Eagles news: Edge replacements, historic performances and apologizing to Sirianni

The Philadelphia Eagles are sitting pretty at the top of the NFC East with their 9-2 record. The Birds extended their winning streak to seven games with a thorough decimation of the Los Angeles Rams, and now they get to look to a Week 13 game in Baltimore.

But a lot happened in that Rams game. While the team looks forward, we get a chance to stop and see what everyone is saying about the Eagles. Let’s dive into the news stories coming out early in the week.

Looking behind and looking ahead

As you can imagine, the part about the Eagles on ESPN’s Biggest Questions and Takeaways column largely focused on Saquon, as it should have. Saquon rocks. Tim McManus wrote:

“Barkley is the third player in NFL history to have 1,500 scrimmage yards and 10 touchdowns in his first season with multiple teams, joining Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Eric Dickerson.”

That’s remarkable. A lot has been said about how great Saquon has been this year, but there’s not much specifically about how this is his first year in this offense. For reference, this is how some notable running backs have done with the Eagles in their first year with the team over the past 25 years:

Currently, Saquon is at 1,649 yards from scrimmage, and there are six games left to go. What we’re seeing is literally historic.

McManus also brings up the Eagles Week 13 game against the Ravens: “Eagles-Ravens will be billed as a possible Super Bowl preview. With the Eagles winning seven straight games, they've put themselves on the short list of legitimate NFC contenders. One of their toughest tests of the regular season will come in Baltimore against the Lamar Jackson-led Ravens, who have postseason goals of their own.”

It turns out the Monday Night game between the Ravens and the Chargers was not just a metaphorical football nightcap; a Ravens loss would’ve been bad news. Since 2022, Lamar’s Ravens have an 18-13 record following a win. 

At that same time, the Ravens are also 12-3, following a loss. Obviously, not everything is the same between games, but you’d much rather go into a game against a team in a situation where they win 80% of the time. They are phenomenal at picking themselves up, dusting themselves off, and reloading their arms like Henry Cavill did in Mission: Impossible Fallout. 

Apologies are in order to Nick Sirianni

It looked bad when Sirianni was yelling at Eagles fans after the win against the Cleveland Browns, and ESPN’s Get Up was very eager to tell everyone about how bad it looked.

The tune has changed on that show in a pretty significant way. On Monday, they had a whole segment about whether or not Nick Sirianni deserved an apology. Mike Greenberg said, ”Elton John has a song called Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word. I think there are a lot of apologies out there necessary for Nick Sirianni, who I’m old enough to remember when people wanted to run him out of town.” 

Former Jets and Bills’ head coach and now ESPN analyst Rex Ryan is also on Get Up and he took this as an opportunity to talk about Nick. Apparently, he’s been having a lot of conversations with Sirianni. Rex said, “Ever since he had the blow-up with the fans, which was more about an individual than the entire fanbase… you can’t argue with this man’s success… his formula is so incredible to me… it’s run the ball more than you throw it, and it helps your team by leaps and bounds… they run the football for explosives that opens up the passing game for explosives.”

Now, Rex is an emphatic guy. He’s so excited to talk about football that he loses himself mid-sentence, so take that with a grain of salt. There’s no way of knowing what a Rex Ryan/Nick Sirianni conversation sounds like and how much information is gained by either party … BUT he’s right: You cannot argue with Nick’s success.

It’s a seven-game winning streak where the Eagles are dominating opponents. Nick’s team has outscored opponents 210 to 103 since the bye week. That’s incredible. 

The weirdest part is what Rex said about Nick’s formula, “... run the ball more than you throw it, and it helps your team by leaps and bounds …” It’s not that easy, right? Like, it obviously helps to have the most talented roster in the NFL and the best running back in the past 10 years, but is Nick actually saying, ‘Let's run until the other guys die’ or is it something different?

Well, after the game, A.J. Brown went to the desk to talk with the Sunday Night Football panel. Tony Dungy asked him, “You guys are on a seven-game winning streak now, and early in the season it was up and down a little bit. What kind of flipped the switch or turned things around for you?” A.J. answered, “We just started to run the ball a little more…we’re a running football team.” So … maybe it is that easy. 

There could be more to it (and there probably is) but based on what we’ve been told, it sounds like Sirianni listened to his offensive linemen and decided to get ugly and put his team’s success into the hands of the offensive line. It was a great decision and despite his very unorthodox demeanor on the sidelines, Nick’s getting his team to win… and they’re winning big.

Lack of edge rushers

Brandon Graham tore his tricep and he’s out for the rest of the season. That could be the end of his career, but time will tell. The more pressing matter is about what the Eagles are going to do with their lack of depth at Edge.

There’s no replacing BG. Not only was he playing at a ludicrously high level, but his personality is truly a one-of-one. That being said, the Eagles need to fill that position. 

BG played 45.6 percent of the defensive snaps this season (292 total snaps). That’s a big void. Currently, the only healthy edge rushers on the roster are Josh Sweat, Jalyx Hunt, and Nolan Smith. 

When Graham left the game, Zack Baun took some reps at Edge since that’s what he did during his four years with the New Orleans Saints. So sure, he can play there, but he’s been playing like an All-Pro linebacker; you don’t necessarily want to take him away from what he’s been doing.

Milton Williams has been playing as a quasi-edge rusher too, but those seem like very specific personnel packages when that’s the case. We’ll probably see that package more often, but Milton isn’t going to be a long-term fix. 

The practice squad doesn’t have many answers either. The only two players who could come up would be Tarron Jackson and Ochaun Mathis. Neither of those guys seems like real answers either.

That means it’s unfortunately going to have to be a free agent. Some free agent names might sound enticing, but keep in mind: the people are free agents for a reason. Look at last year when the Eagles needed help at linebacker and then they signed Shaq Leonard … that was an abysmal failure.

On Monday night, Mike Garafolo from the NFL Network reported that the Eagles are expected to sign K. J. Henry. Sure. Whatever. 

Henry was a fifth-round pick by the Washington Commanders in 2023. He played just under 25% of the snaps for them that season. He didn’t make it through their roster cuts before the 2024 season, then went to the Bengals’ practice squad, and then to Dallas. 

He was supposed to be a depth player for the Cowboys while they were waiting for DeMarcus Lawrence and Marshawn Kneeland to get off the IR. He played in a couple of games (Weeks 6 and 8) before he was waived on Saturday, Nov. 23. 

Henry isn’t the only player available. Brandon Lee Gowton from Bleeding Green Nation came up with eight other free agents the Eagles could sign: Jason Pierre-Paul, Melvin Ingram, Justin Houston, Bruce Irvin, Rasheem Green, Genard Avery, Kemoko Turay, and Takk McKinley.

JPP, Ingram, Houston, and Irvin have spent time (albeit, some of their time very brief) in Fangio’s defense. That’s important to factor into this whole equation. Think about Bryce Huff’s year: his first four weeks in this defense were pathetic which, in part, was due to him not being comfortable with the scheme.

If you can get a guy who’s had any exposure to the scheme, it’ll be better than starting from scratch… especially when we’re looking at a team trying to make a playoff and Super Bowl run.

It’s just a tough situation, but if you want to try to take something positive of it, just remember that Fangio has proven to have an awesome eye for talent. If/when the Eagles sign someone, a Fangio stamp of approval is worth a whole lot.