The Linc

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

Cowboys WR says Eagles player’s nickname is a lie – NJ.com
On Wednesday, the Cowboys debuted “America’s Stream: Countdown to Schedule Release,” featuring linebacker Micah Parsons, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and two other Dallas players participating in a livestream from a golf course. When the subject turned to the Week 1 matchup, Parsons and Lamb took aim at Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell and his nickname, “Quinyonamo Bay,” inspired by Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. Navy detention center in Cuba. “I’m sorry, that Quinyanimo Bay don’t last over here, man,” Parsons said. “That (bleep)’s dead.” As Parsons approached a tent, he explained Mitchell’s nickname to his teammates, including Lamb. Parsons mentioned people were saying Lamb was headed there. Lamb did not look amused. “Stop the cap,” Lamb said as his hat was blown off his head by the wind. For those who need an explanation, “cap” is slang for something that is a lie. “I have never been locked down on any island.”

Pros and cons of the Eagles’ 2025 schedule – BGN
The Eagles have a slight rest advantage over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 12. The Cowboys are playing an away game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night in Week 12 before hosting the Eagles on a short week.

NFC Hierarchy/Obituary: Post-draft and schedule release edition – PhillyVoice
1) Eagles (Super Bowl champions in 2024): One thing that we didn’t mention in our Eagles schedule advantages and disadvantages is that there are a lot of familiar teams on the Eagles’ schedule who could have extra motivation to take them down this season: They stomped all over the Cowboys last season, blowing them out twice by a combined score of 75-13. They embarrassed Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and the Chiefs in a way that nobody ever has, and in front of a global audience. They blew out the Rams during the regular season, and then held them off in a closer game in the playoffs. They beat the Packers in Brazil, hurt their quarterback, and then bullied them in the Wild Card Round to such a degree that Green Bay’s leadership is spending all offseason trying to ban one of their signature plays. They didn’t play the Lions in 2024, but Nick Sirianni beat Dan Campbell in 2021 and 2022, and the Lions probably hold some Saints-like delusion that they would have beaten Philly if they themselves hadn’t choked against the Commanders. They absolutely tore the Commanders apart, and joyfully so, in the NFC Championship Game. All of those teams are going to be especially motivated to be at their best against the Eagles, and just generally speaking, the other teams on their schedule are going to want to knock off the champs.

Spadaro: For a generation, Eagles have been America’s Team – PE.com
What does that signify? Clearly, it means the Eagles are and have been for 25 years a team that the national audience loves to watch. The NFL wants the Eagles to be a marquee team and, for real, that’s what the Eagles are. We’re talking about a generation of this kind of national exposure, and the Eagles have responded to the attention: 8 trips to the NFC Championship Game, 4 Super Bowl appearances, 2 World Championships. People who are in their 30s and 40s scarcely remember the tougher times, and only those on the back nine of their employment years recall when the team was flat-out bad. These are the great times, have been for a long while, and show no signs of slowing down.

Why the 2025 NFL Schedule Has Even More Big Brand Names in Prime Time – SI
That, of course, being the Philadelphia Eagles–Dallas Cowboys kickoff game, set for Sept. 4. “Philly had a lot of good, interesting matchups, and we kicked around a lot of them,” Bose said. “Washington, a division rival in a rematch of the [conference] title game? The Eagles have the Lions at home. Denver has that feel of an up-and-coming team. Chicago, too. But starting last year with Baltimore and Kansas City, an AFC title game rematch, felt big. And as we looked through the schedule, we wanted to push ourselves—Let’s go big in the big windows.

NFL schedule: Each AFC team’s win total projection for 2025 season – NFL.com
Week 1’s win percentage represents Philly’s highest forecasted odds of beating Dallas in their first matchup of the season (in any week) in at least 10 seasons. You’re welcome, Eagles fans. Over the next three weeks, the defending champs visit the Chiefs, host the Rams, then travel to the Bucs — with each game presenting a much tougher task than the opener. It’s worth noting that the Eagles and Commanders don’t have their first matchup until Week 16 in Washington (with the follow-up set for Week 18 in Philly).

Super Bowl odds, projections: Why our model sees Ravens, not Eagles, as early favorites – The Athletic
Philly not so special? The numbers aren’t as hot for the defending Super Bowl champions. The Philadelphia Eagles have “only” a 7.8 percent chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy per the model, the fourth-highest mark in the NFL. It’s not a disrespectful outlook, but we know they won’t see it that way in Philly. The Eagles are still set up for success with their key components returning, and there are major questions with their greatest conference competition in 2024 — the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings — but it’s not easy to repeat. The Kansas City Chiefs can attest to that. [BLG Note: I’m sure Lamar Jackson will totally come up big in the playoffs for Baltimore this time.]

Cooper DeJean’s pick-six cleats, Nick Sirianni’s Super Bowl fit, and more Eagles artifacts are now in the Hall of Fame – Inquirer
Cooper DeJean’s Super Bowl LIX cleats, in which he caught his first career interception and returned it for a touchdown, on his birthday, are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Kendle said he wanted to secure an artifact from the defense, because of their dominant performance in the Super Bowl, for the exhibit. DeJean happened to be in the facility during a call with the Eagles, and he agreed to loan his shoes for the exhibit.

Eagles teammates Cooper DeJean and Reed Blankenship launch ‘Exciting Mics’ podcast – PHLY
Cooper DeJean and Reed Blankenship took the microphone together at the Super Bowl parade in February on the Art Museum steps. They’ll now take the microphone together a few blocks away each week, when the Eagles defensive backs combine for a new podcast, “Exciting Mics.”

