What is the story about?
The
official snap counts from the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars are in. Let’s take a look and run through some analysis.
OFFENSE
- Jordan Mailata is the only player on offense who’s played 100% of the Eagles’ offensive snaps this season.
- Lining up at center, Jake Majors logged his first career start in his first regular season game played.
- Lining up at left guard, Willie Lampkin made his first career start.
- Darius Cooper, WR1! In terms of snaps played, at least. But he also led the Eagles in receiving with 71 yards. And this despite only seeing three targets. Safe to say the Eagles should be more intentional about getting him involved. He’s a good player.
- Dontayvion Wicks ranked second among pass-catchers in snaps played, targets, and receiving yards.
- Makai Lemon set career highs in snaps played, targets, receptions, and receiving yards. Making some progress.
- Will Shipley started the game at running back but he left the game due to a foot injury. Dameon Pierce, previously RB4, filled in as RB1. Playing behind a less than stellar offensive line, his 11 carries resulted in just 14 yards. And his five (?!) targets resulted in two catches for negative two yards. That’s 13 total touches for 12 yards. Not great.
- Tyler Steen missed some snaps due to a shoulder injury but he was able to return to the game. Fred Johnson filled in at right guard during Steen’s absence.
- Dallas Goedert saw a smaller playing time workload than usual in his first game back from a knee injury. He did log a team-high eight targets, which produced six receptions for 38 yards.
- Johnny Mundt continues to be TE2. E.J. Jenkins was TE3 … ahead of Zach Ertz, who was TE4. Ertz saw two targets that resulted in zero catches. Ertz’s eight targets over the last three games had produced three receptions for 22 yards. Is he still getting adjusted to the game after coming off last year’s injury? Or might the 35-year-old be cooked at this point?
- Elijah Moore has yet to see a target this season and he doesn’t contribute on special teams. Wonder if he might be gone if/when DeVonta Smith and Hollywood Brown get healthy. Seems like they could probably get him back on the practice squad.
DEFENSE
- Another game where the defense had to be on the field a lot because the offense simply can’t sustain drives. This unit logged 7o snaps in Week 1, 72 in Week 3, 84 in Week 4, and 72 once again in Week 5. They’re going to get worn out at this rate. By contrast, the Eagles’ defense only had to play 53 snaps in Week 2.
- The NFL lead in opponent plays per game last year was 65.5. Vic Fangio’s defense is seeing 70.2 so far.
- Zack Baun played his normal workload in his first game back from a concussion.
- Quinyon Mitchell appeared to be banged up after his interception but he did not miss any playing time.
- Baun revealed that Jihaad Campbell and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. were set to rotate at linebacker in this game. But that plan was obviously scrapped after Trot Jr. got ejected on the opening kickoff that didn’t even actually count due to penalties. Curious to see what this rotation looks like moving forward. Is it a 50/50 split?
- With Jalyx Hunt leaving the game with ankle/knee injuries that didn’t look so good, Nolan Smith was easily the Eagles’ top edge rusher.
- Kenny Moore II saw a decent amount of action due to Michael Carter II suffering an abdomen injury that prevented him from returning to the game.
- Moro Ojomo saw his second-lowest snap count percentage of the season.
- Arnold Ebiketie became the Eagles’ second edge rusher after Hunt left the game. He logged a team-high four pressures, according to Pro Football Focus charting. He also missed two tackles.
- Jordan Davis tied his second-highest snap count percentage of the season. He logged his first quarterback hit of the season in this game. It’s his first QB hit since Week 14 last year.
- Hunt got hurt on the final play of the second quarter.
- A.J. Epenesa saw some more snaps than usual with Jonathan Greenard out and Hunt getting hurt.
- Jonathan Jones was the extra defensive back in the Eagles’ dime packages.
- Ty Robinson has a tiny role on defense each week.
SPECIAL TEAMS
- Carson Steele was limited to special teams duty in his Eagles regular season debut. Could’ve been nice to find him a touch or two after he had some success in the preseason. Especially since he showed more as a pass-catcher than Dameon Pierce, who inexplicably logged five targets.
- Rookie quarterback Cole Payton, who moved up to QB3 on the depth chart with the Eagles releasing Andy Dalton, made his NFL regular season debut by playing on special teams. He served as the punt protector.
- Britian Covey had a productive game with 136 total return yards on three kick returns and four punt returns. He was only 96 yards shy of tying the Eagles’ total yards on offense.
- The Eagles notably went with Fred Johnson instead of Micah Morris at guard when Steen got hurt. The coaching staff doesn’t appear to trust the rookie to play on offense just yet.
- As previously noted, Trot Jr. was ejected after the opening kickoff that didn’t even count due to penalties.
DID NOT PLAY
ACTIVE: Tanner McKee, John Ojukwu
INACTIVE: Hollywood Brown, DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley, Marcus Epps, Jonathan Greenard, Lane Johnson, Drew Kendall
- McKee was reportedly promoted to QB2 last week. There’s no doubt that he’s Jalen Hurts’ backup now that Andy Dalton is gone (for now, at least).
- Ojukwu was temporarily elevated from the practice squad to give the Eagles an eighth offensive lineman but they didn’t need him to play.
- Brown, Smith, Barkley, Epps, Greenard, and Kendall all missed the game due to injury. At least some of these guys might be able to play in Week 6.
- Johnson was not announced among the Eagles’ inactives by the team … but he’s included in this game log. In case you missed it, the recently retired Johnson is reportedly set to remain on the Eagles’ roster for the rest of the season. While understandable due to financial implications, it’s not really ideal that the Eagles will now be working with a 52-man roster (instead of the normal 53) the rest of the way in 2026.
