An Eagles castoff who enjoyed an auspicious debut with another team, an NFL record the Eagles are closing in on and what are the Eagles going to do about tight end?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a Week 2 edition of Roob\u2019s 10 Random Eagles Observations. And Eagles-Chiefs? This is the kind of week that makes me think we\u2019d all be better off with 25 Random Observations . Or maybe 50.<\/p>\n
Do I hear\u00a0100?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let’s start with 10 and see how that goes!<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0If you took a look at the Eagles\u2019 roster on Aug. 1, these are some of the names you wouldn\u2019t have seen: Jakorian Bennett, John Metchie, Sam Howell, Fred Johnson, Willie Lampkin, Britain Covey, Marcus Epps, Za\u2019Darius Smith and Tank Bigsby. That\u2019s a pretty big chunk of the roster right there. Seven guys are on the 53-man roster today who weren\u2019t in the building two weeks ago. That\u2019s 13 percent of the roster. When Howie Roseman says roster construction is a year-round process, he\u2019s not kidding. He\u2019s always looking to upgrade and just over the last two weeks he\u2019s upgraded with Johnson, a better option at swing tackle than Kendall Lamm; with Smith, who immediately becomes the No. 3 edge rusher; with Bigsby, who can give the Eagles more than A.J. Dillon; with Bennett, who could very well be playing outside corner soon; with Howell, who hopefully won\u2019t have to play but is a far superior backup QB option than Kyle McCord or Dorian Thompson-Robinson with Tanner McKee sidelined; and Epps and Metchie, who have already made an impact on special teams. One thing Roseman has gotten better at is taking emotion out of personnel decisions, and that\u2019s not easy. You get attached to guys who\u2019ve been here for a while. You\u2019ve gotten to know them and their families, you\u2019ve spent time and resources developing them and watching them improve, and you\u2019ve seen how hard they\u2019ve worked to earn a roster spot. And then you have to jettison them when a better option comes along. Earlier in his G.M. career, Roseman hung onto guys too long because he just couldn\u2019t bring himself to cut them. But he\u2019s learned that you can\u2019t let emotion rule your decision making. That\u2019s a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Take a look at the 53-man roster today. Guaranteed it won\u2019t be the same this time next week.<\/p>\n
2. As poorly as Adoree\u2019 Jackson played against the Cowboys, it probably makes sense to give him another start Sunday in Kansas City. As much as I\u2019d like to see Jakorian Bennett get a chance, the Chiefs aren\u2019t exactly loaded with outside weapons. You figure Quinyon Mitchell can handle Hollywood Brown, which leaves Jackson on JuJu Smith-Schuster, who\u2019s a few years removed from his last productive season. So give Jackson a chance to bounce back against a guy he has a chance to handle. Because we don\u2019t know if Bennett will be an upgrade, and the last thing you want to do is keep going back and forth from one corner to another. If Jackson continues to struggle Sunday, make a change. But ideally he\u2019ll play well. There\u2019s something to be said for continuity and if there\u2019s any way for Vic Fangio to avoid benching Jackson, he\u2019d like to do it.<\/p>\n
3. Saquon Barkley\u2019s 3.3 average against Dallas wasn\u2019t his first game with a pedestrian rushing average as an Eagle. He had a 2.6 average on 18 carries in Week 6 last year against the Browns, and a 3.4 on 19-for-65 in Week 15 against the Steelers. What happened next? A week after the Browns game, he was 17-for-176 with a TD against the Giants and a week after the Steelers game he was 29-for-150 with two TDs in Washington. I would expect a similar dynamic Sunday in Kansas City. A couple things about Barkley vs. the Cowboys. He was 10-for-49 in the first half with that impressive 10-yard touchdown and then he opened the third quarter with a 12-yard run. That made him 11-for-61 when the weather delay hit late in the third quarter, a 5.6 average. Nobody on either offense looked right after the 64-minute delay, and that sure includes the Eagles\u2019 offensive line. Saquon\u2019s seven runs after the delay looked like this: -1, +1, +4, +0, -4, +0, -1. He didn\u2019t get any blocking during that stretch and had no holes to run through. He didn’t all of a sudden become a different player. He just didn’t have a chance. Saquon\u2019s the last guy I worry about. He\u2019ll be fine. I expect a big bounce-back Sunday at Arrowhead. As long as there isn\u2019t a weather delay.<\/p>\n
