The Linc

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

NFL Rumors: Haason Reddick Would Welcome Trade to Eagles amid Jets Contract Holdout – B/R
One possibility is that the Eagles could swap Bryce Huff to the Jets in exchange for Reddick, Cimini said on this week’s episode of his podcast Flight Deck with Rich Cimini. “Let’s put it this way: a little birdie told me that Reddick, I don’t think, would be opposed to something like that,” Cimini said (12:20 mark of the podcast.) “I think Reddick is so frustrated with the Jets’ situation— and of course, he did request a trade in August— so frustrated that he wouldn’t mind going back to Philadelphia.” Cimini concluded: “A lot of things would have to fall into place, which makes it kind of far-fetched, but it’s an interesting situation to look at nonetheless.” Reddick has already forfeited more than $8 million in unearned salaries, lost bonuses and fines this season while continuing his holdout since his April trade from the Eagles to the Jets, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Eagles at Buccaneers Game Preview: 5 questions and answers with the enemy – BGN
2 – What’s the confidence level in Baker Mayfield right now? I think the confidence level has dipped a bit following last week’s performance, but not drastically. Mayfield has been exactly what the Bucs were looking for following the Tom Brady era and there’s no reason not to think he’s going to be fine. However, last week’s game was frustrating. He got happy feet in the pocket time and time again and failed to let things develop. The offensive line struggling has something to do with that, but Mayfield has to learn to trust his guys up front a bit more and not have his first instinct be to scramble.

Buccaneers vs. Eagles: Predictions and staff picks for Week 4 – Bucs Nation
Will Walsh: Easy win in Tampa. The Buccaneers fell victim to an obvious trap game a week ago— Rookie quarterback, lesser opponent, and the slight forgetfulness of Sean Payton’s track record against Tampa Bay. That sobering loss will have the Buccaneers focused and ready to play. Despite a 2-1 start (which was very nearly 3-0), Jalen Hurts is having an atrocious season— Three touchdowns, to go with four interceptions, and this week he’ll likely be without his full compliment of weapons. Todd Bowles is 3-1 against Hurts and has mostly dominated the Eagles’ offense in those four matchups. Bowles is too good of a defensive coach to allow a one dimensional attack to beat his unit.

3 NFL upset picks for Week 4 – SB Nation
Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Philadelphia Eagles — JP Acosta. Recently, Todd Bowles has become the Eagles, and Jalen Hurts specifically, boogeyman. His package of exotic blitzes and pressures consistently confuse the signal caller, and he ends up turning the Eagles into a punching bag. The Eagles are still favored by 2 in this one, but I think Tampa ends up winning this thing. Philly could potentially be without star receivers AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, making Hurts’ life a lot more difficult as a passer. On the flip side, don’t expect as much 12 and 21 personnel from the Bucs like the Saints trotted out. The Bucs aren’t that great at running the ball, and this should be a game where Bucs QB Baker Mayfield ends up throwing to win. However, another big matchup awaits for Philly in the form of wideouts Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. I like Tampa here.

NFL Week 4 Preview: Schedule, storylines and matchups to watch – PFF
Matchups to watch: Eagles WR Jahan Dotson vs Buccaneers CB Zyon McCollum. After making a trade to bring in Dotson just before the season, his lack of usage to this point in the campaign has been shocking, to say the least. The former first-round pick has seen just four targets on 99 routes for just a 4% Threat rate. Given the injuries stacking up in the receiver room, this offense is running out of bodies to run meaningful routes. Without much else in the way of established threats, Dotson will surely cross paths with Bucs corner Zyon McCollum, who is in the midst of a breakout start to 2024. The third-year corner has generated a 90.1 PFF coverage grade through three games, the highest mark at the corner position thus far.

