Philly Front Office

I don’t know if you are the type to happily watch football without the Eagles this weekend and happily disassociate or if you plan on avoiding the NFL like the plague, but here is the Eagles rooting guide, just in case they can right the ship any time soon.

Sunday Morning

• Denver Broncos at New York Jets at 9:30a from London, England
  • With wins by the Saints and Titans last week, the Jets are now the lone unvictorious team in the NFL. They now have an inside track on the #1 pick that they desperately need. I don’t have anything against the Jets other than they tend to be Mets fans, so is it considered rooting for them if you want them to lose? They are also a big seller come the deadline. Everyone except Wilson and Sauce should be available.
  • I hate Sean Payton. I hate that the game last week was stolen from us too, but I’m more mad that it fed into everyone’s Sean Payton genius narrative. Never Payton.
  • Could we have given London worse colors? Burnt Orange and vomit green. Brutal.

NFL Trade Deadline Primer Week 5: Post Hype Prospects

1PM Games

• Arizona Cardinals at Indianapolis Colts
  • I did not have Daniel Jones and Shane Steichen having a better record than the Eagles at any point this season regardless of schedule. It is certainly a feel good story for a team that might not have much talent, but a soft schedule and softer division have them with the best record in the league. Keep going boys!
  • The battle of former Eagles Super Bowl assistants has a clear good guy and bad guy. Eagles fans have been saying fuck Jonathan Gannon for years, but the rest of the NFL saw what kind of a-hole he was last week. Yes, his player made a bonehead move by fumbling right before the endzone, but you can’t hit the guy. Had a player hit a coach the way Gannon hit Emari Demarcado, he would probably never play in the league again. He’d be suspended and blackballed. Gannon only received a $100k fine. If this happened in Philadelphia, Sirianni would have been fired after a week of non-stop media coverage.
• Los Angeles Chargers at Miami Dolphins
  • The Dolphins may have beaten the Jets but, that may be the only team they can defeat this year. They aren’t just bad, they are a demoralized sad sack of an organization right now. Huge changes need to be made in Miami with literally no one safe from the axe. If their arena complex wasn’t such a cash cow, I would be calling for the owner’s head too. On a side note, I got to write an article for the Miami New Times about Tyreek Hill’s uncertain future.
  • The AFC West might be good. It might be terrible. Typical though that the one year the Chiefs stumble terribly that the Chargers can’t take advantage. That’s because Justin Herbert is a super fraud.
• New England Patriots at New Orleans Saints
  • The Patriots went from comic over-spenders to darlings of the league after one night in Buffalo. They are firmly on everyone’s radar now and might even be able to make the AFC East a race for the first time in years. It makes sense that they are good because looking up and down their roster they do not have anyone to sell at the trade deadline.
  • The Saints on the other hand screwed themselves by beating the Giants last week. I mean good for Kellen Moore to get his first win, but they drop a key game down in the race for the bottom behind the Jets. The two teams play in NJ in late December in what should be the worst game ever played. I can’t wait.
• Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers
  • Cleveland has already started making moves, bringing in Tyson Cambell for Greg Newsome. I already wrote about both, but them taking on Campbell’s contract is a strange move for a team that should be just plain selling. This team never makes any sense…which is fairly obvious considering their QB situation.
  • The Steelers are 3-1 thanks to 3 one score wins over mediocre to bad teams. Considering their next two games are against more dregs of the league before a marquee game against the Packers, the only thing to look for is the hype train to get bigger. I do not like Rogers and think he’s a failure as an incredible talent, but this will be a fun story in a season that is pretty dismal so far.
• Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers
  • Fuck them boys. Since the Eagles are in a free fall and the Cowboys are 2-2-1, we need them to lose. It won’t be easy, but this is a straight root against them just because kind of game.
  • Despite being terrible last year, the Panthers still have a solidly difficult schedule ahead with Dallas, Buffalo, and GB over the next 4 weeks. They are at about the time they need to make a decision about Bryce Young. I’m not saying they need to sit him, I mean, do they start selling off whatever pieces they have in order to re-rebuild? This is Year 3 and it looks a lot like Year 2. He’s probably a high end back up in this league right now or a late bloomer at best.
• Seattle Seahawks at Jacksonville Jaguars
  • I’m sorry, but I just cannot get behind Jacksonville being good. Maybe that’s the old man in me, but they are still the Jaguars and I do not believe in Trevor Lawrence at all. KC did not pay any attention to them last week and got themselves beat. I will say this, if they beat Seattle I will give them credit.
  • The Seahawks on the other hand are very talented. In fact, they might be too talented as the word on the street is that they could be motivated to move some of their excess secondary pieces including Riq Woolen. Woolen is not playing this week due to a concussion and neither is Devon Witherspoon. Look for old friend Josh Jobe and Shaq Griffin to play well to help loosen the Woolen strings. He may be trending in the wrong direction, but he is the most physically gifted player maybe in the whole league.
• Los Angeles Rams at Baltimore Ravens
  • Are the Rams really going to bury the Ravens? If so, does the preseason Super Bowl contender pack it in and start selling at the deadline? I just can’t believe it. Jackson is out this week and then they have their bye week. They are looking at 1-5. Except, then they have the Bears, Dolphins, Vikings, Browns, Jets, and Bengals. All of a sudden, they could be 7-5. They do have Mark Andrews, David Ojabo, and Kyle Van Noy all in the last years of their deals though. Just a completely fascinating team to watch the next few weeks.
  • What the hell are the Rams? They have 2 good losses but also 3 very unimpressive wins. They are going to be fighting for their division all year, so we probably just want them to lose in general, but I have no idea if they are any good.