4. The Eagles go into Kansas City having won nine straight games against AFC opponents, a streak that goes back to the 20-14 loss to Zach Wilson and the Jets at MetLife during the 2023 collapse. That\u2019s the 3rd-longest winning streak ever by an NFC team over an AFC team. It\u2019s also the Eagles\u2019 longest streak vs. the AFC since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Nick Sirianni is 17-5 vs. the AFC but 17-2 in the last 19 meetings, with the only losses coming to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Ariz., and to the Jets. The Eagles\u2019 nine-game winning streak is the longest by an NFC team vs. the AFC since the Saints won 11 in a row from 2017 through 2019 and it\u2019s tied for the 4th-longest ever. The Saints won 13 in a row from 1987 through 1990, and the 49ers won 12 in a row from 1988 through 1991. The Lions also had a nine-game streak from 1970 through 1972. The longest streaks by an AFC team over the NFC? The Ravens won 13 in a row from 2018 through 2021, and the Dolphins won 13 in a row from 1978 through 1981. Now you know.<\/p>\n
5. Curious to see how much Za\u2019Darius Smith is able to play Sunday. He\u2019s 32 and wasn\u2019t in a training camp and just got here over the weekend, but he seems like a guy who keeps himself in shape. He had 9.0 sacks last year at 32 years old, and he should be an instant upgrade over all the other backup edge rushers on the roster \u2013 Josh Uche (who actually had some good snaps Thursday night), Azeez Ojulari, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and Patrick Johnson. (Which by the way is too many roster spots on edge rushers, so we\u2019ll see what happens next.) I think somewhere around 15 to 18 snaps makes sense for Smith to show what he can do without overly stressing a guy who hasn\u2019t hit anybody since Jan. 5.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
6A. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week: Jalen Hurts has a higher career completion percentage than 28 of 30 quarterbacks in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Hurts has raised his career completion percentage to 64.8 percent (although he\u2019s at 67.7 since 2023). The only Hall of Famers above 64 percent are Kurt Warner (65.6) and Peyton Manning (65.1).\u00a0<\/p>\n
6B. Sam Bradford has the highest career completion percentage in Eagles history (minimum 500 attempts) with his 65.0 percent accuracy in 2015, his only year with the Eagles (when his quarterbacks coach was current Ohio State head coach Ryan Day), so Hurts, at 64.8 percent, is closing in on Bradford. Hurts raised his career mark from 64.6 to 64.8 just in the opener against the Cowboys with his 19-for-23, so another accurate game or two and he\u2019ll move past Bradford.<\/p>\n
7. When it comes to getting the ball to A.J. Brown, I don\u2019t want to hear, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to force anything.\u201d It\u2019s A.J. Brown. Force it to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
8A.\u00a0\u00a0Every summer, we say, \u201cIf only Dallas Goedert can stay healthy\u2026.