Eagles at Buccaneers: Five matchups to watch – PhillyVoice
Wirfs is a two-time All-Pro with trips to the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons. He is among the NFL’s elite offensive tackles. Goedeke is a solid enough starting RT. The interior of this Bucs O-line is shaky: LG Ben Bredeson: Bredeson was a part of the Giants’ historically awful offensive line last season. He played at LG, C, and RG for them last season, and wasn’t good at any spot. C Graham Barton: Barton was the Bucs’ 2024 first-round pick (26th overall). He’s an intriguing player, but, you know, a rookie. RG Cody Mauch: PFF had Mauch down for 7 sacks allowed in 2023, and 2 already in 2024. The interior of the Eagles’ defensive line was disruptive all day against the Saints Week 3. Jalen Carter was a menace:

NFL Week 4 picks, schedule, odds, injuries, fantasy tips – ESPN
Bold prediction: Eagles running back Saquon Barkley has his third 100-plus-yard rushing game in four tries. The Bucs rank 28th in EPA per play, and with Brown, Smith and Lane Johnson (concussion) all possibly missing the game, Philadelphia is going to have to find another way to move the ball.

Week 4 NFL picks: Can 3-0 Vikings beat Packers at Lambeau Field? Will red-hot Bills win in Baltimore? – NFL.com
Why Tom picked the Eagles: As temperamental and finicky as the 2024 Eagles have seemed at times, they showed the ability to dominate two meat-and-potatoes aspects of the sport in their win over the Saints: rushing the passer from the interior and running the football. Even if DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown and Lane Johnson all miss this one, Jalen Hurts will have Dallas Goedert to throw to. More importantly, he’ll be able to hand off to Saquon Barkley, who should have a decent shot to hit his per-game rushing average of 117 yards against the NFL’s 25th-ranked run defense (although getting Vita Vea back would help Tampa slow him down a little). I will never totally discount Baker Mayfield, but after watching Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis get in Derek Carr’s face last week, it’s too easy to picture them pressuring the Bucs passer into drive-killing mistakes, even if Luke Goedeke returns.

The secret to Reed Blankenship getting so many interceptions – NBCSP
The Eagles’ defense has just 11 interceptions over the last couple years, among the fewest in the NFL. Just think where they’d be without Reed Blankenship. Blankenship, the third-year undrafted safety, has both the Eagles’ INTs this year, their last three in the past five games and half their interceptions going back to Week 2 last year. Five of 10. The Eagles have the 7th-fewest interceptions in the NFL over the last two years, but Blankenship has the 9th-most in the NFL during that span. He’s a ballhawk on a team that desperately needs a ballhawk. Blankenship’s interception off Jordan Love deep in Packers territory set up the Eagles’ winning touchdown in São Paulo, and his pick off Derek Carr Sunday sealed the Eagles’ win over the Saints Sunday. They were identical diving INTs – high degree-of-difficulty plays that were pivotal in the Eagles winning. At his locker on Wednesday, Blankenship took us through the mental and physical challenges of intercepting a pass.

Around the Locker Room: ‘No matter how we do it, let’s get a win’ – PE.com
“Every time you get out there, you’re a better player. That’s the way this game works,” Campbell said. “It felt great to be out there last week – getting into a huddle, hearing the call, kind of getting into a flow. I felt a lot better about myself after playing and I’ve kept that feeling all week. Getting cut, it hurt. I’m not gonna lie. But I am a man of faith and if you told me I would be in this situation after the way I felt that day, I would take it. I’ve been given an opportunity and I feel I’m taking advantage of it.” With starting wide receivers A.J. Brown (hamstring) and DeVonta Smith (concussion) having missed both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s practices, Campbell’s status is not clear. “They’ve both been so supportive and that means everything,” he said. “We have that kind of team. That’s the culture here. Everybody wants success for each guy in here. It is a great place to be.”

