Eagles news: A trend-breaking win, defensive snap counts, and a strong youth movement

The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off their best win of the season, and their best win in over a year after they beat the Cincinnati Bengals by 20 points in Week 8. It was dominant and it was the second game in a row where you could sit back and relax during a fourth quarter.

The most controversial part of the game was Jalen Hurts wearing two different shoes, because as good as he is at being a quarterback, he’s apparently even better at tying knots. What can’t he do?

This means the news this week is good news. When the vibes are this high, you have no choice but to ride the wave.

Eagles news: They are, they are, the youth of the Eagles

Over the past eight weeks, rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell has proven to be everything you could hope for and more. Over the past three weeks, rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean has shored up the defense in ways you could only dream of. They are immediate upgrades of disgustingly beautiful severity.

Quinyon has been nails since Week 1, but DeJean went into Paycor Stadium and crushed the souls of 60,000 Cincinnatianites. DeVonta Smith’s touchdown was enough to end the game, but when Cooper planted Ja’Marr Chase on the fourth down, it caused an early, yet warranted, mass exodus of Bengal’s fans from the stadium. It was awesome.

There are two options when it comes to Quinyon: He’s an extreme vegan who hates that footballs are made of leather, and quarterbacks respect that so much so that they don’t throw at him … or he’s just unbelievably good.

He was a SAM launcher that quarterbacks are learning to avoid. Joe Burrow threw the ball a whopping 37 times for 234 yards. He targeted Q twice, both were receptions (one to Ja’Marr and one to Mike Gesicki) for just 12 yards total. 

Per Next Gen Stats, in seven games the rookie has allowed 19 receptions on 37 targets (51.3%) for 237 yards, only 2.6 YAC per reception, and ZERO touchdowns. He is nails. 

As of Tuesday morning (October 29, 2024), DraftKings has Quinyon with the third-best odds to win Defensive Rookie of the Year behind just Jared Verse and Laiatu Latu. Once Quinyon starts actually getting the interceptions that he barely misses, he’ll inch his way closer to the top.

All of this is a microcosm of what’s going on with the Eagles defense. Reuben Frank of NBC Sports Philadelphia noted: 

“When you think about it, it’s not surprising that this defense took its lumps the first few weeks of the season with all the new pieces. They gave up 29 to the Packers in the opener in São Paulo. They allowed a game-winning 70-yard TD drive in the home opener vs. the Falcons. They got battered for 33 points in Tampa… DeJean is 21. (Jalen) Carter, Mitchell and (Nolan) Smith are 23. Jordan Davis and (Nakobe) Dean are 24. Reed Blankenship and Milton Williams are 25. The only defensive starter older than 28 is 33-year-old Darius Slay.”

Compare that to 2023, when the defense included Kevin Byard (30 years old), Bradley Roby (31), James Bradberry (30), Zach Cunningham (28), and Nicholas Morrow (28).

Things are coming together in Vic Fangio’s defense and the relative youth movement is not only at the forefront but also the catalyst. As sick as it is, it’s equally comforting.

Eagles news: Defensive snap counts

Not only can you see the growth of the Eagles' defense by how they do on the field, but you can look at the numbers and how the snap counts have changed for the defensive line over the past eight weeks to see that Fangio is locking in on what works. These numbers are coming from Next Gen Stats:

The players that have stayed steady with their snap percentage all season are Jalen Carter, Josh Sweat, and Milton Williams. Those guys’ consistent playing time is relatively predictable. 

Bryce Huff and Jordan Davis have had the biggest dip but for different reasons. Huff was supposed to be able to be an elite talent. He started the season really really really bad, but since the bye week, he’s been doing fine. Unfortunately, he’s getting paid $17 million per year, so ‘fine’ isn’t good enough, but at least he’s been doing better lately.

In the four games before the bye, he had one tackle, zero sacks, and one quarterback pressure. Since then, he’s had six tackles, 1.5 sacks, and seven quarterback pressures. Again, it’s not good, but at least it’s better. 

Jordan Davis is different because the Eagles gave him a chance to get after it on passing downs at the beginning of the season. Since then he’s largely become a big-bodied run-stopper and he’s being used like one. 

Nolan Smith’s increase in playing time is amazing. He’s had 2.5 sacks in the past three games, which is a huge increase from the single sack that he had in all of 2023. He’s earned his playing time, and it’s getting to a point where you’re excited to see him on the field.

Fun Fact: Nolan Smith played a total of 182 defensive snaps last season. He’s already at 173 snaps this season. 

Eagles news: A trend-breaking win

Jalen Hurts was utterly phenomenal on Sunday. It was great to see because it’s been a hot minute since anyone has been able to actually say that about one of his performances without a Twitter troll saying ‘Well, actually…’

Week 8 was the fourth time Jalen has rushed for three touchdowns. The last time he did it was in Super Bowl LVII. Per Statmuse, he’s the first quarterback to have four games with three rushing touchdowns.

Jalen’s Touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith was also the longest pass of his entire career, which is wild given all of the bombs he’s thrown to A.J. Brown.

He was also sacked ZERO times on Sunday. He’s only had five games as a starter where he’s been sacked zero times. That’s impressive because not only was he playing behind a backup right guard and a backup left tackle, but the Bengals’ defensive end Trey Hendrickson has the fifth most sacks in the NFL this season with seven sacks.

Saquon Barkley sneakily rushed for 108 yards against the Bengals, bringing his season total to 766 yards. That’s the most yards that he’s had through seven games in his career. In 2022, he had 726 yards, and in 2018 he had 481 yards. 

LeSean McCoy set the Eagles single-season rushing record at 1607 yards back in 2013. In order for Saquon to break that record he needs to rush for an average of 101 yards per game. He’s averaging 109.4 yards. What we’re witnessing is historic.

The Eagles won their last two games by 25 and 20 points. The last time they had two back-to-back wins like that in the regular season was in Weeks 13 and 14 of the 2022 season. Week 13 was A.J. Brown's revenge game against the Titans and Week 14 was the game the Eagles clinched a playoff berth with a 48-22 win over the Giants.

The vibes are extraordinarily high right now, and the Eagles are looking to keep them that way when the Jacksonville Jaguars come to town in Week 9 without two or three of their wide receivers. The Birds are back.