Eagles News: Philadelphia is “certainly starting to formulate a plan for giving Jalen Hurts an extension early”

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

A Jalen Hurts contract extension from the Eagles is more a question of when than if after his significant leap - Inquirer
The only question — however significant — was whether he could improve as a pocket passer. And it’s obvious, in so many of the throws he has made so far, that he has. Has he been perfect? Not by a long shot, but the trajectory of his progress suggests he’ll become even more consistent. His presnap reads, mechanics and ball placement are all better. Owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman are very much attuned to quarterback play. And while Nick Sirianni is bogged down in the daily operations of coaching, they are certainly starting to formulate a plan for giving Hurts an extension early. The Eagles have long benefited in getting out in front. Have there been mistakes? All they had to do was look across the field at Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz to be reminded that they haven’t always been right. But their track record has produced more wins than losses. [BLG Note: Hurts is eligible for an extension after this year.]

Eagles vs. Commanders: 14 winners, 6 losers, 2 IDKs - BGN
By the numbers: 22/35 (62.9%), 340 yards (9.7 yards per attempt), 3 TD, 0 INT, 123.5 passer rating. Plus nine carries for 20 yards as a rusher. Hurts wasn’t quite as impressive as he was against the Minnesota Vikings ... but that was a high bar to clear. He was still pretty dang good. With the exception of a few throws behind intended targets, Hurts mostly did a nice job of hitting his receivers in stride to allow for YAC. Hurts also did well to give his pass catchers opportunities to go up and make plays on 50-50 balls. While to some that might seem like a case of the receiver bailing out the passer, not every quarterback has the trust to let his targets make a big play. There’s something to be said for the trust and chemistry that Hurts has with his targets. By contrast, that kind of connection wasn’t always so apparent when Wentz was the Eagles’ quarterback. Another impressive aspect from Hurts’ performance was his poise. The third-year quarterback was hardly rattled when the Eagles faced 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line with the clock running and no timeouts to call after he had been tackled for a loss. Hurts ended up calling a play that wasn’t even in the game plan this week and lofted a ball to DeVonta Smith to allow him to make a great play on it for the touchdown.

NFL winners and losers: Josh McDaniels is killing the Raiders - SB Nation
Winner: Jalen Hurts. Here’s a guy who is playing out of his freaking mind right now, and it’s pretty awesome. If you haven’t watched Hurts play in 2022 you’re really missing out, because it’s like he’s a new player. We went from a quarterback in a “prove it” year, to extremely premature MVP talk — hell, he looks like one of only a couple of dudes who could push Josh Allen this year. Hurts was functionally perfect against the Commanders on Sunday. He threw for 340 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions — running for another 20 yards, just for good measure. Hurts is thriving in Nick Sirianni’s offense, as many hoped

Babes on Broad #85: Breaking down the Eagles dominant performance against the Commanders - BGN Radio
Sam Stafford and Jessica Taylor break down yesterday’s dominant performance against the Commanders and talk about the stellar and much improved performances of the season by Jalen Hurts.

The Day After – The Sackfest - Iggles Blitz
I watched the SNF debacle last night. That was some bad offense. Russell Wilson has struggled so far this year. To be fair, his coach is a complete mess and that is a dysfunctional team right now. Still, it makes you think that the Eagles might have gotten lucky that Wilson didn’t want to come to Philly. Hurts is playing much better than Wilson right now. That could change by the end of the year or in the future of course, but right now Hurts is the MVP candidate and Wilson is the erratic QB. And the Eagles didn’t have to pay a steep price to acquire a declining QB. Those resources can be used to improve the roster in the future. Thanks Broncos.

NFL Week 3: PFF Team of the Week & Player Awards - PFF
Offensive Player of the Week: WR DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles. The former Alabama duo of Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith erupted on the way to a 24-8 beatdown of the Washington Commanders. Along with an acrobatic circus catch to reset the sticks on the 1-yard line, Smith caught eight of his 12 targets for 169 yards and a touchdown. His 91.9 receiving grade was the highest of any receiver this week, and he averaged 21.1 yards per reception.