4PM Games

• Tennessee Titans at Las Vegas Raiders
  • Ohhhhh boy the Trade Deadline Game of the Week is a real shitbomb. Brock Bowers is probably out this week which means Geno Smith is going to be giving the Titans secondary all types of opportunities to pad some stats. Eagles need to have their eyes on all 3 top corners: L’Jarius Sneed, Roger McCreary, and Jalyn Armour-Davis (who I would like)
  • Fair warning, do not stare too long at this game. It may cause your eyes to bleed.
• Cincinnati Bengals at Green Bay Packers
  • The Joe Flacco era in Cincy begins! Not a moment too soon too. They just needed some competence at the position and by God they didn’t have it. IT might be too late. With tough matchups against the Packers and Steelers coming up, they will need to beat both the Jets and Bears with Flacco to avoid selling at the deadline. It is doable, but this team is in a pinch.
  • The Packers beat the Lions then lost to the Browns and tied the Cowboys, so literally anything is possible. We just want them to lose so I can feel more confident about heading to GB in a few weeks.
• San Francisco 49ers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • This is just the opposite of Tennessee and Las Vegas. Both these teams are solid and it should just be good football game. Sit back, enjoy, and when in doubt, root against SF.

Sunday Night Football

• Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs
  • This game sure did look a lot better a few weeks ago, huh? I mean, maybe it’s even better now? The talk for the whole game will be “could KC really drop to 2-3?” If you are into that sort of thing, have fun.
  • I know Detroit is our enemy even if it’s not official yet, but I just can’t root for KC. That would be unnatural. It will be their first real test since Week 1 though. They are 4-1, but their 4 wins are against teams with a combined record of 6-13. An against the ropes Chiefs team could prove tricky, especially with Detroit’s banged up secondary.

Monday Night Football

• Buffalo Bills at Atlanta Falcons at 7:15p
  • Why are we doing 2 Monday Night Games again? It’s not like there are also 2 League Championship baseball games that night too either. Anyway, we get to see if the Bills can rebound from their loss to the Patriots. If they lose, you will not hear anyone question Josh Allen’s talent or leadership like you have the Philadelphia faithful crush Hurts this week. I have to root against them simply for that psychology experiment to unfold.
  • The Falcons are 2-2 and teetering. Yes, they beat the Commanders, but that was without Jayden Daniels and right after getting trounced by Carolina. A date with the Dolphins in 2 weeks is the real test. If they lose that one, pull the plug on the year.
• Chicago Bears at Washington Commanders at 8:15p
  • Jayden Daniels vs Caleb Williams. We obviously want the Bears to win and the Commanders will be without Terry McLaurin again. Of the two games this night, this is the one to watch. You just hope Daniels has nowhere to go and Williams doesn’t do anything stupid.
  • The Bears Cole Kmet is on my radar as a possible TE of the future for the Eagles either this year or next. Colston Loveland is questionable again, so we will have to see if he plays and how that affects Kmet. Ideally Loveland plays and gets all the targets, even though Williams hasn’t exactly been looking his way.