Time isn’t on the Eagles’ side against the Giants

The Giants return Malik Nabers, the Eagles are down Jordan Mailata and Dallas Goedert, and may also be without Darius Slay. Things are going great. We already should not have expected a shootout between these teams since a team with Daniel Jones will struggle to score points. Which the Giants coaching staff is knows.

Keep it simple, stupid
The Giants are 0-2 in divisional games this season, but they’ve kept it close, losing by a combined 8 points. One way they have accomplished that is by shortening the game. Not counting end of half one play kneel down drives, the Giants and Commanders each had just seven possessions, while the Giants and Cowboys each had eight. The Giants other four games have seen double digit possessions by both teams.

The Giants have the 12th highest pass ratio in the league. But not against the NFC East to start drives. On 15 possessions against the Commanders and Cowboys, on the first play the Giants have run on eight of them, four in each game. A further four, two in each game, were short passes to Malik Nabers. The Giants get to eating the clock right away.

The Eagles offense plays right into their hands. They have the 23rd lowest pass rate, and on first down have run the ball 61% of the time. The Giants want to eat up the clock and shorten the game, and the Commanders (18th highest pass rate) and Cowboys (3rd highest pass rate) helped them by going against their own type and ran on the first play 7 times on 15 plays. The Eagles already go into every game wanting to run the ball early.

The Giants defense has the best sack rate, they want you to call medium to deep passes and give them time to get at your QB. The Giants offense can’t win a shootout, it wants time consuming plays that reduce the amount of plays that can be run. The Eagles already have four games with single digit possessions on offense: against the Falcons, Saints, Bucs, and Browns. A fifth in store on Sunday.

The cap is fake, but cap hell is real
Did you see the Broncos vs the Saints on Thursday night? It’s okay if you didn’t, after all it was the Broncos vs the Saints B team on TNF. I didn’t make it past halftime. The Saints got rocked. Also, the Saints are up against it.

The Saints only have three players on their roster who would save the team more than $3M in cap room next year if cut. Their current 2025 salary cap position is worst in the NFL…about $75M more in cap commitments than the next worst team.

— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) October 18, 2024

The salary cap isn’t real, as teams can redo contracts whenever they want and deal with the consequences later. The Saints have been doing this for years. The Eagles however, can not.

The Eagles do not have a single player not on their rookie contract who makes more than $1.75M in salary. Not just this year or next, but at any point in time on their contract. That means that they have no ability to convert base salary to a signing bonus and free up significant cap space for that season. In any season.

This is still a way better place than the Saints, who are over the cap for next year by over $80M. The Eagles are nearly $34M under the cap for next year, 21st most. But there is no cap wizardry to be had in upgrading this roster. What you see is what you get.

College Football Week 8 Watch List
Miami vs Louisville

Miami TE Elijah Arroyo is having a bit of a breakout season. After catching just 11 passes in three seasons, in part because he’s only played 8 games in the past two years, he already has 14 catches, and averages 20.4 yards per catch, 18th best in the nation. He’s also hauled in 4 TDs.

Louisville EDGE Ashton Gillotte had 11 sacks last year but stayed for a fourth season to try to boost his draft stock. It hasn’t worked. He has just two in 6 games so far and hasn’t been considered among the top edge rushers. A strong game against Miami would do him a lot of good.

Alabama vs Tennessee

Alabama CB Domani Jackson looks like a total player. He has size at 6’1”. He plays zone well, he plays man well, he plays well against the run. He makes plays, intercepting Carson Beck on a screen and returning from an in—game injury against South Carolina to make the game winning interception.

Tennessee RG Javontez Spraggins looks like an Eagle: 6’3” 330 lbs. He’s a force in the run game, one of the reasons why the Vols have the 8th most rush attempts per game. He has room to improve as a pass protector but isn’t a liability either.

Georgia vs Texas

Normally I just keep these to players that might interest the Eagles. But in this game the QBs are too high profile to ignore. Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck entered the season as possibly QB1 and QB2, they have gone backwards since the start of the season. One of them is going to come out this game raising their stock, right? Right?