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December 21, 2020

Eagles snap count analysis: Week 15 vs. Cardinals

Eagles NFL
122120QuezWatkins Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

Quez Watkins earned some more playing time on Sunday.

In their Week 15 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Philadelphia Eagles played 83 snaps on offense, and just 68 snaps on defense. Let's just get right to the snap counts.

Quarterback

• 83 snaps: Jalen Hurts

Analysis: Call this corny or whatever, but it was good to see Carson Wentz going over game film on the tablet with Hurts on the sidelines while the defense was on the field. While I don't agree with Wentz's camp putting out the message in-season that he wants out if he's not going to be the starter, he is at least staying engaged during the game and trying to help out his teammate. 

Offensive line

• 83 snaps each: Jordan Mailata, Isaac Seumalo, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, and Matt Pryor

Analysis: For the second week in a row, all five starting offensive linemen played every snap. Last week we thought the Eagles might carry over the same starting five on the OL from one week to the next for only the second time this season, but that went out the window when Jack Driscoll went on IR.

And so, the Eagles fielded their 13th different starting OL combination in 14 games, which is almost hard to do if you tried. As always, let's just go ahead and update that:

 VersionLT LG RG RT 
1.0 - Week 1Jason Peters Isaac Seumalo Jason Kelce Nate Herbig Jack Driscoll 
 2.0 - Week 2Jason Peters Isaac Seumalo Jason Kelce Nate Herbig Lane Johnson 
 3.0 - Week 3Jason Peters Nate Herbig Jason Kelce Matt Pryor Lane Johnson 
 4.0 - Weeks 4 and 5Jordan MailataNate Herbig Jason Kelce Matt Pryor Lane Johnson 
 5.0 - Week 6Jordan Mailata Nate Herbig Jason Kelce Jamon Brown Jack Driscoll 
6.0 - Week 7 Jordan Mailata Sua Opeta Jason Kelce Nate Herbig Lane Johnson 
 7.0 - Week 8Jason Peters Nate Herbig Jason Kelce Matt Pryor Jordan Mailata 
8.0 - Week 10Jason Peters Sua Opeta Jason Kelce Matt Pryor Lane Johnson 
 9.0 - Week 11Jason Peters Isaac Seumalo Jason Kelce Matt Pryor Lane Johnson 
10.0 - Week 12 Jordan Mailata Isaac Seumalo Jason Kelce Jason Peters Matt Pryor 
11.0 - Week 13 Jordan Mailata Isaac Seumalo Jason Kelce Jason Peters Jack Driscoll 
12.0 - Week 14 Jordan Mailata Isaac Seumalo Jason Kelce Nate Herbg Jack Driscoll 
 13.0 - Week 15Jordan Mailata Isaace Seumalo Jason Kelce Nate Herbig Matt Pryor 


Pryor predictably struggled at RT.

Running back

• 69 snaps: Miles Sanders

• 15 snaps: Boston Scott

Analysis: I believe that the Eagles would benefit from having a big back in the rotation to be sort of the between-the-tackles hammer, especially with a running quarterback in place. When you look at the successful teams around the league with running quarterbacks, many of them have that, and use that back effectively. The Bills have Zack Moss. The Ravens have Gus Edwards. The Seahawks have Chris Carson, etc.

While the Eagles shouldn't be taking such a back in the first round (duh), it's maybe more of a team need than is commonly discussed.

Wide receiver

• 52 snaps: Alshon Jeffery

• 46 snaps: Jalen Reagor

• 44 snaps: Greg Ward

• 28 snaps: Quez Watkins

• 26 snaps: Travis Fulgham

Analysis: So now Alshon Jeffery is leading the team in snaps. Great! I get that he had by far his best game of the season, as he had a pair of catches for 63 yards and drew a couple of pass interference calls (he could have been called for OPI a few times as well, but wasn't), but it still makes no sense whatsoever for him to be playing this much.

On the flip side, let's see more of Quez Watkins down the stretch, right? Cool, get on that, Doug. 

Tight end

• 73 snaps: Dallas Goedert

• 62 snaps: Zach Ertz

Analysis: I think this is where we'll note that the Eagles played the fewest number of players on offense in a single game this season. Only 15 players got snaps. No third TE. No third RB. No second QB. And as noted above, all five starting offensive linemen played every snap.

Defensive line

• 56 snaps: Fletcher Cox

• 52 snaps: Derek Barnett

• 41 snaps: Brandon Graham

• 39 snaps: Javon Hargrave

• 30 snaps: Malik Jackson

• 27 snaps: Vinny Curry

• 12 snaps: Genard Avery

• 11 snaps: Raequan Williams

• 4 snaps: Josh Sweat

Analysis: Josh Sweat went out early, which was a bummer, seeing as he had the hot hand in the Eagles' win over the Saints. Brandon Graham looked like he would register double-digit sacks for the first time in his career, but he hasn't had a sack now in six straight games.

Derek Barnett was flagged for a "late hit out of bounds" on a play in which he hit a player that was still inbounds. 😉

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Linebacker

• 66 snaps: Alex Singleton

• 47 snaps: Duke Riley

• 20 snaps: T.J. Edwards

Analysis: As we noted in our 10 awards post, Alex Singleton has had at least 10 tackles in five of the six games since he became the full-time three-down linebacker.

Duke Riley out-snapped T.J. Edwards, which makes some sense, as the Cardinals like to spread the field horizontally. The Eagles likely wanted to get more team speed on the field.

Cornerback and safety

• 68 snaps each: Michael Jacquet, Jalen Mills, and Marcus Epps

• 67 snaps: Nickell Robey-Coleman

• 47 snaps: Kevon Seymour

• 23 snaps: K'Von Wallace

• 2 snaps: Elijah Riley

Analysis: The battered Eagles secondary gave up a ton of yards, but they offset that by making their share of plays as well. Michael Jacquet had the unenviable task of guarding DeAndre Hopkins for most of the day, but he did force one fumble and was mostly responsible for another. The difficult assignment didn't seem to faze him.

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