Eagles News: Haason Reddick leads the NFL in “sack score”

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The 2022 True Sack Rate (TSR): Week 18 Update (Final rankings) - Trench Warfare
Haason Reddick’s sack score of 16.5 was the best in the NFL this season and is tied with T.J. Watt’s 2021 sack score of 16.5 for the second best since I started the TSR in 2020 (first belongs to Robert Quinn’s 2021 sack score of 17.5). Reddick finished with 18 overall sacks, ten of them HQ, and a league-leading five strip sacks. Reddick also led the NFL in drive kill percentage at 78% (14 of his 18 sacks) among rushers with at least ten sacks. Drive kill percentage measures the rate of sacks that ended drives. Among edge-rushers with at least 500 snaps played, Reddick finished tied with Myles Garrett for second in fewest snaps per sack at one sack every 45.4 snaps. He also ranked third in snaps per HQ sack at one HQ sack every 81.7 snaps.

Lots of Help - Iggles Blitz
Reddick turned out to be a great signing. I thought he was a good addition who would help the defense, but I didn’t see him racking up 16 sacks and 5 FFs. He has a legit shot at Defensive Player of the Year. Reddick is an impact rusher, but also a good run defender. Beyond the plays he’s makes, Reddick creates sacks for his teammates. He gets into the backfield and the QB has to move. The Eagles didn’t have 70 sacks by accident.

Eagles mailbag part 2: Future free agent frenzy - BGN
As it stands now, the Eagles are 18th in total cap space for 2023 with $14.5 million available. The amount will change after the Eagles do cuts, re-signings, and restructures, but every team has those at their disposal, so there are no significant hidden advantages to be gained. In fact, the Eagles are in a below average position here, they really only have two contracts to tap into to make space with. Darius Slay is due $17M in salary and Lane Johnson $14M for 2023, other than Jake Elliot no one else on the roster will make more than $1.5M in salary in 2023. Expect restructured contracts for Slay and Johnson that frees over $20M in cap space for 2023. Other than that, what you see is pretty much what you get. This means the Eagles’ starting point is relatively poor: they’re already behind most of the league before everyone starts on their funny money moves, and they have limited funny money moves to make. Not only do the Eagles have all these free agents, but they also have future free agents they would be wise to extend now rather than later. At least this is easier, Jalen Hurts is the only 2024 free agent to be that warrants a contract extension.

Why Jalen Hurts is my MVP over Patrick Mahomes - SB Nation
What’s the functional difference between Mahomes and Hurts? That’s really what this comes down to, right? Every argument I applied to Hurts can easily be applied to Mahomes too. The Chiefs would probably be an absolute dumpster fire without him under center as well. In the end it comes down to expectation, which is my final tilt. Mahomes had a phenomenal season — hell, perhaps the best he’s ever had when you take into account the questionable offense talent he has in 2022 vs. past years. Still, what Mahomes did is an extension of everything he’s done since entering the league. He’s is the next great one, a player who has the ability to destroy every expectation for quarterback play moving forward. We really could go from saying “there will never be another Tom Brady” to “I can’t believe we saw someone better than Brady,” all within the span of the next decade — but Mahomes is on that trajectory. The point is: I expect greatness from Patrick Mahomes. It’s just about the striations of greatness along the way. I didn’t expect Jalen Hurts to go from being questioned whether he actually is the future of the Eagles, to become the most important part of the team in a year where Philadelphia was the best team in the NFC. This is not an easy decision, but when the dust settled and I looked at all these factors I had to make Jalen Hurts my MVP for 2022.

Mailbag: Who are the Eagles’ franchise tag candidates? - PhillyVoice
S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson: And yep, as noted in the question, Gardner-Johnson would make some sense as well. The Saints traded Gardner-Johnson to Philly in part because they could not agree to a contract extension, and the bet here is that the franchise tag would be unwelcomed by Gardner-Johnson, as it is for many players. Expect the Eagles to work toward a contract extension, and if they can’t get one done prior to the start of free agency, $14,472,000 is a reasonable enough figure to keep Gardner-Johnson from hitting the open market while the team continues to work toward a long-term deal.

