Writer: Paul Bowman Feed

11/13/2018

Eagles Designate Rodgers For Return, Switch Tight End On Practice Squad

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Eagles had news on three different tight ends on Tuesday. The first was that Richard Rodgers has been designated to return, Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The Eagles signed Rodgers to a one-year deal this offseason, but Rodgers has contributed nothing. Originally thought to be the blocking tight end for the birds, Rodgers went on IR mere days following the 53-man roster cut down. He has yet to appear in a game. The Eagles have rolled with Josh Perkins as their third tight end.

Perkins looked ready to break out after a week two where he made four receptions for 57 yards on 33% of snaps, but caught just one pass for 10 yards in 38% of snaps the following week. Since that, he has appeared in only 8.5% of offensive snaps. The Eagles have three weeks for Rodgers to be activated. Any time he is ready, Perkins is an easy decision to waive to make room.

Perkins should be worried after the Eagles made a move on the practice squad today.

An undrafted free agent who signed with the Giants in 2015, Tye had 90 receptions for 859 yards and two touchdowns for the Giants across 29 games with the team in 2015 and 2016. After being one of the Giants final cuts in 2017, Tye was picked up by the Jets. Three games and four receptions for 38 yards later, Tye was released and ended up with the Patriots on their practice squad. Tye was placed on IR and then waived by the Patriots at the beginning of this season.

Tye has two seasons of decent play under his belt and his addition to the practice squad after the Eagles knew of the impending return of Rodgers seems to point to the fact that Perkins will be waived and will not even have the luxury of being added to the practice squad, though things may always change.

Posted by on 11/13/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/12/2018

Ronald Darby Out For Season With Torn ACL

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

For much of the season, fans were not happy with how the cornerbacks were playing. That play is likely to get worse as Ronald Darby suffered a torn ACL in the game against Dallas Sunday night.

Darby had registered 43 tackles, 12 passes defensed, a stuff and an interception on the season prior to the injury against Dallas. He could be seen on the field attempting to keep up with his man after suffering the tear, but went down once the play was complete.

For those counting, the IR will now be at nine players. 10 if you include Destiny Vaeao, who was waived after being placed on IR. The Eagles could fill a practice squad with the players they have placed on IR, and that doesn’t include Tim Jernigan or Chris Maragos.

The Eagles dealt with injuries last season, but they did not deal with as many as they have already this season and the injuries hadn’t all occurred at the same position as they have in the secondary, at tackle, wide receiver and running back this season.

With Jones and Mills still sidelined by injury and Avonte Maddox filling in as the second safety, the Eagles are down to just four cornerbacks. Two of those three cornerbacks have already been cut by NFL teams this season. Undrafted rookie Chandon Sullivan, third-year backup Rasul Douglas and the newly acquired Cre’Von LeBlanc make up the new cornerback group. With the trade deadline past, the only acquisitions left to be made are corners that have gone through 10 weeks of the season without being signed by any other NFL team.

Missing four of your five starting secondary players is not a good spot to be in, especially when you are heading into the Superdome next week to take on Drew Brees and the Saints.

Darby is set to be a free agent this offseason. The likelihood of him getting that big contract is now far lower than when he was the premiere healthy corner on the market. The Eagles were likely to net a third-round pick if he left without injury. The Eagles may be able to re-sign both Darby and Ajayi to fairly inexpensive “prove it” deals to keep them around, but if they sign those deals elsewhere, the Eagles lose out on what would otherwise have been higher draft picks. The Eagles will certainly be looking at the possibility of signing as many of their free agents as they can as Ajayi, Darby, Jordan Hicks and Brandon Graham are all key pieces set to leave this offseason.

For now, the Eagles need to find a way to assemble a complete secondary using a back-up and leftover parts that would otherwise not be on an NFL roster. Maybe they can find a diamond in the rough, but they need to do it fast to save this season.

Posted by on 11/12/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/09/2018

Rasul Douglas In Line To Start Sunday

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

With Jalen Mills sidelined due to a foot sprain suffered in the game against the Jaguars, cornerback Rasul Douglas has been taking first team reps at practice and figures to be the starting cornerback opposite Ronald Darby this Sunday night against the Cowboys.

