One Eagles player earns NFC Player of the Week recognition while another gets snubbed

For the third week in a row, the Philadelphia Eagles have a player taking home an NFC Player of the Week award.

Zech McPhearson won NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 1.

Darius Slay won NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 2.

Now it’s Brandon Graham who is being honored as NFC Defensive Player of the Week for Week 3.

Graham notched five total quarterback hits, 2.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, one forced fumble, and one pass deflection in the Eagles’ 24 to 8 win over the Washington Commanders. He regularly terrorized Carson Wentz.

Making Graham’s production even more impressive is that he only played 27 snaps (35%). And only 19 of those were pass rush snaps.

That Graham is still playing at a high level doesn’t come as a major surprise after watching him have a strong showing in training camp. Then again, one shouldn’t take for granted that he’s thriving despite coming off an Achilles injury in his age 34 season.

This award marks the first NFC Defensive Player of the Week honor in Graham’s career. He’s the first Eagles defensive lineman to take home this prize since Fletcher Cox last did it in Week 17 of the 2018 season. Congrats to BLG.

In other news, DeVonta Smith got snubbed when it came to NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Smith had a career day at FedEx Field with eight receptions for 169 yards and one touchdown. He somehow lost out to Cordarrelle Patterson, who had 18 total touches (17 carries and one reception) for 153 yards from scrimmage and one touchdown in the Atlanta Falcons’ win over the Seattle Seahawks.

Smith had 21.1 yards per touch (and 14.1 yards per target) while Patterson had 8.5 yards per touch. Hardly the end of the world ... but make it make sense.

One might guess the NFL didn’t want to have two players represented from the same team. That’s dumb. Give it to the most deserving players. DeVonta was dominant in Week 3.