The First Read, Week 4: Bengals too talented for Super Bowl hangover; who’s early leader for MVP? - NFL.com
1) DeVonta Smith. Apparently it was Smith’s turn to star this week as the Eagles continue to look like one of the best teams in the NFL. Fellow wide receiver A.J. Brown went off in Week 1 and Jalen Hurts has established himself as an MVP candidate through three games. Now Smith is coming off an eight-catch, 169-yard effort in a win over Washington (a performance that included 156 yards in the first half). Smith only had 80 receiving yards coming into the game but you knew it was a matter of time before he exploded. The Eagles have so many weapons on offense that there will be plenty of days when he’ll have favorable matchups to exploit. That’s why this team is becoming more frightening with each passing week.

Jalen Hurts Determined to Dismiss His Doubters - SI
“It’s always been there,” Hurts told me from the Eagles’ bus Sunday afternoon.” Every time, I had my way of proving them wrong. Every time. That’s not why I do it. I proved myself right. That’s always what I want to do is achieve everything I set myself out to do. But it starts with the work you put in. I think all the criticism that I get, everything that comes my way in negative comments, I’m my biggest critic, so I can handle it.”

Is a New Group of Contenders Emerging in the NFL?- The RInger
The “Jalen Hurts for MVP” hype isn’t going to slow down this week after another impressive statistical performance on Sunday. Hurts threw for 340 yards and three touchdowns while averaging just under 10 yards per attempt in a 24-8 win over the Commanders. And here’s the part that should terrify the rest of the NFC: He didn’t even play all that well. At least not by the high standard he set over the first two weeks of the season. Ball placement was an issue for Hurts all afternoon—he consistently forced his receivers to adjust to off-target passes. It just didn’t matter because DeVonta Smith was doing his best impression of a young Randy Moss.

Nick Sirianni used Kobe Bryant’s tone-setting move against Pau Gasol to spur Eagles ahead of 24-8 win over Commanders - ESPN
oach Nick Sirianni channeled Kobe Bryant before the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against Carson Wentz and the Washington Commanders on Sunday, and the results on the field reflected his Mamba mentality — right down to the final score. Sirianni already had planned to tell a story about competitiveness to his players during their team meeting Saturday night. But as he was scrolling through his phone during the bus ride to Washington, a clip from Netflix’s upcoming “Redeem Team” documentary about the 2008 United States Olympic men’s basketball team popped up on his screen. In it, LeBron James revealed that Bryant told his teammates that he was going to run “through Pau [Gasol]’s f---ing chest” on the first play of their game against Spain — Team USA’s biggest threat in the tournament. The two were friends and teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers, but it didn’t matter for Bryant — what did was winning and setting a tone. Sure enough, Bryant drilled Gasol to the ground the first chance he got.

It was DeVonta Smith’s turn to play a starring role for the Eagles - The Athletic
The Eagles’ early-down blitz rate against Washington: 23.6 percent. That’s their highest single-game rate under Jonathan Gannon. Seven of the Eagles’ nine sacks of Wentz came from a four-man rush, which is great. If the Eagles are going to consistently pressure opposing quarterbacks anywhere near the level they did Sunday, they need their players up front to win one-on-one matchups. But the tilting of tendencies on early downs is also an indication Gannon recognizes some of the staleness the defense had last season. Philadelphia ranks sixth in the league in defensive EPA per drive. Better players and a less predictable scheme have the Eagles in a very good place through three games.

Haason Reddick: ‘We’re by no means where we want to be’ - PE.com
Haason Reddick knows how it works in this league: Quarterback sacks generally come in big handfuls, and when there is a chance to grab you some, you go and get it. In the meantime, the important approach to take is to keep pushing, keep working, keep contributing. “All I know is that you just keep playing hard and doing your job and it’s all going to even out,” Reddick said as he walked out of the locker room at FedEx Field on Sunday following the Eagles’ 24-8 win over Washington to lift this team to 3-0. “Then, all of a sudden, you have all of these opportunities and you take advantage of the situation. I knew it was coming. Last week (against Minnesota) I felt I rushed really well and beat my man and tried to affect the quarterback in any way that I could. “I knew it was going to come.”