Douglas, a third-round pick in the 2017 draft, played in 41% of defensive snaps in 2017. He was third on the team in passes defensed with 14, behind only Jalen Mills and Patrick Robinson (both 22). He also registered two interceptions.

Despite his playmaking ability, Douglas played primarily as a backup and saw most of his playing time while Ronald Darby was on injured reserve. The Eagles secondary was intact for the playoffs, so Douglas ended up not playing a single defensive snap in those games (although he did play on special teams).

This season, with the additions of Avonte Maddox and a healthy Sidney Jones, Douglas has played very little despite three players (McLeod, Jones, Graham) being injured. Halfway through the season, he has played on 18% of defensive plays for the Eagles, nearly all of them in relief for Mills in London and at safety against the Giants.

Even though Douglas has gotten so little playing time, he has already registered an interception and two defensed passes. The interception came in the season opener when he came into the game in relief for only two snaps and Matt Ryan decided to test him. It is one of only four interceptions the Eagles have this season.

It can be expected that Douglas will be tested against the Cowboys. The Jaguars tried it for much of the game after Mills went down, routinely testing Douglas and Dexter McDougle. Douglas will be able to benefit off of playing against some of the worst quarterbacks in the league. Of the 32 qualified quarterbacks, Blake Bortles ranks 22 and Dak Prescott ranks 24 in total quarterback ranking.

One of the knocks against Douglas is that he can get too flat footed and can make too much contact with receivers downfield. The Cowboys offensive scheme should help with that as they tend to play to Dak’s strength – short passes that Rasul should be able to break on.

Douglas has a chance to solidify his future with the team in this game. The Eagles will likely lose Ronald Darby to free agency and will need a starting outside corner. This game could be an ideal chance to prove he can be that guy.

Posted by on 11/09/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/08/2018

Sproles Suffers Setback

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Just one day after head coach Doug Pederson said that Darren Sproles was expected to play his first game in nine weeks, Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that the veteran re-aggravated his hamstring and will be sidelined again.

The news comes as a huge disappointment to the organization and fans. It is made worse that the Eagles waived their return man DeAndre Carter on Tuesday and he was claimed less than 24 hours ago by the Houston Texans, so they cannot keep Carter returning.

The Eagles will need an internal option to return punts and kicks. Nelson Agholor, Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood and the newly acquired Golden Tate all have experience returning. The below chart shows each players average yards per return.

Career Return Averages

Player Yards per Kick Yards per Punt
DeAndre Carter 20.4 10.3
Nelson Agholor 18.4 0
Corey Clement 23.5 N/A
Wendell Smallwood 25.8 N/A
Golden Tate 13.3 10.6

The Eagles seem to be interested in using Tate all they can, so it would not be surprising to see him return punts against the Cowboys. He last returned punts in week seven of this season for the Lions, although he did muff one of his two returns in that game.

Smallwood would seem to be the front runner for kick return duties and has a return for a touchdown on his record from his rookie season.

No official timetable has been given for Sproles to return to action.

Posted by on 11/08/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/07/2018

Sproles, Johnson Expected To Play Sunday

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

On Wednesday, Doug Pederson announced that both Lane Johnson and Darren Sproles were expected to play Sunday against the Cowboys.

Both players will give a huge boost to the offense if they are truly healthy. The return of Sproles was foreshadowed by the moves the Eagles made on Tuesday.

Carter had locked up a spot on the roster as the return man, so the Eagles would not have allowed him to walk if they didn’t think that Sproles was ready to go.

He was claimed on Wednesday, so should anything happen to Sproles, the Eagles will have to get creative to find a returner. Corey Clement and Wendell Smallwood have each returned a few times.

Meanwhile, McGill, who had been signed following Ajayi suffering a season-ending surgery but failed his physical, is likely on borrowed time and will likely be released once Tim Jernigan is ready to play.

Johnson was arguably the best tackle in football last season, but has been banged up all this season and has not been able to play to that level. If he is able to begin to play to that level again, there is no reason for anyone else to start.

Sproles, meanwhile, has missed seven of eight contests this season. His playmaking ability has been missed, especially in the return game. He will also be a welcome addition to the screen game along with newly added wideout Golden Tate.

In game one of this season, Sproles passed Steve Smith Sr. and Marshall Faulk on the all-purpose yardage leaderboard. He is currently sixth all time in the category and is only 457 yards behind Tim Brown for fifth. If he is able to stay healthy and make a couple big plays, he should have the chance to make up that ground in the final eight games (and any playoff games the Eagles may play).

