Eagles news: Saquon MVP race, Quinyon Mitchell disrespect, and a Giant-sized mistake

The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off a pretty well-timed mini bye week after beating the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football. That meant it was a low-stress football weekend for Eagles fans, and we got to spend all Sunday watching seven hours of commercial-free football with our dear friend Scott Hanson. It was awesome.

There’s nothing better than sitting back, staring at a TV, checking fantasy scores and bets, and watching good news about the Eagles come through on your different timelines. The vibes are immaculate right now, so let’s start with some news that is simply delicious.

Eagles News: Saquon Barkley signing is even sweeter

It would be mind-blowing if there is another season of Hard Knocks: Offseason after the way that the Giants screwed everything up while having it happen with a level of insight that we’ve never seen before. 

At this point, you’ve seen the video of the Giants owner John Mara saying that he wouldn’t be able to sleep if Barkley went to the Eagles. It seems like that goes viral every single time Saquon touches the ball. Here it is again because it’s funny:

There was another clip that was relatively unpopular compared to that one, in which general manager Joe Shoen was trying to justify not paying Saquon. He was comparing Daniel Jones’ salary to Barkley’s potential salary when he said, “You’re paying the guy $40 million. It’s not to hand the ball off to a $12 million running back.”

A round of applause for Joe. It takes real talent to assess a situation, evaluate it, and act 100 percent incorrectly. While you’re at it, pour one out for everyone else in that room.

Well, on Monday there was an ultimate twist of predictable fate when the Giants announced that they are benching Jones. So now, they’re paying the quarterback $40 million to do nothing… and they also don’t have the good running back. 

Things could not have possibly gone worse for Joe Schoen and his brain trust. Top-notch buffoonery. Bravo.

Eagles News: Eagles Week 11 Takeaways

Every week, ESPN has writers for each team write about question marks and takeaways from every game. This week, there was a huge, and weirdly disrespectful difference between what Tim McManus wrote for the Eagles and what John Keim wrote for the Commanders.

McManus writes, “Eye-popping stat: Rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell allowed zero receptions on one target in 32 coverage snaps as the nearest defender in coverage, per NFL Next Gen Stats. Mitchell, who was often pitted against Terry McLaurin, Washington's top receiver, is allowing 0.9 yards per coverage snap this season, the sixth best of 44 cornerbacks with at least 200 coverage snaps in 2024.”

Whereas Keim writes, “Biggest hole in the game plan: The inability to get the wide receivers involved, notably Terry McLaurin. McLaurin was not targeted until the third quarter -- only the second time in his six-year career that he did not have a first-half target -- and finished with only one catch for 10 yards. The receivers combined for four catches and 28 yards overall. Without their involvement, the offense isn't explosive.”

There’s a glaring lack of Quinyon Mitchell in Keim's description. Yeah, McLaurin didn’t get targeted until way late in the game, but that’s because Quinyon is an absolute menace. 

It wasn’t because Jayden Daniels never looked Terry’s way or that plays weren’t drawn up to get him the ball. Heck, if there weren’t plays called specifically for him in the first half, then offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury deserves a lot of blame.

When pundits don’t mention Q’s dominance, it really puts a damper on the ‘Quinyon Mitchell for Defensive Rookie of the Year’ propaganda machine. That’s not cool. This hype train is going at dangerous and irresponsible speeds. Don’t try to stop it by not giving the man his props.

Eagles News: Saquon Barkley, MVP or OPOY

Saquon is in a pretty unique spot. We all know what he means to this team because we watch him week in and week out. Every run he has not only physically helps the offense move down the field, but also adds a literal unmeasurable amount of vibes.

The people who vote for NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year aren’t keyed in that much, and they don’t care about vibes. That being said, as of Tuesday (Nov. 19, 2024), he has the 13th-best odds to win MVP (+4000) and is the favorite to win OPOY (+105) on DraftKings.

Clearly, he’s being appreciated by the sportsbooks and those guys’ jobs are to make money based on how they think the public responds to players and how they think the awards voters will cast their votes. But in our very biased, yet knowledgeable eyes as Eagles fans, those odds aren’t good enough. There are a few reasons for that.

He’s currently the second-leading rusher in the NFL behind Derrick Henry, who has played one more game than Saquon. Henry has 1,185 rushing yards and Saquon has 1,137. 

Also, Saquon only has eight touchdowns. You have to think that if Barkley were in an offense that didn’t have a dominant play like the brotherly shove, he’d have a whole lot more.

The rushing touchdown topic was broached with Nick Sirianni in his media availability on Monday afternoon. He was asked if he’s ever compelled to let Saquon finish the drive when he goes down at the one-yard line. 

Sirianni said, “Yes, you always think about that. One thing we think about in the red zone… a quarterback sneak, it’s tough to lose yardage there. The worst thing that you can do in red zone football is move backwards… We’ve had a lot of success with the quarterback sneak… He’s getting us down there and he’s got eight touchdowns, I’m excited for him on that, and he’s playing at a high level. But I think Saquon’s a great teammate.” (14:39 in the video below)

Sirianni went on to say that he’s had conversations about the effectiveness of the Brotherly Shove as a goal line play with Saquon and previous running backs (Miles Sanders and D’Andre Swift) and that these guys are all great teammates.

Saquon gets it, which is understandable because the Eagles are winning games. He’s coming from terrible Giants teams that were/are/will continue to be seemingly allergic to winning. Saquon is just happy to help, even if it means not getting all the numbers that he could… It also helps that his contract doesn’t have any touchdown incentives.

Being an awesome teammate probably won’t weigh much to the awards voters, but if it did, Saquon would be -350 for OPOY. There’s a chance, albeit a small one, that his numbers do start to go down, so his real odds might dip a little bit. 

He’ll never win MVP though, even if he should. That’s a quarterback award. Betting on that is a Joe-Schoen-brain-sized move.