Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles news and links …
NFL Week 15 picks, predictions, schedule, odds, fantasy tips – ESPN What we’re hearing on the Eagles: RB Saquon Barkley captured some of that 2024 magic
with a 52-yard touchdown run against the Chargers. He finished with 122 rushing yards, just the second time this season he has gone over 100 yards. The coaching staff went deeper into the playbook, making for a less predictable approach. The performance left some players optimistic that there are better things for Barkley and the offense ahead.
Eight Eagles thoughts: Saquon Barkley — not a bunny — offers reason for positivity – The Athletic
Lost in the Jalen Hurts hysteria this week was that Barkley and the Eagles’ rushing game looked closer to the 2024 version than they had been. The players were enthused by adjustments in the run game and game plan ahead of the Los Angeles Chargers game, and Barkley responded with a 122-yard performance. That was his second time with 100-plus yards this season after reaching the mark 14 times in the regular season and playoffs last year. “It’s something we can definitely build on, Barkley said. “We got to be more consistent. Get positive yards, take away negative runs. … I want to put us in prime position to get more runs called. It’s easier to run the ball in second-and-6, second-and-5, rather than second-and-11 and second-and-10. We definitely made strides.”
The major difference between the 2025 Barkley and last season has been the lack of explosive runs. The Eagles generated one with a modification off the tush push that resulted in a 52-yard touchdown. Take out that gain, and Barkley averaged only 3.7 yards per carry. Of course, you cannot take out that run, just as you can’t eliminate the 17 rushes of 20-plus yards Barkley had in 2024. It’s part of what makes him one of the NFL’s best running backs.
Eagles locker room notes: Unpacking Jalen Hurts’ mid-season regression, Nick Sirianni’s ‘incremental change’ to meetings – PHLY
There’s a way to spin this for them. The Eagles’ 365 yards from scrimmage were the second most they’ve had in a game all season with an explosive-play rate that ranked third as well. Saquon Barkley surpassed 100 rushing yards for just the second time this year and the team committed just three penalties. It is somewhat misleading to suggest the turnovers were the only thing holding the group back, though. Even filtering out the five turnovers from Monday night’s game, the offensive performance still ranked in the bottom half of this season’s games in success rate and EPA/drive. The real reason for optimism may be the progress coinciding with Sirianni increasing his influence on the offensive game planning process. A few Eagles players said Sirianni’s presence in offensive meetings after the Bears game has been subtle, but instructive to teaching an offense rooted in his philosophies. “As he’s been a little bit more involved, you’re reminded of how good a teacher he is,” Eagles wide receiver and return specialist Britain Covey said. “He’s coached multiple different positions and this offense really is his dating back 10 years or so. Nick’s definitely underrated in X’s and O’s. He’s very practical. He doesn’t spend time on fluff. He spends time on detailed actions that matter. He’s pretty efficient with his time and detail.”
Saquon Barkley has been dominant in December and January during his career. Can he heat up the Eagles offense? – Inquirer
Barkley could be a part of more of those games, even before he reaches the playoffs. The Eagles are done playing in domes for the rest of the regular season. While the snow in Sunday’s forecast is limited to the morning, according to AccuWeather, the high in the afternoon is 28 degrees with 16 mph winds making the Real Feel temperature 15 degrees. When the weather cools off, Barkley tends to thrive. In the months of December and January throughout his eight-year career, he has averaged 4.7 yards per carry in the regular season, which is a slightly better clip than each of the rates he managed in the preceding months. He also tends to earn more carries in December and January, averaging 17.9 carries per game, which is also a greater rate than September, October, and November.
Eagles Opponent Film Room: Scouting the Las Vegas Raiders’ offense – BGN
With the Eagles on a three-game slide, this matchup is the perfect chance to get some momentum going. The Raiders aren’t in the same league talent-wise. A win doesn’t erase the questions facing this team, but failing to take care of business against this Raiders offense would be pretty shocking. This is a tough preview to write because offensive coordinator Chip Kelly has recently been fired, and Kenny Pickett is likely to replace Geno Smith, but I don’t expect much to change.