Update: Sproles has suffered a setback at practice and is no longer expected to play against the Cowboys.

Posted by on 11/07/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/06/2018

Caleb Sturgis Release Is Bad News For Eagles

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

On Monday, Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that the Chargers were releasing former Eagles kicker Caleb Sturgis.

Sturgis was released after he missed two extra point attempts and his only field goal attempt on Sunday. He had missed four of his 13 field goal attempts as well as a shocking six of his 15 extra point attempts.

His release is bad news for the Eagles. Since he was not with his new team long enough, the Eagles will lose what was projected to be a seventh-round pick in the 2019 draft.

A brief idea of the process is that compensatory picks are given to teams that lose better players than they sign. A player is decided to be better based on their new salaries.

Due to some clever wording in the contract that Mike Wallace signed with the Eagles, the only player that is expected to count against the Eagles is Ngata. His signing originally cancelled out the Eagles loss of Sturgis and allowed the Eagles to receive a compensatory pick from LeGarrette Blount leaving. Now that Sturgis has been released and is no longer seen as a loss by the formula, the Ngata signing cancels out the Blount loss instead.

OverTheCap.com had projected that the Eagles would get the final compensatory pick for Blount. This would have ultimately been the final pick in the draft, allowing the birds to select 2019’s Mr. Irrelevant. Instead, it looks as though the Eagles will only have 10 picks in the 2019 draft. They now project to have:

A first-round pick

Two second-round picks

A fourth-round pick

A fourth-round compensatory pick (For Trey Burton)

A fifth-round pick

A sixth-round pick

Two sixth-round compensatory picks (For Beau Allen and Patrick Robinson)

A seventh round pick

In parts of three seasons with the Eagles, Sturgis made 56 of 66 field goal attempts and 66 of 70 extra point attempts. After suffering an injury at the beginning of last season, Sturgis was placed on injured reserve and the Eagles signed Jake Elliot. They haven’t looked back since.

Posted by on 11/06/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/05/2018

Eagles Claim Cre'Von LeBlanc, Waive McDougle

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Eagles made a change at cornerback on Monday, claiming Cre'von LeBlanc who was waived from the Lions after they had a player return from injury. To make room on the active roster, Dexter McDougle was waived.

McDougle played in two games for the Eagles this season registering five tackles. He was signed to play slot corner while Sidney Jones was out due to injury.

Cre'von LeBlanc had appeared in 28 games for the Chicago Bears over the last two seasons after signing as an undrafted free-agent. McDougle had appeared in 29 games over four years after being a third-round pick.

LeBlanc has registered 61 tackles (one for loss), a sack, two quarterback hits, 13 passes defended and two interceptions over his two and a half seasons in the NFL. Sidney Jones has sat out two weeks and had a bye week to heal up, but if he is still unable to go, LeBlanc will be a better option at slot corner than McDougle, who was getting picked on a lot in the game against the Jaguars.

Posted by on 11/05/2018 | | Comments (0)

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Eagles-Saints Game Moved To Late Slate

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Following a huge match-up of NFC heavyweights on Sunday afternoon, the NFL and FOX decided to make a change.

The game ended up being a higher scoring game than Super Bowl LII. Last season’s championship game ended in a 41-33 game. The Saints ended up winning 45-35 this week. With high scoring comes high interest. Enough people tuned in that the network received its highest ratings since 2015. In an effort to keep that trend going, FOX decided that the tilt between New Orleans and the reigning Super Bowl champs (now with Golden Tate and a possible Darren Sproles return), could create a similarly appetizing match-up.

The Eagles will now play the last non-primetime game of the week. In their final eight games, the Eagles have three primetime matchups as well as two 4:25 starts, meaning they will get a much more national viewership for most of the second half.

Posted by on 11/05/2018 | | Comments (0)

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Tim Jernigan Cleared To Practice With Team

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Last week, I speculated that the re-signing of Bruce Hector to and release of Winston Craig from the practice squad meant the Eagles expect a new tackle soon and that it might come in the form of Tim Jernigan.

On Monday, that suspicion was announced to be true as the birds released a statement saying that he was eligible to return to the team.