How Jalen Hurts’ injury could impact the Eagles’ Super Bowl hopes - ESPN
The Eagles coaches altered their offensive approach in Hurts’ first game back. They typically dial up about five designed runs per game, but largely stayed away from those against New York. It appeared to impact the unit’s effectiveness, even as the Giants rested the bulk of their starters with their playoff seeding secured. A normally potent red zone offense scored just one touchdown on five trips inside the 20-yard line. The threat of Hurts pulling the ball on the zone-read and run-pass option plays keeps defenses honest. Without that threat, the offense isn’t nearly as dynamic or dangerous, even with playmakers like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Miles Sanders and Dallas Goedert on the field. Hurts, though, will be two weeks further removed from the injury the next time he suits up in the divisional round, and the expectation in the locker room is that he will be back to his old ways. “He’s a guy that’s a competitor,” center Jason Kelce said. “He’s always got this aura about him that he can do whatever he wants [on the field] and he’s the man. It was not evident on game day that he was hurting. “I think he’ll be fine. He’s got [time] to get healthy before this next game. And yeah, he’ll be good.”

Spadaro: ‘Nothing changes now’ for Jalen Hurts, Eagles - PE.com
Everything is positive for Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. He’s coming off an MVP-worthy regular season, accounting for 35 total touchdowns. He won 14 of the 15 games he started. And after the Eagles held a full-pads, shake-off-the-rust kind of practice on Thursday at the NovaCare Complex, Hurts was the picture of confidence as he met the media at his locker. Yes, he’s continuing to make great progress rehabbing the right shoulder injury he suffered on December 18 in Chicago. And yes, he will be out there – “the man will be there” – when the Eagles open their NFC playoffs next weekend in the Divisional Round at Lincoln Financial Field, which he knows is going to be “electric.” “I’m feeling better,” he said. “It’s a day-by-day thing. Just taking it day by day. I think the whole world knows that I’m dealing with something, that I’ve been dealing with something. I think the whole point of that game (on Sunday against the Giants) was coming back and getting done what we needed to get done and obviously getting some time to rest, so here it is.” The timing works for Hurts and for the Eagles. The team had a full-pads practice on Thursday – no hitting, in case you wondered – but it was a chance to jolt the players’ bodies just a little bit. It’s the “team” time for practice as the Eagles work on some of their fundamentals, rather than planning for a game. They have another round of practice on Friday and then have the weekend off. Every bit of that time is essential for Hurts, who has a second career playoff game to start next weekend.

Searching for Playoff Lenny; Cardiac Kirk Cousins - Football Outsiders
As for the 49ers, we all know Nick Bosa is awesome and they can get after quarterbacks, and their own segment is coming in a few paragraphs. Arik Armstead returned to their lineup in Week 13, so Walkthrough filtered the numbers from that week on, expecting to find that the 49ers had a December/January pressure rate of 96% or something. It turns out that the 49ers were middle-of-the-pack at applying pressure late in the season. The Eagles led the NFL in late-season pressure rate at 42.5%. The Cowboys ranked fifth at 40.5%. But the Jacksonville Jaguars ranked third (the Lions were second) at 40.8%. Anyone who watched Arden Key, Travon Walker, and Josh Allen take over the Titans game last Saturday night knows that the Jaguars can apply some serious pressure.

NFL Wild-Card Round Playoff Picks Against the Spread - The Ringer
For the Bucs, in many ways, it’s the opposite. They needed a Week 17 win to get in, and Brady lit the Panthers up for 432 yards. They looked like the team we saw the previous two years. But overall? This was mostly a dreadful team to watch. The Bucs finished 16th in offensive DVOA, and have not beaten a team by more than six points since Week 2. The Cowboys are not the same team on defense that they were early in the season, in large part due to injuries at cornerback. There’s a scenario here in which Brady carves them up downfield and suddenly the Bucs look dangerous. But I can’t unsee how sloppy Tampa looked all season. I think the Cowboys are clearly the superior team and will take care of business. The pick: Cowboys (-2.5)

NFL wild-card playoffs picks against the spread: Vic Tafur’s predictions - The Athletic
The Buccaneers can’t run the ball, which will allow the talented Cowboys defense to swarm the old man. Brady ranks 31st of 33 qualified QBs in EPA/DB when pressured this season. Even with their sleep-walking down the stretch, the Cowboys still finished the season leading the NFL in pressure rate (43.2 percent). Dallas may be coming off its worst game, but should get back to what it was doing best earlier in the season and let running backs Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott eat. The Buccaneers give up 4.5 yards a carry. The pick: Cowboys -2.5