Game Review – PHI 15, NO 12 – Iggles Blitz
This wasn’t Sirianni’s best job of game management. It felt like he brought the baggage of the Falcons loss with him when it came to making decisions. Sirianni wasn’t aggressive enough vs Atlanta, but was too aggressive vs the Saints. He went for it on fourth down late in the first half. Even if the Eagles convert, there were just a few seconds left. The chances of scoring a TD were not good. The score was 3-0 in the favor of the Saints. Don’t overthink that. Just take the points. The Eagles finished the game 1 for 3 on fourth downs. Kellen Moore did a fantastic job with the Eagles offense. He didn’t have all his weapons or a healthy OL, but still got the team to put up 460 yards. They would have scored more than 15 points if Sirianni managed the game better. Moore’s play-call late in the game on the crossing route to Dallas Goedert was great. He took advantage of the Saints tendency to play man coverage. That got DG open and helped deliver a win.

Washington Commanders vs Arizona Cardinals Thursday Injury Report – Hogs Haven
Dan Quinn ruled out RB Austin Ekeler (concussion) and DE Clelin Ferrell (knee) before yesterday’s practice started. The team traveled to Arizona after the Bengals game, and neither player made the trip. Ferrell didn’t travel to Cincinnati, and Ekeler suffered a concussion in the third quarter of the Bengals game, and went back to Virginia after being evaluated. Quan Martin and Benjamin St-Juste were the only two players who were limited yesterday. Martin was a full participant today, while St-Juste remained limited with a chest injury. Both players were on the injury report last week with different injuries, and both played vs the Bengals on Monday night. Sam Cosmi, who did not practice on Wednesday, was limited today.

10 thoughts on the Cowboys so-so 20-15 victory over the Giants on Thursday night – Blogging The Boys
5. Corners dropping like flies. The team has been without All-Pro corner DaRon Bland all season and this week rookie corner Caelen Carson was inactive with a shoulder injury he suffered in practice this past week. If that wasn’t bad enough, they lost Trevon Diggs for part of the game when he started cramping up. The team cycled through their depth, first with Andrew Booth, which the team had a short leash on and was pulled early. He was replaced by Amani Oruwariye. And then when Diggs came out, they had to resort to Israel Mukuamu seeing some action. It looked bleak there for a while, but props to the depth guys for stepping up. Oruwariye, who was a practice squad call up, made the game-cinching interception.

‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Winners and losers from Giants-Cowboys – Big Blue View
Wet Willies to … Giants’ running game — Dallas entered the game last in the league, giving up 5.4 yards per rushing attempt. They won’t be last once the dust settles from Week 4 in the NFL The Giants gained only 26 yards on 24 rushing attempts, a meager 1.1 yards per rushing attempt. “I thought a big difference was we controlled the game in the passing game, but we didn’t do enough in the running game,” Daboll said. “Give them credit. We knew they were going get some of it fixed, but we have to do a better job than that.” Guard Jon Runyan was not pleased with the offensive line’s work in the run game. “Definitely got to be better in the run game. I felt like we just weren’t really at times blocking the right people in some plays, and it kind of came back and bit us in the butt at the end,” Runyan said. “We weren’t able to really move the ball efficiently in the run game, and that’s the kind of thing they wanted to do going into this game really well.

Giants miss Saquon Barkley, badly – PFT
The Giants miss running back Saquon Barkley. We all saw it coming, thanks to the team’s ill-advised decision to welcome Hard Knocks cameras and microphones into the building during the offseason. As they discussed their plans for Barkley, it became clear that they viewed him as easily replaceable. As it turned out, it’s not that easy. Last night against the Cowboys (who gave up 275 rushing yards four days earlier), the Giants gained 26 yards on the ground, with Devin Singletary accounting for 24 on 14 carries. Barkley, in contrast, leads the league in rushing through three games, with 351 yards.

Broncos ILB Alex Singleton suffered season-ending ACL injury – Mile High Report
The Denver Broncos are celebrating their first win of the season over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however, the victory has come at a significant cost to one of the NFL’s top defenses. According to Mike Klis of 9News, inside linebacker Alex Singleton suffered an ACL injury in the first quarter, but played the entire game notching 10 tackles. He learned this week that the injury to the knee was significant and he is headed for to season-ending injured reserve.