December 12, 2025
The 8-5 Philadelphia Eagles have lost three straight games and will hope to avoid a complete meltdown by getting right against the 2-11 Las Vegas Raiders. Here are our five things to watch.
The Raiders' 2025 starter was Geno Smith, who injured his right shoulder in the third quarter of the Raiders' loss to the Broncos on Sunday. He also suffered a cut on his right hand. He did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday, and very likely will not play against the Eagles.
Smith has had a horrendous season. He leads the NFL with 14 INTs, and his total EPA of -70.73 is ranked 70th in the NFL, only ahead of Titans rookie Cam Ward.
After Smith went down against the Broncos, former Eagle Kenny Pickett filled in and played well against a good Broncos defense, completing 8 of 11 passes for 97 yards and the below ripped TD pass.
In his lone start for the Eagles last season against the Cowboys, Pickett completed 10 of 15 passes for 143 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs, and a QB rating of 119.6 before exiting with an injury.
The perception I have just from perusing social media related to the Eagles this week is that Pickett is some kind of joke. Ehhh, while he isn't exactly Joe Montana, Pickett does have a 15-10 career record, though obviously he has never played for a team this bad.
With the Raiders, Pickett will be playing behind an awful offensive line, and throwing to a collection of receivers more suited to be backups.
Would I want Kenny Pickett to be my starting quarterback? Obviously, no. But it's not as if he's some scrub. If I'm the Eagles, I'd be more content to just face Smith.
The one great player the Raiders do have on their offense is Brock Bowers, their second-year tight end.
As a rookie in 2024, Bowers had 112 catches on 153 targets for 1194 yards and 5 TDs. He has missed four games in 2025, so his numbers are down a bit (53-619-6), but he is still a great player. Here are his 6 TDs in 2025:
He runs good routes, he gobbles up yards after the catch, and he is very clearly who the Raiders are trying to get the ball to when they're in the red zone, whether by getting him one-on-one matchups on the perimeter, or running route combinations designed specifically to get him some separation.
Defending tight ends has been a strength of the Eagles' defense this season. They have allowed 428 yards to tight ends, lowest in the NFL.
To begin, we should mention the Raiders' rushing offense. They don't have one.
In 2024, they were dead last in rushing, with 79.8 rushing yards per game. The next-closest team averaged 91.8. So, the Raiders selected RB Ashton Jeanty with the 6th overall pick in the 2025 draft. It hasn't helped. The Raiders are still ranked dead last in rushing, and they're actually worse this year than they were last year, with 72.7 rushing yards per game. The next-closest team averages 84.9.
Opposing defenses have been able to shut down the run, put the Raiders in unfavorable downs/distances, and get after the quarterback. That has put a lot of stress on an already bad Raiders O-line, which currently looks like this:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Stone Forsythe | Dylan Parham | Alex Cappa or Jordan Meredith | Caleb Rogers | DJ Glaze |
• Kolton Miller is normally the starting LT. He is on IR, but he returned to practice on Wednesday for the first time since Week 4. He was a first-round pick in 2018, and is the Raiders' best offensive lineman, by far. He suffered a high ankle sprain and a hairline fracture Week 4 against the Bears. Stone Forsythe filled in, and has started the last nine games for the Raiders. PFF has Forsythe down for 10 sacks allowed, most among NFL offensive tackles, which isn't great given that he didn't start the first four games of the season. PFF also has Forsythe down for 7 sacks allowed in the last 4 games.
Given that their season is already long since over, the guess here is that the Raiders won't be in a rush to put Miller back out on the field until he is definitively ready to go.
• DJ Glaze (great name!) is the starting RT. PFF has him down for 7 sacks allowed on the season, 10th most among NFL offensive tackles.
• The Raiders have also had some shuffling on their interior. Jackson Powers-Johnson was the starting RG, but he suffered an ankle injury against the Broncos Week 10, and his season is likely over. After Powers-Johnson went down, Jordan Meredith moved from C to RG, and Alex Cappa filled in at C. Soon after, Meredith got hurt, and third-round rookie Caleb Rogers filled in at RG.
Meredith is healthy and can probably return to the lineup this week, but they might just leave Cappa in at C.
Like last Monday against the Chargers, the Eagles should have a major matchup advantage against this very bad Raiders offensive line, especially on the edges.
#FeastinMeter™️: 8/10 turkey legs: 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
After Lane Johnson suffered a Lisfranc sprain against the Lions Week 11, the Eagles opted not to put him on IR so that he wouldn't be out of commission for at least four games. They thought there was at least a chance he could play in this game, so they kept him on the 53-man roster. However, it appears that Johnson likely won't play in this matchup.
The Eagles' backup at RT is Fred Johnson, who has played reasonably well in Lane's absence. Fred Johnson unexpectedly appeared on the injury report on Thursday with an ankle injury. That's not ideal against the Raiders. One of the only very good players on their team is Maxx Crosby, who mostly lines up opposite the RT.
Crosby is in his seventh season, and he has 68.5 sacks. He is not on the level of, saaayyy, a Myles Garrett or a Micah Parsons, but he is a highly productive edge rusher capable of making big plays. Here are his 9 sacks on the season:
The Raiders only have 26 sacks as a team, which ranks 23rd in the NFL. Crosby has more than a third of them. So in the same way the Eagles have a specific plan for guys like Parsons, they need to have one for Crosby in this game as well.
If both Johnsons can't play, the next guy up is probably Matt Pryor. 😱😱😱
The Raiders stack the box more than any other team in the NFL, and by a wide margin. And, spoiler, that's what they're going to do against the Eagles with Jalen Hurts coming off a 4-INT performance on Monday night. There will be opportunities for Hurts to find A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert down the field. This isn't exactly high-level #analysis, but Hurts simply has to play better than he has over the last month.
It's probably also worth noting that it is going to be a nasty, cold-weather game. The forecast at kickoff is 27 degrees, with 14 MPH winds and gusts of 25 MPH, with 3-4 inches of snowfall expected early in the morning. So, you know, not ideal conditions for a slumping quarterback.
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