4 questions the Cowboys need answers to before the playoffs - Blogging The Boys
The lasting impression of the Cowboys should be better, but the team has shown more good than bad over a 17-game season. Dallas has a top-five scoring offense averaging 27.5 points per game, and the No. 1 defense in takeaways with 33. With starters not playing in the preseason, the first three games of an NFL season are now used to figure things out. The Cowboys are a different team than the one that played the Buccaneers on Sep. 11, 2022. They have learned through adversity, losing their starting quarterback for five games and not having their starting left tackle for most of the season. When the Cowboys lose a game, the following week they have won every matchup, and have a total point differential of +64, and become a better team. The Buccaneers do have Tom Brady at quarterback, but looking at the sum of their season, the team is lucky to have won their division and eight games. The offense has only scored 30 or more points twice, and Brady connected with Mike Evans for three touchdowns in Week 17 for the first time since Week 4. Tampa Bay ran for over 100 yards on Dallas in Week 1, but the team has since become the worst rushing offense in the NFL, averaging around 76.9 yards per game. The Cowboys didn’t fall into winning 12 games this season. They are a great football team. Even though the loss to Washington stings, Dallas has shown enough that everyone should feel confident going into Super Wild Card Weekend.

Daniel Jones’ price tag continues to skyrocket - Big Blue View
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is about to get PAID! In the quaint, old days of last month — 30 or so days ago — Joel Corry, a former sports agent and current CBS Sports cap analyst Joel Corry suggested a deal in the three-year, $70 million range. That is roughly $23 million per year. Since then, Jones has helped rally the Giants to the playoffs and the accepted working theory is now that Jones and the Giants will come to some type of agreement to keep him in New York. And that the cost of that deal for the Giants is likely to be more than anyone could have imagined when the season began. I reached out to Corry this week about that projection, made the first week in December. He acknowledged those days are long gone. “Jones has been playing himself into a bigger contract,” Corry said. “North of $30M per year where the playoffs could be the determining factor.”

Commanders fans buoyed by prospect of change & ready to back Sam Howell after Week 18 win over Dallas - Hogs Haven
At the heart of all these questions, along with the looming issue of getting a new stadium deal in place pretty quickly, is the desire of fans to see the Washington franchise saved from the woeful state of disrepair and disrepute into which it has fallen. Obviously, the hope is for a return to the glory years of the 1980s and early 90s, but even if that lofty goal is not achieved, fans will be aching to see professionalism and competence become the norm after so many years of being subjected to the opposite. If feels as if this offseason may be the most eventful one in the modern era of the Washington franchise — and after the tumult of the past 3 or 4 years, that’s really saying something! Fans will be keen to hear any morsel of news about the potential sale of the team, and every move, from coaching staff changes to roster decisions and more, will be scrutinized and discussed in the context of the expected change in ownership. Fans of every NFL team have a lot to hold their attention between now and April, with playoffs, free agency, and the draft, but fans of the burgundy & gold have more at stake than most this offseason. Hopefully, the next eight or ten weeks will be filled with good news for all of us!!

Derek Carr landing spots in 2023: Six potential trade fits for three-time Pro Bowl QB - NFL.com
The Commanders might have mishandled their quarterback situation down the stretch, benching Taylor Heinicke and bringing back Wentz only to see him throw three first-half interceptions in a playoff-eliminating loss in Week 17. The Week 18 performance by rookie Sam Howell was impressive, but was it enough to convince the Commanders — who are making a change at offensive coordinator, to boot — that Howell should be the guy in 2023? That seems unlikely. A veteran such as Carr could immediately give them some hope for more consistency offensively, with young receivers Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson making it a more attractive place to play, we believe. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio also oversaw Carr’s rise in 2015 and 2016 with the Raiders, when Carr was an MVP candidate that last season before suffering a broken leg late in the year. The OC hire might be the most interesting element here and could move the Commanders up or down this list depending on who they bring in. But with Heinecke set to hit free agency and Wentz a cut candidate with no guaranteed money left on his deal, the Commanders — one way or another — need to craft a plan to land a quarterback who can start right away next fall.

Cameron Dicker named AFC Special Teams Player of the Month - Bolts From The Blue
Earlier this season, Dicker won a pair of weekly honors from the NFL after converting game-winning field goals for both the Eagles and Bolts. His regular season concluded with him having converted 21-of-22 field goals which gives him the best percentage for a rookie kicker since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.

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