Eagles News: Gardner Minshew looking sharp in practice ahead of Cowboys game

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8 Eagles players selected for 2023 Pro Bowl Games - BGN
That means that between the Pro Bowl roster and the alternates, the ENTIRE offensive line earned recognition, and altogether, 17 Eagles earned Pro Bowl honors — and it shows every week on the field. But with a playoff berth already clinched and a pretty clean route to win the NFC East, none of them are looking to participate in this year’s event — which is now a week of fun competitions capped off with a flag football game.

NFC East Mixtape Vol.89: Another Juice-less Cowboys/Eagles game - BGN Radio
Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) and RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) discuss the biggest storylines in the division.

Predicting NFL Week 16 upsets, plus weekly buzz, notes - ESPN+
We’ve talked a lot about head coach and player of the year candidates in this space. Who’s on your shortlist for NFL executive of the year? Fowler: There are plenty of good options here. It’s hard to ignore what Howie Roseman has done in Philadelphia. The Eagles’ roster is among the league’s best, and the pre-draft trade with the Saints is looking really smart right now, with Philadelphia owning the rights to the Saints’ projected No. 9 pick, along with their own first-rounder. Kansas City’s Brett Veach helped reimagine the Chiefs’ offense, which has been more productive this year despite the loss of Tyreek Hill. The offensive line is loaded, and picks acquired in the Hill trade give him ammunition to improve the defense. Buffalo’s Brandon Beane is always in this mix, but he recently won exec of the year honors. Other strong candidates include Miami’s Chris Grier, Seattle’s John Schneider, Cincinnati’s Duke Tobin and Dallas’ Stephen Jones. Graziano: Man, it’d be hard not to give it to Roseman if the Eagles end up with the best record in the league. The roster he has built is a testament to the right combination of short-term aggressiveness and long-term contingency planning. Remember that they drafted Jalen Hurts in the second round just months after giving Carson Wentz a long-term extension. All bases always covered in Philly. He went after A.J. Brown aggressively, knowing he was exactly what Hurts needed to help take him to the next level. It seems like he has traded high draft picks for win-now players a bunch, but somehow the Eagles still have two first-round picks in next year’s draft. You list a lot of worthy names, but I would have to put Roseman at the top of it. The only name you didn’t list who I’d say at least deserves a mention here is the Vikings’ Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, whose team is 11-3 in his rookie year as a GM.

Spadaro: Pro Bowl snubs? Plenty on this talented T-E-A-M - PE.com
The point is this, and I could have named more candidates, but what does it matter, really? The Eagles have a stacked roster. Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman said during the final cutdown weekend, when the team reduced the roster to 53 players a week ahead of the regular-season opener against Detroit, that his goal is to have a roster where every single player is of starting caliber. Geez, Howie, way to hit the mark. Some proof of roster depth we’ve seen without any real drop-off in production: 17 offensive players have played at least 100 snaps this season and 21 defensive players have done the same. An additional 13 players have taken more than 100 snaps on special teams. That’s why nobody is flinching during a week when the quarterback position remains a question mark. It could be Hurts. It could be Gardner Minshew. No matter who plays, the Eagles have full faith in the highest-quality performance. That’s the standard here.

NFL QB Index, Week 16: Trevor Lawrence skyrockets into top 10; Tom Brady tumbles - NFL.com
2) Jalen Hurts. Reports surfaced Monday that Hurts is dealing with a sprained throwing shoulder suffered in the third quarter of Sunday’s win over the Bears. The injury isn’t considered a long-term threat, but his status is in question for Saturday’s showdown with Dallas. Gardner Minshew sits on deck. On Sunday, Hurts and the Eagles found another way to win, overcoming uncharacteristic miscues and a sleepy start against Chicago. Hurts tossed two picks over his first 12 attempts — after throwing just three all season — but made up for it with 61 yards and three scores on the ground, including a 22-yard speed race through Chicago’s defense. His slow start through the air gave way to a storm of pinpoint throws and deep-ball artistry aimed at twin-destroyers DeVonta Smith (5/126) and A.J. Brown. His 68-yard hookup with Brown — who posted a career-best 9/181 line — came amazingly after the shoulder sprain. Unstoppable in short-yardage situations, an open-field headache and the game’s most-improved thrower, Hurts on Sunday tied Randall Cunningham’s 1990 franchise-record 35 offensive touchdowns in a season. He won’t stop there.

Dickerson a surprise pick as Eagles’ offense lands record six Pro Bowlers - NBCSP
You figured Jason Kelce was in. You knew Jalen Hurts was a lock. There wasn’t much doubt about A.J. Brown, Miles Sanders or Haason Reddick.Y But Landon Dickerson? Dickerson, the Eagles’ promising but largely unheralded 24-year-old left guard, became a surprise first-time Pro Bowler Wednesday, and he’s one of eight Eagles to receive the annual honor. Dickerson is the Eagles’ first offensive lineman named to a Pro Bowl team within his first two seasons since Hall of Famer Bob Brown made it in his rookie year in 1965. He’s the Eagles’ youngest offensive lineman honored as a Pro Bowler since 24-year-old Shawn Andrews in 2006. Although he’s notoriously hard on himself, Dickerson has blossomed into one of the NFL’s top young interior linemen.