\u201d Because if he could stay healthy, we\u2019re talking about a Pro Bowl caliber tight end. Among 28 active tight ends with 200 career targets, Goedert is sixth with 8.5 yards per target, third with a 73.7 catch percentage, eighth with 11.6 yards per catch and first with a 61.9 success rate. But he never does stay healthy and it\u2019s got to be frustrating for him but also for everybody else in the organization because you set out assuming you\u2019re going to have him and then you don\u2019t and now you have to figure things out without one of your go-to receivers. It’s an annual tradition. Goedert is out for the Chiefs today with a knee injury he suffered in the Cowboys game (when he caught seven passes), and no word on when he\u2019s expected back. Goedert missed five games in 2020, two in 2021, five in 2022, three in 2014 and seven last year. So today is his 23rd\u00a0missed game since the start of 2020. It\u2019s the Eagles\u2019 85th\u00a0game since the start of 2020, so that means he\u2019ll have missed 27 percent of the Eagles\u2019 games over the last six seasons. Grant Calcaterra will start in his place and he’s OK. Good receiver, poor blocker. You accept Goedert\u2019s injuries to some degree because he\u2019s always available in the postseason and he\u2019s one of the best playoff tight ends in NFL history \u2013 his 52 catches are 8th-most all-time and his 562 yards are 11th. But as talented as Goedert is, the Eagles have to figure something out. They don\u2019t draft many tight ends, but most of the ones they draft are very good, namely Brent Celek, Zach Ertz and Goedert. The Eagles don’t have a tight end on the 2026 roster, so it\u2019s clearly something they\u2019re going to address this offseason. I would guess very early in the draft. But for now, you just have to hope Calcaterra can fill in and Goedert can find his way back on the field as soon as possible. At least they’re used to this.<\/p>\n
8B. Ertz\u2019s nine catches in the Commanders\u2019 first two games give him 784 in his 13-year career, and he\u2019s now just 31 catches shy of Shannon Sharpe for 5th-most receptions ever by a tight end. The top four are Tony Gonzalez (1,325), Jason Witten (1,228) and Travis Kelce (1,006).\u00a0<\/p>\n
9. Remember Darian Kinnard? He was an offensive lineman who spent last year with the Eagles, didn\u2019t play other than the meaningless year-end game against the Giants and had never played an NFL snap at tackle. During the Howie Roseman Aug. 24 trade frenzy \u2013 he made three trades that day \u2013 the Eagles traded Kinnard to the Packers for a 6th-round pick in 2027. Because of injuries, Kinnard had to play some right tackle for Green Bay on Sunday in that win over the Commanders, and on his first two drives ever as an NFL offensive tackle, the Packers drove 96 yards for a touchdown and 92 yards for a touchdown. Kinnard\u2019s main claim to fame before Thursday night was that he was one of only two players to win a Super Bowl ring in three straight seasons \u2013 with the Chiefs in 2022 and 2023 and the Eagles in 2024, although he didn\u2019t actually play in any of those games. Now he\u2019s got a claim to fame that includes playing football. The products of Jeff Stoutland\u2019s magic are all over the NFL, and it looks like Kinnard \u2013 a 5th-round pick back in 2022 \u2013 might be the latest one.<\/p>\n
10. A Jalen Hurts now has 141 combined touchdowns in 67 career starts \u2013 84 passing, 57 rushing. Only six quarterbacks in NFL history have generated more touchdowns in their first 67 starts, and one of them will be on the opposing sideline Sunday. Patrick Mahomes had 170 (162, 8), Dan Marino 164 (161, 3), Aaron Rodgers 157 (141, 160, Josh Allen (122, 33), Joe Burrow 147 (136, 11) and Daunte Culpepper 144 (117, 27).\u00a0<\/p>\n
10B. Hurts\u2019 57 rushing touchdowns are 21 more than any other QB has had in his first 67 starts. Cam Newton had 36, Allen has 33 and Jack Kemp had 32 with the AFL Chargers and Bills in the early 1960s. Kemp went on to become George W. Bush\u2019s secretary of housing and urban development and was Bob Dole\u2019s running mate on the Republican Party\u2019s 1996 presidential ticket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Eagles castoff who enjoyed an auspicious debut with another team, an NFL record the Eagles are closing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,4904,7,6,242,109,2476,14851],"class_list":{"0":"post-365505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-eagles-blog","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","14":"tag-philadelphiaeagles","15":"tag-roobs-observations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115198647726899960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}