Now that Jernigan is participating in team activities, the Eagles will need to activate him within three weeks. If Jernigan returns, it is likely that a depth player (like the recently promoted Chandon Sullivan) is waived and added to the practice squad. De'Vante Bausby was signed to the unit as the final player today and would likely be the first to go.

Jernigan has been sorely missed on the defensive line as his replacement was supposed to be Haloti Ngata, who missed three games himself. Jernigan will be a huge addition to the offensive line. Last season, he racked up 29 tackles (nine for loss), two and a half sacks and eight quarterback hits. He also registered two tackles and two quarterback hits in the playoffs.

His return is huge for a defensive tackle unit sporting only three players and featuring a dominant Fletcher Cox. Jernigan will be able to pull even more pressure off of Cox and allow him to be even more dominant in his quest to earn the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Posted by on 11/05/2018 | | Comments (0)

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11/04/2018

Bruce Irvin May Be Good Fit For Eagles

By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

On Saturday, Jon Gruden made yet another interesting move in the first year of his historic 10-year deal. The Oakland Raiders, who are utterly lacking in pass rush, decided to part ways with defensive end Bruce Irvin.

”What does this have to do with the Eagles?”, you may ask. Despite the trade deadline passing, the Raiders cutting Irvin could lead to the Eagles adding some additional depth.

While the Eagles began the season with five defensive ends on the roster, with Derek Barnett out for the season, they have begun to play Michael Bennett a lot more. He played near 80% of snaps in the three games that Barnett has been out. The Eagles prefer to rotate their linemen fairly regularly and do not appear eager to throw rookie Josh Sweat in for a whole lot of snaps. So much so that he has played only 19 snaps in Barnett’s absence. Bruce Irvin may be a solution. The Eagles also waived defensive tackle Bruce Hector to make room for Golden Tate, leaving the team with only three defensive tackles. This may mean Brandon Graham or Michael Bennett will need to rotate inside, especially if Ngata misses any more time due to injury.

While Irvin hasn’t been as effective this season as he has been in the past, he could provide great depth for the Eagles and allow the other guys on the line some additional rest.

Player Games Tackles Sacks Forced Fumbles
Derek Barnett 6 11 2.5 0
Bruce Irvin 8 6 3 1

Irvin has not been as effective against the run as Barnett has, but he may produce more when placed in the Eagles elite defensive line. His stats are obviously not particularly great, but after the Khalil Mack trade, Irvin became “the guy” for the Oakland defensive line. If Irvin is in the game, he will get an obvious double team as the best player on the line. If placed in a line with guys like Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham, he will get one on one match-ups and should be able to produce as he has in the past. He could certainly play well enough to be an effective replacement for Barnett.

He is a seventh-year player that is only two seasons removed from leading the league in forced fumbles. The Eagles have a turnover differential of -5, so they could certainly use someone who could create more fumbles.

Every NFL team has 24 hours to submit a claim for Irvin and the team with the worst record that put in a claim would get him. Based on the current records, the Eagles would be 17th in the waiver wire order. If they were to claim him, they would be on the hook for the remaining $4 million he is owed this season, which is doable with the Eagles having $7 million of cap space available after the trade deadline. He would then be eligible to be a free agent at season’s end because he has spent more than four years in the league. The Eagles slow start to the season has put their waiver claim higher than nearly any other contending team, so the Eagles stumbling early may enable them to better their roster even further.

If Irvin is not claimed and clears waivers, he becomes a free agent and the Eagles may be able to get him to sign for the rest of the year on a less expensive deal. The Eagles would be wise to try and pick him up before that to ensure another playoff team doesn’t better themselves while the birds were waiting around for a deal. There is also no reason to believe Irvin would choose the Eagles, either.

The Eagles have the cap space set aside to make additions and win this season. The likelihood of a player as talented as Irvin becoming available over the rest of this season is close to zero and the players the Eagles are likely to sign due to any possible injuries will be paid the minimum amount or close to it, so using a chunk of cap space on Irvin should be a no-brainer.

Update: With the impending return of Tim Jernigan, defensive line depth should not be nearly as big of a concern for the Eagles. The Eagles may look at him as a free agent, but they will most likely not look to pick up his existing deal.

Update: Irvin is signing with the Atlanta Falcons.

Posted by on 11/04/2018 | | Comments (0)

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