Eagles News: The 4-0 Eagles rank 12th in DVOA

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles news and links …

Week 4 DVOA: How Are the 4-0 Eagles Only 12th? – FTN Fantasy
You’re probably very surprised to see the Philadelphia Eagles ranked only 12th at 4-0. A big reason for this is that blocked field goals and punts are not included in special teams DVOA. They are what we call “non-predictive plays,” in that they take skill and planning but aren’t necessarily predictive of future performance. When it comes to offense and defense alone, the Eagles simply have not been as good as they were last year. Philadelphia is currently 17th in offensive DVOA and 14th in defensive DVOA despite getting a bump upwards for playing one of the top schedules so far this year. The Eagles are the seventh-lowest 4-0 team in DVOA history (since 1978) and are one of only two teams in NFL history to win their first four games despite being outgained in yardage in all four games. The other team was the 2012 Arizona Cardinals, who won only one more game all season! I have a feeling the Eagles are better than that. As I said on the Schatz and Tanier podcast this week, the Eagles’ current play is unsustainable but they get a lot of benefit of the doubt that they’re going to get better because of how well this team has been built and the fact that they are the defending champions. And it’s not such a bad thing to have a low DVOA when you’re 4-0, because you’re 4-0. You’ll notice that five different teams on this list of the worst 4-0 teams made it to the Super Bowl. Here’s another table with the Eagles on it, showing every team in NFL history with a negative yardage differential despite a 4-0 start. Some of the teams do repeat.

The Eagles’ uninspiring undefeated start, by the numbers – BGN
The Eagles are 4-0, the best record in the NFC, and yet they are underachieving. The Eagles have been outgained in every game this season, and with the exception of the season opener, it hasn’t been by a little, being outgained by 78, 68, and 176 yards. Every game has been a one score game.

Eagles-Broncos preview: Five things to watch – PhillyVoice
5) What is the Eagles’ identity on offense? […] Maybe that’s the problem with the offense so far. The Eagles are adjusting too much to what opposing defenses are trying to do to them, and not realizing that they can do whatever they want to opposing defenses with the half dozen All-Pro caliber players they have on that side of the ball. They should be the tone-setters, not the other way around. I guess we’ll see if it all looks boring and predictable for long stretches of a game once again.

Simple Offense – Iggles Blitz
I won’t dispute that it would be nice to see the Eagles get more creative. There can be a healthy balance between what they do and opening up the playbook. Kevin Patullo has done a really good job in the red zone. He’s shown that he can be creative. The plays to Goedert were simple, but creative. Hopefully Patullo will open things up as the season goes along. We do have to remember that he’s only four games into his tenure.

NFL Week 5 latest buzz, questions, news and fantasy tips – ESPN
Despite a 4-0 start, the Eagles are forced to answer for a cryptic tweet from receiver A.J. Brown, which brings their 31st-ranked passing offense into focus. First, to get this out of the way: Brown’s contract comes with a dead cap hit of nearly $90 million. That’s tough to trade, even for an aggressive front office such as Philadelphia — though not impossible if designated as a post-June 1 trade. Some execs I spoke to this week don’t expect Philadelphia to trade Brown in-season but said that it could be something to entertain in the offseason. It’s sort of the worst-kept secret inside the league that Brown’s love-hate relationship with Philly’s passing game bubbles to the surface from time to time. He’s a true competitor and wants to be great. With that comes emotion and inevitable frustration. Philly could lean on an elite offensive line to carry the load in the run game. This unit isn’t as dominant with Landon Dickerson playing hurt and Tyler Steen replacing Mekhi Becton, who got more consistent push up front last season. The impression I’ve gotten from talking to multiple NFL coaches who know Philadelphia well is that teams are forcing Jalen Hurts to throw against zone-heavy defense. Attacking a zone window is not considered a strong point for Hurts, who struggles at times targeting the middle of the field. Dallas played nearly 90% zone coverage in Week 1, and Tampa Bay utilized zone 54.8% of the time on Sunday. Hurts struggled in both games. Add in the lack of a Hurts-Brown deep-ball connection through four games, and Brown’s emotions appear to be boiling over. So the core issue seems to be the reality and limitations of the passing attack as a whole. Maybe a few early-game connections this Sunday against Denver will assuage things. After all, Brown is a top-five receiver who ranked outside the top 40 in targets last season and still managed a 1,000-yard season. That will be infinitely more difficult this year.

Making sense of 4-0 start and Tush Push variations: 8 Eagles thoughts – The Athletic
One area the Eagles must improve? They must reduce personal fouls. The Eagles have an NFL-high four roughing-the-passer penalties. No other team has more than two. They have three personal fouls and a disqualification. These are avoidable penalties that cannot be condoned. Two are by Jalen Carter and two are by Nolan Smith. “I’m not sure we can focus on it any more than we already have,” Sirianni said. “We’re touching the fire (then) we’re getting burnt, so at some point that’s (got to) kick in. Ultimately, it’s my job. We’ll continue to emphasize it. We’ll continue to play with emotion. … It’s one of the special things we do as a football team, is play with emotion. … With that said, we don’t want to play outside of it.” There’s something to be said about playing with emotion, but giving 15 free yards (and leading to points, as Carter’s roughing the passer penalty did on Sunday) will come back to bite you. Like most things, you get what you tolerate. Pay attention to whether these penalties are reduced in the coming weeks.

