December 21, 2025

Game ball, three stars, and snap count analysis: Week 16, Eagles at Commanders

With the NFC East clinched, the Eagles could be shifting priority toward getting their starters rest for the playoffs.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Geoff Burke/Imagn Images

Tank Bigsby could be getting some extended action soon to keep Saquon Barkley fresh for the playoffs.

In their Week 16 win over the Washington Commanders, the Philadelphia Eagles played 70 snaps on offense and 54 snaps on defense. Let's just get right to the snap counts, some notes, and some special recognition.

Quarterback

• 66 snaps: Jalen Hurts

• 4 snaps: Tanner McKee

Notes: As we noted in our 10 awards post, Hurts had a very 2024 type of game. He had some good throws and some misses, he was a factor in the run game, he didn't turn it over, and the Eagles pulled away in the second half after some first half sloppiness.

That was like 10 of their games last year.

Running back

• 54 snaps: Saquon Barkley

• 8 snaps each: Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley

Notes: Barkley looked better in this game than he has all season, in my opinion, particularly on his tackle-breaking 12-yard TD run, and when he turned a 2-yard loss into a 48-yard run.

Bigsby should get more work over the next two weeks to keep Saquon fresh for the playoffs. He has earned more carries, all season long, really, as he runs hard and consistently gets yards after contact.

Shipley fumbled the opening kickoff and was lucky the defense bailed him out.

Wide receiver

• 61 snaps: A.J. Brown

• 60 snaps: DeVonta Smith

• 46 snaps: Jahan Dotson

• 13 snaps: Darius Cooper

• 1 snap: Britain Covey

Notes: Brown caught 9 passes for 95 yards. Smith had 6 catches for 42 yards and a TD. (He also dropped a TD pass from Hurts.)

The Eagles' receivers were more open in this game than any other game this season that I can remember. The Commanders played a fair amount of man coverage and Brown and Smith had no trouble getting separation. The Commanders also left their base defense on the field quite a bit when the Eagles were in 11 personnel, so the middle of the field was often wide open against Washington's coverage-challenged linebackers.

Tight end

• 61 snaps: Dallas Goedert

• 21 snaps: Grant Calcaterra

• 8 snaps: Kylen Granson

• 6 snaps: E.J. Jenkins

Notes: Goedert only got 3 targets, but he made the most of them, making 3 catches for 32 yards, and the following contested catch TD.

That was his 10th TD catch of the season!

Offensive line

• 70 snaps each: Jordan Mailata, Fred Johnson

• 66 snaps each: Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen

• 7 snaps: Matt Pryor

• 4 snaps each: Brett Toth, Drew Kendall

Notes: The Eagles will have to worry about a possible suspension for Steen after his involvement in the big brawl near the end of the game.

Lane Johnson warmed up with the offensive line before the game, and should be ready to play Week 17 against the Bills. Earlier this morning, we pondered if that's a good idea or not. (Spoiler: It is, in my opinion.)

Edge defenders

• 40 snaps: Nolan Smith

• 38 snaps: Jaelan Phillips

• 30 snaps: Jalyx Hunt

Notes: Though they did get pressure, it was a quiet night statistically for the edge guys against a Commanders O-line that was missing Laremy Tunsil.

Vic Fangio said this week that Smith is no longer on a pitch count, and the snaps reflect that.

Interior defensive line

• 43 snaps: Moro Ojomo

• 33 snaps: Jordan Davis

• 26 snaps: Byron Young

• 9 snaps: Brandon Graham

• 6 snaps: Ty Robinson

Notes: Graham and Young had a sack each, and Davis was tossing Commanders linemen around all night. The quartet of Ojomo, Davis, Young, and Graham have combined for 39 tackles, 8 sacks, 9 TFLs, and 10 QB hits during Jalen Carter's three-game absence.

Carter is still the best interior defensive lineman on the Eagles roster, by far, even if he hasn't played like it this season. If he comes back healthy, this group could be a nightmare for opposing offensive lines to deal with in the playoffs.

Linebacker

• 49 snaps: Zack Baun

• 36 snaps: Jihaad Campbell

• 13 snaps: Nakobe Dean

• 5 snaps: Jeremiah Trotter

• 4 snaps: Smael Mondon

Notes: Dean suffered a hamstring injury, left the field, and did not return. Here he was walking off the field after the game, via Jason Dumas of 6ABC:

Dean has been fantastic this season after his return from a torn patellar tendon suffered during the playoffs last season. I'm not sure how much we can glean from the above video on the severity of the injury, but he's walking with a limp.

It's probably safe to say we won't see Dean in the last two regular season games.

The Eagles do have a capable reserve in first-round rookie Jihaad Campbell, who has been impressive behind the scenes in the handling of his demotion this season.

Baun had a nice game. He was around the football all night and had 9 tackles.

Cornerback and safety

• 49 snaps each: Quinyon Mitchell, Reed Blankenship

• 48 snaps: Cooper DeJean, Marcus Epps

• 39 snaps: Adoree' Jackson

• 8 snaps: Michael Carter

• 6 snaps: Sydney Brown

• 5 snaps each: Kelee Ringo, Jakorian Bennett, Brandon Johnson

Notes: DeJean had a gift INT, and a great game otherwise:

Cooper DeJean was targeted 8 times on 24 coverage snaps against the Commanders. He gave up 4 catches for 32 yards. He had 4 PBUs and an INT. (Per @NextGenStats)
— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) December 21, 2025

Quinyon Mitchell gave up almost nothing, as usual.

Quinyon Mitchell tonight:

- 3 targets
- 1 catch allowed
- 6 yards
- 0 TDs
- 2 PBUs
- 42.4 passer rating allowed

4th straight game allowing <10 yards, 15th straight w/o allowing a TD. 🔐 pic.twitter.com/Xrlp0dVehd
— garrett (@jalenreagors) December 21, 2025

I also thought Reed Blankenship had one of his best games of the season.

Three stars 🤩

⭐⭐⭐: Saquon Barkley: Barkley went over 1000 yards for the fifth time in his career. Or the sixth time if you count his 2000-yard 2024 season twice.

🌟🌟: Quinyon Mitchell: It's crazy that the Eagles got this guy with the 22nd pick of the 2024 draft.

✨: Cooper DeJean: It's even crazier that the Eagles got this guy with the 40th pick of the 2024 draft.