The NFL’s new class of QBs is already knocking out its old stars – SB Nation
Conspicuously absent from either list, past, present, or future, is the reigning Super Bowl MVP that I think explains our situation perfectly: Jalen Hurts. He has become the single most polarizing player in the NFL this year; the Eagles won the dang Super Bowl last year and are going to make the playoffs easily this year, but the vibes could not be worse. Hurts has been awful, refusing to throw over the middle and having some Tua Tagovailoa-esque body language where if he scrambles out of the pocket the play is over. His receivers look dejected, the fans are losing it, and nobody can credibly say he is a top-tier quarterback anymore. But he won the Super Bowl!! None of the guys I am mentioning as “next” can say that, nor can Allen or Burrow or Jackson. It just looks so bad right now that we are all forgetting the success that he use to have. It reminds me of Ben Simmons in the NBA — he has been such a disaster since 2021 that people forget early career Ben Simmons was like… LeBron James. Hurts was a special player for a little bit there, but now I don’t know what I’m looking at.
Upside Down – Iggles Blitz
The Eagles are going to have some tough decisions to make. Some have talked about benching Jalen Hurts or what to do with Nick Sirianni. Those are silly ideas. Hurts is a star QB with a Lombardi and Sirianni has one of the highest winning percentages in NFL history. Those guys aren’t going anywhere. The Eagles will need to figure out how to fix the OL. Is getting Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens healthy good enough? Do you have to draft an OL in the first round to play RG or be the RT of the future? The offensive coaching staff certainly could be looking at a shakeup. That’s a long, complicated discussion. Do you keep AJ Brown around? His numbers are much better recently. Do you want him for another full season? Something has to be done at TE. Dallas Goedert is a free agent. The guys behind him haven’t done anything this year. Even if you bring DG back, an overhaul is needed. Is Jake Elliott the guy from the first 10 weeks or the last three? Trying to figure out what is real and what isn’t will make for a challenging offseason, for the Eagles and plenty of other NFL teams.
In Roob’s Observations: Unlikely contributions from Toth, Epps and Jackson – NBCSP
It’s interesting that through six games this year, the Eagles’ offense was in just about the same place as last year’s. Six games into 2024, the Eagles’ offense had 16 touchdowns, this year through six games they had 16 touchdowns. Last year, they were at 34.6 percent on third down, this year it was 34.7. Last year, they were 52 percent in the red zone, this year they were 87 percent. Last year, they were averaging 22.3 points through six games, this year it was 21.3. Last year, they had eight turnovers, this year just three. They were better running the ball last year but better throwing it this year. Both seasons they had a rookie play caller. Then their paths diverge. That offense under Kellen Moore took off, culminating in a Super Bowl championship. This year, it’s just fallen to pieces. That offense just kept getting better and better. This one kept getting worse and worse. That’s really important to remember. Things didn’t come easy at first for the offense last year. Moore didn’t figure things out immediately. Remember 15 points against the Saints, 16 in Tampa, 21 vs. the Falcons, 20 vs. the Browns? That was not an elite offense last year until that midseason stretch against the Giants, Bengals, Jaguars and Cowboys and then they were off to the races. They figured things out. They grew. Moore developed a deeper understanding of the Eagles’ personnel, and his play calling improved by leaps and bounds throughout the season. By the end of the year, they were unstoppable. They averaged over 36 points in the postseason, 6th-highest ever. This year? The last five games, the Eagles are averaging only 16.2 points per game, their lowest five-game total since 2012. They haven’t figured anything out and it keeps costing them wins. Four games left and they’re running out of time.
Eagles are convinced it’s not 2023 all over again – PFT
And while Lurie can brush it off as a once-in-many-blue-moons curiosity, it happened. The fact that it happened reasonably should spark at least some concern that something is off this year. Is it 2023? Maybe not. But if feels a lot more like the season that ended with a thud than 2024, which ended with a ring. Although a win over the woeful Raiders won’t guarantee a February trip to Santa Clara, a loss to arguably the worst team in the NFL — led on Sunday by Eagles 2024 backup quarterback Kenny Pickett — would also prompt Lurie to scan and re-scan his memory bank for a similar outcome during his many seasons of running the team.