The clock ticks toward the next tush-push debate – PFT
When it comes to the tush push, the clock is ticking. Owners meet in Minneapolis next week, with a revised proposal regarding the play expected to be on the docket. During a Thursday conference call with reporters, NFL executive V.P. of communications, public affairs, and policy Jeff Miller did not directly answer the question of whether the Packers have finalized and submitted a new proposal to remove the technique from the rulebook.

Raiders front office: Las Vegas adds another Super Bowl winner – Silver And Black Pride
Brandon Hunt was last the Philadelphia Eagles’ senior director of scouring. He’s been with the Eagles since 2022. Prior to that, Hunt was the pro scouting director of the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2009-22. Hunt is the second front-office member of the Super Bowl-winning Eagles that Spytek has brought to Las Vegas this month. Hunt joins Anthony Patch to go from Philadelphia to Las Vegas. Patch was hired as a senior player personnel executive. HE was previously the Eagles’ senior director of college scouting since 20116. Patch, whop was part of two Super Bowl winning teams in Philadelphia, was with the franchise since 2002. He and Spytek worked together for a few years there.

Ranking every opposing quarterback on Eagles’ 2025 schedule – NBCSP
9. Dak Prescott. Week 1 in Philly, Week 12 in Dallas. Prescott is 31 now and coming off a season that ended after just eight games. Prescott needed surgery to repair his hamstring. Before that injury, Prescott led the Cowboys to a 3-5 record and had 11 touchdowns to 8 interceptions. Interceptions have been a problem for Prescott, who had 15 of them in 12 games in 2022 and 9 in 17 games in 2023. He’s had an up-and-down career but at his best, Prescott is a good quarterback. In 2025, the Cowboys added George Pickens, who should pair nicely (on the field) with CeeDee Lamb to give the Cowboys a solid 1-2 punch. In 13 career games against the Eagles, Prescott has a 9-4 record but he has missed a lot of games against the Birds in recent seasons.

Why the offseason grade for the Cowboys from Pro Football Focus is wrong – Blogging The Boys
So yes, we strongly disagree with the C+ offseason grade the Cowboys received from PFF. They were much better than teams who receive similar grades. Five other teams received a C+ grade (Falcons, Bengals, Chargers, Dolphins, Tennessee), two with a C- grade (Packers, Steelers), two with a D grade (Texans, 49ers), and one with a D- grade (Saints). And if you’re wondering what grades Dallas’ NFC East division rival’s received; the Washington Commanders received a A+ grade, Philadelphia Eagles a B grade, and the New York Giants received a B- grade. An argument could be made the Cowboys had just as good an offseason or better than all of them.

New York Giants projected to go 5-12 by pair of statistical models – Big Blue View
Now, NFL Network analytics expert Cynthia Frelund is out with her simulated projection of the 2025 season. After running every game one million times, Frelund came up with a projected 5.4 victories for the Giants. She writes: “Trying to win at Washington (in Week 1) and hosting Kansas City (on Sunday Night Football in Week 3) in the first three weeks of the season is tough in itself. That becomes a much tougher ask if rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart ends up being the team’s starter. The Giants’ schedule is punishing overall and especially so midway through the campaign, with back-to-back road games in Denver (Week 7) and Philadelphia (Week 8) and home games against San Francisco (Week 9) and Green Bay (Week 11) sandwiched around a trip to Chicago. The difficult sequence finally ends in Detroit in Week 12.” The Athletic came up with 5.5 victories for the Giants in their season simulation. The Athletic gives the Giants a 4.7% chance of reaching the playoffs. The Browns (3.6%) are the only team with worse odds.

The NFL Wants You to Watch the Kansas City Chiefs – The Ringer
The last time we saw the Chiefs, they were getting run off the field by the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. They didn’t just fail in their attempt to win another Super Bowl, they were thoroughly embarrassed. (As if you weren’t being inundated with enough Chiefs content this week, ESPN just released a trailer for a Last Dance–esque docuseries called The Kingdom, which chronicles the Chiefs’ failed three-peat bid.) In building its 2025 schedule this way, with the Chiefs as the marquee attraction, the NFL seems to be banking on Mahomes and Andy Reid and the entire Chiefs organization finding some sort of redemption. At the very least, the NFL is trying to capitalize on the crossover stardom of Mahomes and Travis Kelce, who could be playing his final season.

NFL to vote on allowing players to play flag in 2028 Olympics – ESPN
NFL owners will vote next week on a resolution that would allow players to participate in flag football during the 2028 Olympics, according to a memo the league sent to teams this week and released publicly Thursday. According to the resolution, “participation by NFL players in flag football during the 2028 Summer Olympics … will support such growth and advance several league interests, including increasing fan and public interest in flag football, expanding the global reach of the NFL, and providing greater opportunities for fan engagement and for our league partners.”

The NFL really tweaked the schedule because of Aaron Rodgers – SB Nation
We all know the NFL likes to manufacture drama whenever possible in making the schedule, but changing things because of a narcissistic, should-be-retired quarterback is pretty darn incredible. In deciding on games this year, particularly those for the Steelers, the league really had to think about how Aaron Rodgers could impact the slate. NFL scheduling executive Mike North spoke to the Associated Press on Thursday about giving Pittsburgh four prime time games in 2025, and admitted that it could have been more if Rodgers agreed to join the team.

The strange fascination with Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichick, explained – Vox
When we look at the relationship between 73-year-old legendary football coach Bill Belichick and his girlfriend and business partner, 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, it’s hard to know exactly what we’re seeing. Two grown-ups in love forging a dynamic business partnership? Elder abuse, as some have wildly speculated? Or is it, as the vitriolic comments in Hudson’s social media posts would have it, good old-fashioned gold digging?