Receiver Spending and Passing Game Efficiency - Over The Cap
The teams that will definitely be considered high level spenders will be the Raiders, Patriots, Buccaneers, Dolphins, Rams, Seahawks, Commanders, Chargers, and Cardinals. The 49ers, Panthers, Jaguars, Eagles, Saints, Bills, Jets, and Browns would be considered high spenders in a normal year. Thus far the Eagles, Dolphins, Bills, and Jaguars have produced at a high level. The Patriots, 49ers, Jets, Panthers and Saints have been really bad. The teams which will rank in the bottom are the Bears, Colts, Packers, Falcons, Bengals, Vikings, Texans, Lions, and Ravens. Of those teams the Ravens have been highly productive and the Falcons are close. The Bears, Colts, Texans, and Vikings have all been off to rough starts with the first three likely having little hope of turning things around.

Jaguars open as 7-point dogs to the Eagles - Big Cat Country
The Jaguars being a dog on the road against the Eagles isn’t a big time shocker, but I am a little surprised that it’s by a full touchdown. To be fair however, the Eagles have been ultra hot out of the gate to start the 2022 NFL season starting 3-0. The Eagles had a close call with a tough Detroit Lions team Week 1, but the past two weeks have dominated their competition, just like the Jaguars have.

Cowboys down Giants 23-16 with defense, and late offensive success - Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys came into their game with the 2-0 New York Giants needing a win to keep from dropping to the bottom of the NFC East. Some good defense and an offense that seemed to find some rhythm late in the game let them notch a 23-16 win. Now they trail only the 3-0 Philadelphia Eagles in the race for the division crown. In a game featuring an inexperienced starting quarterback for Dallas and one for New York who has a history of being careless with the ball, it was surprising that there were no turnovers until the very end. What was expected was the relentless pressure the Cowboys put on Daniel Jones, led by a three-sack performance for the often maligned DeMarcus Lawrence. Only Jones’ ability to scramble and make something with his legs offset the way he was under constant attack.

Dak Prescott not ruling out a Week 4 return against the Commanders - DraftKings Nation
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had surgery on his thumb after a Week 1 injury. Initial reports had Prescott out around 8 weeks, but post surgery, expectations got better. The team ended up not placing him on I.R., which would have kept him out at least four weeks. Prescott is throwing with a splint on at the moment, and on Monday Night Football he told Lisa Salters that he’s not ruling out a return as early as Week 4 when they face the Commanders.

Four downs: Takeaways from the Giants’ 23-16 loss to the Cowboys - Big Blue View
The fourth quarter had been kind to the Giants in the first two games. That was when the Giants offense was able to find a little bit of had game-winning drives against the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers It looked as though the New York Giants might have a glimmer of hope as they got the ball on their 9-yard line for one last chance. The drive got off to a promising start when Jones hit Sterling Shepard for a 12-yard gain, but it was all downhill after that. The next play fell incomplete, setting the Giants up for a second and long, which turned into a second and longer when Evan Neal had a false start to move the Giants back five yards. The Giants’ hopes of a comeback came to an end when WR David Sills V fell down in his route and CB Trevon Diggs managed to hold on to the interception. Then, adding injury to insult, Shepard collapsed with a scary-looking non-contact injury as he slowed up from his route. Shepard’s left leg apparently gave out and he instantly grabbed his knee in pain. While we don’t yet know the nature or extent of the injury, Brian Daboll said after the game that “it didn’t look good.”

Giants fear Sterling Shepard’s knee injury is season-ending - PFT
Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard had to be carted off the field after the team’s final offensive snap in Monday night’s loss to the Cowboys, and afterward multiple Giants indicated the indication is that Shepard will miss the rest of the season. Giants coach Brian Daboll said it’s particularly hard to see with Shepard because of how hard Shepard worked to come back from the torn Achilles that ended his 2021 season.

Carson Wentz is manufacturing his own sacks - Hogs Haven
Andrew Norwell was horrible yesterday. Full stop. I’d put about a third of these sacks largely on his miserable performance. Count me among those who would like to see Martin Mayhew give Ereck Flowers a call. However, by my count, a full 3.5 of these 9 sacks (39%) - including the crippling fumble in Commanders’ territory - were squarely on Wentz, either for holding onto the ball too long or for poor pocket awareness.

Monday Football Monday #107: Week 3 NFL Recap + Bill Williamson on Raiders rough start to the season - The SB Nation NFL Show
Silver and Black Pride’s Bill Williamson joins RJ Ochoa and Pete Sweeney to unload his thoughts on the winless Raiders and their rough start to the season. Later in the show, RJ and Pete briefly recap each game from Sunday and make their Monday night predictions.

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