plan?

Timmy Jernigan has six tackles and one sack in 216 snaps this season. Eagles not getting great production out of their defensive tackle position.

Genard Avery’s defensive snap counts since the Eagles traded a 2021 fourth-round pick for him prior to the deadline: 3, 10, 2, 5, 0, 4. He’s logged zero stats in his last five games played. He got flagged for being offsides in Washington. He couldn’t help a pass rush that was struggling to generate pressure. What was the point of this trade, again?

Sidney Jones got some snaps on the final drive of the game in the Eagles’ prevent defense.

Cre’Von LeBlanc barely played. Weird because he saw 17 snaps in his first game back but has since gone down to four snaps and two snaps over the past couple weeks.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Craig James leads the Eagles in special teams tackles this season. He added another to his total on Sunday.

Nate Herbig saw his first NFL action after previously being a healthy scratch all season long.

DID NOT PLAY

INACTIVE: Jordan Howard, Nelson Agholor, Derek Barnett, Lane Johnson, Shareef Miller, Nate Sudfeld, Sua Opeta

ACTIVE: Josh McCown, Jay Ajayi

Good to see the Eagles move away from giving Ajayi snaps. He’s been ineffective. Now he’s just wasting a roster spot, especially since he doesn’t contribute on special teams. The Eagles could be better off promoting practice squad running back De’Angelo Henderson or signing a back off another team’s practice squad.