Week 16 NFL Picks Against the Spread - The Ringer
The Jalen Hurts injury (sprained throwing shoulder) throws a wrench into the Eagles’ season, but the truth is they’re in pretty good shape to handle it. The Eagles need just one win in their final three games—at Dallas, home against the Saints, home against the Giants—to lock up the no. 1 seed in the NFC. Much of the national conversation around the Cowboys this week has focused on Dak Prescott, but it’s fair to wonder how good this defense is going to be down the stretch. Dallas is down two of its starting three corners, with Anthony Brown and Jourdan Lewis out. And last week, linebacker Leighton Vander Esch suffered a shoulder injury that could sideline him for a short time. The Cowboys can still rush the passer, and cornerback Trevon Diggs is a playmaker on the back end, but elsewhere there are weaknesses to exploit. The Jaguars lit them up for 503 yards in Week 15. Assuming Gardner Minshew starts at quarterback here, look for the Eagles to lean on a quick passing game, screens, misdirection and the run game. Philly’s focus the first time these teams met was on not letting Micah Parsons wreck the game, and that figures to be the focus once again. The Eagles’ offensive and defensive lines have been dominant for much of the season and specifically in the past few weeks. I think they have enough around Minshew to keep it close and potentially pull off the upset. The pick: Eagles (+4.5)

NFL Week 16 picks against the spread: Vic Tafur’s predictions - The Athletic
This point spread started rocketing up Monday morning, even before the news of Jalen Hurts’ shoulder injury came out. No one, it appears, has any faith in backup Gardner Minshew — who is 7-9 ATS as an underdog in his starts. Of course, the 13-1 Eagles have a much better supporting cast than the Jaguars did. And they haven’t officially ruled out Hurts, either. Though the Cowboys had a historic collapse against the Jaguars and have registered just one sack in the past two weeks, they posted a pressure rate of 42.5 percent in those games (their season average is 42.4). Since entering the league in 2019, Minshew ranks 19th out of 45 qualified QBs in EPA/DB when pressured (500-plus total pass attempts since 2019 as the qualifier). Hmmm, Cowboys win by 3. The pick: Eagles +4.5

Dak Prescott: Eagles game about making a statement to ourselves - PFT
“If anything, it’s about making the statement to ourselves,” Prescott said, via the team’s website. “As you look at the season, we’ve had some games where we played really well. And we’ve had some games where we bit ourselves in the foot . . . So, this is about putting our best foot forward.” [BLG Note: “bit ourselves in the foot”?]

WIP adds ex-Eagles Pro Bowler Hugh Douglas as part of Angelo Cataldi’s retirement - Inquirer
94.1 WIP is already the home of Eagles games, so it seems fitting it’s filling its lineup with former Birds players. The latest addition is former Eagles Pro Bowler Hugh Douglas, who will cohost the station’s new midday show alongside current evening host Joe Giglio. “The best years of my NFL career were in Philly, and I cut my teeth in broadcasting at WIP,” Douglas said in a statement. “I’m so excited to be back and hosting middays with Joe Giglio. I’m coming home!”

Cowboys would benefit most from playing Eagles at full strength with Jalen Hurts - Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys haven’t been completely stagnant with the lineup this week, as cornerback Kelvin Joseph was benched for DaRon Bland and Nashon Wright, while Jason Peters and Tyron Smith continue to rotate at right tackle. If the end result is a win against an Eagles team starting Gardner Minshew, it will only lead to another week of questioning how legitimate they really are. Sure, the Eagles padded their record early in the season with the same types of games the Cowboys have found in this late season stretch, and nobody makes any apologies for the injuries faced near the end of a grueling 17-game schedule. All both teams can do is play who is in front of them, but knowing the Cowboys and Eagles will both be in the playoffs for some time, it remains Philadelphia with a better outlook for postseason success. The Cowboys have time to prove otherwise, but without a head-to-head win against Hurts, it will take a string of bounce back performances against the Titans the following week and the Commanders to end the season.

Burning questions in Week 16: let’s talk quarterbacks - Hogs Haven
Carson Wentz has a lot of backers in the Washington fan base as well, and they have been pretty vocal this week, criticizing Taylor Heinicke for his rough outing against the Giants, and saying that the shift in offensive philosophy to a heavy dose of Brian Robinson and top-ten defense would allow Carson Wentz to fare much better now than he did during the team’s 2-4 start to the season when he had neither.

How much would you pay to keep Daniel Jones as Giants’ quarterback? - Big Blue View
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has a market value of three years, $76.61 million entering this offseason, according to Spotrac. That is roughly $25.5 million per year. At that price, Jones would be the 14th-highest paid quarterback in the NFL in terms of average annual value. Would you pay that to keep Jones in New York for two or three more years? Jones, of course, can be a free agent at season’s end.

One of the Chiefs’ most notable superfans robbed a bank on his way to the Texans game - SB Nation
Internet sleuthing led to an amazing discovery on Monday when Chiefs fans learned that @ChiefsAHolic, a fan known for wearing a full body wolf costume to games robbed a bank while traveling to Houston to watch his team play the Texans.

Tom Curran, & who is propping up their team the most? - The SB Nation NFL Show
This week on the SB Nation NFL Show, Rob “Stats” Guerrera, Kyle Posey, and Stephen Serda discuss which player, coach, or unit is propping up their team the most this season. Before that Stats sits down with Patriots Insider for NBC Sports Boston Tom Curran to figure out what’s going on with the bad–decision Patriots this year.

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