Grading all 32 first-round picks from 2025 NFL Draft: Which high-profile rookies have thrived? Flopped? – NFL.com
GRADE: B. The Alabama product has seen his playing time decrease with the healthy return of veteran linebacker Nakobe Dean, but the first-rounder made a great impression during the first half of the season. Campbell’s physicality, toughness and diagnostic skills will make it hard to keep him off the field in 2026.
Byron Young’s best season comes after his father’s sudden passing – PE.com
With Jalen Carter sidelined against the Chargers, the Eagles knew someone else along the defensive line would need to step up. The entire Philadelphia defense balled out, sacking Justin Herbert a career-high seven times, but the player who saw the biggest increase in production was Byron Young. The third-year defensive tackle played 32 defensive snaps, finishing with 1.5 sacks, a fumble recovery, and eight total tackles. “B.Y. had a coming out party,” Jordan Davis said on Wednesday. “A coming. Out. Party.” The big game came in a 22-19 overtime loss on Monday Night Football, but it marked a significant milestone in Young’s NFL career. After getting drafted in the third round out of Alabama by the Raiders in 2022, Young only played six games for Las Vegas before being waived ahead of the 2024 season. He then joined the Eagles and spent the majority of the 2024 season on Injured Reserve, made the 53-man roster this season, and earned a spot in the defensive tackle rotation. On Monday, a week before facing the team that drafted him, Young registered his first career sack. “It was good, man. Obviously, I wish it would have came in a win, but it was good to have it,” he said. “It was a good experience.
Is Jalen Hurts or Kevin Patullo more to blame for Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive struggles? – Silver And Black Pride
The Week 15 matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Philadelphia Eagles features a couple of teams who are searching for answers, but in different ways. The Raiders have several problems that won’t be solved until the offseason, while the Eagles are trying to end their offensive woes before a potential playoff run. To preview the game for Raider Nation, Silver and Black Pride reached out to our friends and Bleeding Green Nation, and Brandon Lee Gowton was kind enough to answer a few questions about the Birds.
Cowboys Point/Counterpoint: Dallas has plenty of mistakes to overcome – Blogging The Boys
Tom: Let’s start with the low hanging fruit. Too often the defense has just lain down and given up big plays. For a few games it looked better, but against the Lions, they surrendered six plays of 20+ yards. One was a 35-yard run, but the rest were Jared Goff tearing it up through the air. The real culprit seemed to be the lack of a pass rush with just one sack of Goff. It’s hard to see how this can be fixed. They may be able to beat several of the teams down the stretch. But one game should be against Justin Herbert who just delivered an incredible performance against the Eagles despite his injured hand. And the Eagles had tons of pressure, only losing because they just kept giving the ball away.
The majority of Commanders fans we asked expect Washington to pick before the Giants in the 2026 NFL Draft – Hogs Haven
Our survey results show a rough 60/40 split between those who think Washington will pick ahead of New York in the draft (59%) and those who think the Giants will have the earlier pick (41%). Personally, I’ll be rooting for the Commanders to finally find themselves, and to go on a 4-week tear through the NFC East to finish with 7 wins and a middle-of-the round draft pick. That will start, I hope, with a curb-stomping of the Giants this Sunday, before back-to-back home beatdowns of the Eagles and Cowboys, and end with the humiliation of the Eagles at Philly in Week 18.
New York Giants mailbag: Joe Schoen, Brandon Brown, next coach, more – Big Blue View
Lawrence, if you have listened to Dart speak he is already well aware of Mahomes’ play style. He has already spent considerable time studying Mahomes and other top quarterbacks. I worry about Dart’s future, but I quite honestly think that the narrative around him has jumped the shark and is really becoming a lot of noise. Yes, everybody would like to see him choose to protect himself a little more often. But, do you want all the constant headlines and chipring about his play style to change who he is, to make him hesitant, to take away the competitiveness and play-making ability that can make him special? He is a 22-year-old kid. He will learn. As his career moves along, he will run less often. He will gain more understanding of what plays he can and cannot make. Hopefully, the Giants will also continue to build around him so he doesn’t feel he needs to do so much by himself.
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