Agent: Eagles long snapper Charley Hughlett to miss ‘months’ following core surgery – NBCSP
Eagles long snapper Charley Hughlett, placed on Injured Reserve on Tuesday with an undisclosed injury, will be out “a couple months,” his agent tweeted on Wednesday morning. Brett Tessler revealed on social media that Hughlett underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a core muscle injury suffered in the win over the Bucs in Tampa on Sunday. He said Hughlett “will be back playing within a couple of months.” The regular season is over in three months.

Eagles Get Interviewed By Kids Again – PE.com
The daughters of Saquon Barkley and Brandon Graham ask Eagles stars some hard-hitting questions.

Broncos at Eagles preview: Will Denver pull the road upset? – Mile High Report
There are times when a team can prove it’s for real. This is one of those moments for the Denver Broncos. On the road against the defending Super Bowl champions, who are also undefeated. You could make the case that the Philadelphia Eagles are the best team in the NFL, and it’s not really close. After a dominating win over the Cincinnati Bengals, the Broncos could set up the rest of their season with a win this Sunday in Philly. For that to happen, Denver will do so as +4.5-point underdogs to the Eagles. The total sits at an over/under of 43.5 points, with a slight lean towards the over at -115. A win this Sunday and the Broncos will raise more than a few eyebrows.

The Day After: Buccaneers vs Eagles Week 4 Reactions – Bucs Nation
NFL Referees: Still an issue. Look, I’m not usually the “blame the refs” guy but they have been a problem all year and it just seems to never go the Buccaneers way. In this game, there were multiple calls that should have been made but weren’t for one reason or another. These calls simply need to be made. The Eagles were being very handsy all day and I’m fine with not calling it every single time, but some of these are egregious. Did the refs lose the game for the Bucs? Absolutely not. The refs didn’t cause a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. They didn’t cause Baker Mayfield to throw an awful interception in the red zone, but they certainly didn’t help.

Ravens sign former first-round offensive linemen to practice squad – Baltimore Beatdown
The Baltimore Ravens signed former first-round guard Kenyon Green to their practice squad Tuesday morning after he worked out for the team last Friday. Green is a 24-year-old guard out of Texas A&M where he played multiple positions across his two years there, starting all of his college games. He was drafted in 2022 by the Houston Texans, where he started in 23 games in 2022 and 2024 while missing all of the 2023 season due to a shoulder injury. He was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, but he failed to make their 53-man roster. He was retained on the practice squad and was shuffled between the PS and the active roster over the first few weeks of the year.

Commanders Reacts Survey: Predicting October wins – Hogs Haven
84% of respondents in that preseason survey expected Washington to exceed the .500 mark. Based on comments, it seemed as if most of the people who predicted a single loss were expecting that loss to come on the road in Week 2 against the Packers. As we know, the Commanders fell well short against the Falcons this past Sunday and finished 2-2 for the month of September.

3 questions from Cowboys-Packers Week 4 tie – Blogging The Boys
Is a tie good or bad? Should they be allowed? Ties are only as good or bad as the circumstances dictate. If we get to the end of the year and there are a bunch of 9-8 teams vying for a wild card spot, and you’re 9-7-1, then you absolutely love that tie. If those other contenders are all 10-7, then you curse it. The same goes if we change directions and start looking at draft order instead of postseason goals. Either way, we can’t really judge the impact of this outcome until December and see what’s going on with the other teams we’re trying to get ahead of. The bigger debate since Sunday night has been whether ties should even be allowed. They don’t exist in the three other major American team sports. You get as many extra innings, overtimes, or periods as it takes for a winner to be decided. Even gentlemanly golf will keep playing extra holes until someone finally claims first place. But football is different in terms of physical toll. The benches aren’t that deep and the risk of major injury increases with fatigue and worn bodies. You saw how both Cowboys and Packers players were sucking wind even late into the fourth quarter, let alone overtime. Tired players become sloppier players, and sloppy play leads to things that can get you or the nearest guy hurt. If you genuinely care about player safety, you have to draw a line somewhere. Is 10 minutes too soon? Maybe, but the change was done in 2017 to reduce injuries, so that would be hard to walk back. A better solution might be, once that time has expired, to have the game decided by a field goal shootout. Kickers get asked to win games every week, so why not expand that?

‘Stray chatter’ about a New York Giants QB trade reported – Big Blue View
Now that he is no longer QB1 for the New York Giants, fans have been wondering if the Giants could get something in a trade for Russell Wilson. A report published on Tuesday indicates there might be a chance. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported that there has been “stray chatter” about the Giants trading Wilson to the Cincinnati Bengals, who are struggling without injured star quarterback Joe Burrow. Burrow is expected to be out until at least mid-December following toe surgery.

Colts’ former All-Pro LB Shaquille Leonard to retire as member of franchise during halftime of Raiders game – Stampede Blue
During the 2023 season, and at 28-years-old, Leonard was eventually relegated to a limited role and was eventually waived by the Colts in November of that same year. He later signed with the Philadelphia Eagles late in that campaign, which would ultimately be his final NFL season, appearing in 5 games and making 3 starts.

Browns to start rookie QB after Joe Flacco gets benched – SB Nation
For the second straight week, an NFL team is benching a former Super Bowl-winning quarterback in favor of a rookie. Last week, it was the New York Giants, who sat down Russell Wilson and turned to first-round pick Jaxson Dart out of Mississippi. The rookie delivered a win in his first NFL start, completing 13-of-20 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, along with a rushing score, as the Giants knocked off the previously undefeated Los Angeles Chargers. Now the Cleveland Browns are hoping for something similar from Dillion Gabriel.

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