October 06, 2023
Earlier this week, we solicited questions for an Eagles mailbag via Twitter. Thank you as always for doing half the work for me. This is Part I of a two-part mailbag. Let's just get right to it.
Question from silverdj7: Is Hurts hurt (say that 10 times fast) and the team just isn't disclosing it? Or is he overweight? He just looks more sluggish and slow this year. I realize he's being coached to avoid injury but there's got to be more than that to it.
Hurts can still scoot. The following was an outstanding 24-yard run by Hurts on Sunday in which he avoided a rusher in the pocket with a technique to sort of get around his blocker (D'Andre Swift) with efficient movement, get up the field, make a guy miss with a sharp cut to the outside, and then gobble up chunks of yards.
Jalen Hurts 24 yard run vs. Commanders pic.twitter.com/eEN88hkleJ
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski2) October 6, 2023
He can still run, and no, I don't think he's overweight. If there's a player you don't have to worry about getting lackadaisical in his offseason training, it's Hurts.
In 2021 and 2022, he more often than not forced defenders to get him to the ground instead of giving himself up via slide. That led to some highlight reel runs. In 2023, he's giving himself up with far more frequency, only allowing himself to be hit as a runner in high leverage situations, such as trying to get to the sticks on third down. On runs in which he knows he's going to slide, you're not seeing him set up defenders with moves, or trying to accelerate past them. And I agree, those runs just look kind of "bleh."
Of course, it makes sense for Hurts to not take as many hits these days, seeing as he is making $50 million per year and the Eagles need him on the field. But this is probably the new normal for him, at least early in the regular season going forward.
"He needs to protect himself," Nick Sirianni said. "He took the big hit against New England, and it's always been our intention to make sure he's protecting himself as a runner. We encourage him to slide, and we encourage him to get down, and we encourage him not to take a big hit — step out of bounds when you can.
"Do we want all our guys stepping out of bounds? No. We want our other guys most of the time — if it's not a two-minute drill, to keep the ball in their outside arm and use their stiff arm, play a little bit of pound on the sideline. I don't want Jalen doing that...
"He's got a great ability to make you miss, but he knows when he's going to make the guy miss and not. And I think he's got a great feel of, ‘oh okay, I'm not making him miss. Okay, I'll go down in this particular case.’ That's exactly what we want him to do to protect himself as a scrambler, as a runner, while also trying to get the most yards that are coming from that play.
"Every run play that we have in for him or any read play is done with the utmost thinking about him all the time to make sure we keep him safe. If we're thinking about that constantly, we want him thinking about that as well because we know how important it is to have him out on the field every game."
Question from @TheSmartyJones: If Jalen Hurts is going to continue to sit down any time a defender gets within a couple yards at him, will Brian Johnson realize this and stop calling for him to run into the line?
Yeah, they're going to have to save his called runs for "high leverage situations," as noted above. There's no sense in calling a QB draw on first down when all you have to do as a defender is get near him. I also think that Hurts' self-protection could have adverse affects on the Eagles' RPO / read option game going forward.
On read options, the Eagles love leaving the backside edge defender unblocked, because he has to account for Hurts keeping the ball and running around the edge. It's like blocking a guy without actually blocking him, and it's a win in the numbers game for the Eagles in their rushing attack. It's part of the reason for D'Andre Swift's success this season.
At some point opposing defenses are going to realize that as long as Hurts is going to slide when someone gets close, they are going to instruct that backside defender to crash down on the running back on those plays. It'll be interesting to see what the Eagles have up their sleeve to counter backside ends crashing down if that's what they begin to see from opposing run defenses.
Question from @StokesTheWriter: What is an under-discussed strength of the Eagles?
Special teams. We all know how good Jake Elliott is, and he has certainly gotten his fair share of praise in the wake of his game-winning 54-yard field goal in overtime Week 4. But the rest of the Eagles' special teams units have been pretty good so far after a season in which they were a clear weakness. Britain Covey is third in the NFL among punt returners (minimum 5 returns) with a 16.8 return average, and there really haven't been many mistakes otherwise. They're ranked No. 2 in the NFL in special teams DVOA.
Question from TrajanStevens: Given Braden Mann’s shaky debut, should the Eagles consider trading for a stud punter? Has any NFL team ever done that? Is there one to be had?
Mann had a couple of iffy punts, but... he hit a 47-yard beauty with good hangtime that forced a fair catch at the Commanders' 7-yard-line deep into the fourth quarter on Sunday. I think that one saved him for a while.
Question from @7he_Reason: Does Quez Watkins start when he comes back or did or did Olamide Zaccheaus jump him on the depth chart?
Watkins theoretically has more big-play ability, but Zaccheaus is the more reliable player, who, uh, has actually made some big plays, and does more of the "dirty work" stuff. The coaching staff really likes Watkins, so I really don't know what they'll do, but if I were in charge of doling out playing time, there'd be more Zaccheaus than Watkins.
Question from Gandalfbeer: Nolan Smith and Derek Barnett aren't getting playing time. Why?
The short answer? Because they have Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, and Brandon Graham ahead of them.
But I'll expand...
To begin, I did not have "Why isn't Barnett getting playing time" on my mailbag bingo card 😉. If anything, I would think fans would wonder why he's playing as much as he is. His snaps:
| Derek Barnett | Snaps | Percentage |
| Patriots | 16 | 20% |
| Vikings | 14 | 24% |
| Buccaneers | 11 | 23% |
| Commanders | 18 | 23% |
So it has been pretty consistent. Barnett's usage has mostly been limited to run downs, which I think is fine for him. Send him in, let him get rough with a O-lineman or tight end for a couple of plays, and then get him out. It's a long season, and you want to keep your best players fresh, and if Barnett can steal some snaps here and there, they like his toughness, so whatever. It's fine for now, until he commits a dumb penalty.
Smith is a core special teamer, but he has not played much in the regular defense.
| Nolan Smith | Snaps | Percentage |
| Patriots | 7 | 9% |
| Vikings | 6 | 10% |
| Buccaneers | 6 | 13% |
| Commanders | 9 | 12% |
He had an offsides penalty where he looked a little over-eager to make a play, which is understandable, given his low number of snaps. But obviously, he's not going to get many high leverage pass rushing snaps on a defense with Reddick, Sweat, and Graham, and because he's a smaller edge defender he's not going to get many run down snaps. His time will come, but for now he won't have a big role in the defense.
Question from @daveeldreth: Does the remaining Birds’ schedule look harder or easier based on four weeks of play? Seems like the division looks significantly worse than perceived going into the season.
Future games that look harder than they did when the season began, to varying degrees: Rams, Dolphins, Cowboys x2, Bills, 49ers, Seahawks, Cardinals.
Future games that look easier than they did when the season began, to varying degrees: Jets, Chiefs, Giants x2.
I think their schedule overall looks harder now than it did in August.
Question from @ATalasnk: Who on the Eagles is most likely to use floss picks and leave them anywhere and everywhere throughout the city?
I've been asked variations of this question quite a bit over the last year or so, as one of my bits on Twitter is to take pictures of flossers that people just discard wherever they may be. A thread:
Marlton, NJ pic.twitter.com/cb0HrjEn4m
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) September 15, 2022
Amazingly, a month later it is still there. In an episode of "Eagles Unscripted," A.J. Brown was shown in a meeting in the auditorium with a flosser in his mouth. Go to the 14:32 mark here.
Brown has great teeth and he was chomping on a flosser in the same room where the flosser was found. I'm not saying that he is guilty of discarding the flosser that has been on the stage for a month, but he would be my prime suspect right now.
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