Philly Front Office

The Eagles are 6-2 with wins over the Chiefs, Rams, and Bucs, first place in the NFC East by 2-3 games (I think, the tie really messes with things), and the 2nd best record in the NFC overall only behind their opponent coming out of the bye. If I were to tell you this going into the year, you’d take it with glee. Getting there has been anything but normal though.

Giants at Eagles: Should Eli Manning be in the Hall of Fame?

Record

6-2. Those 6 wins came against one of the hardest schedules in the league:

• We started the season against our archrival on ring night and had to win without our best defensive player who got himself ejected for getting spit at by Dak Prescott
• Then we travel to Arrowhead Stadium, one of the toughest places to play in football, to face the team we just beat in the Super Bowl
• Win 3 was a big comeback against one of the best teams in the league and a legit Super Bowl Contender
• Because the scheduling Gods hate us, we traveled to Tampa in September for a 1pm game where the sun is beating down making it one of the hottest situations in football for a road team and we STILL beat the Bucs
• The Vikings might be falling apart with Carson Wentz at QB, but Jalen Hurts torched the best pass defense in football with a perfect passer rating.

This is not the same 6-2 as other teams’ 6-2. These are all quality wins with the Giants, an up-and-coming division rival, as the only cupcake. Things will not get much easier.

Of the 2 losses, only the Giants L was legitimate. I’m sorry, but that Broncos game will stick in my craw all season. The refs basically gave 14 points to the Broncos with phantom calls and flag pick-ups then on a blatant pass interference against Dallas Goedert with the Eagles driving to steal back the game. Granted, it is probably a good thing we lost this game, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t on some bullshit.

MVP

Jalen Hurts said he was done losing and he just showed everyone he was serious. Despite the broadcast going out of its way to praise every step taken by Jaxson Dart, it was Hurts who played a nearly flawless game. He threw 4 TDs to 5 incompletions. The last 2 weeks he is up to 7 TDs with only 9 incompletes. On the season he is up to 20 total TDs with 1 turnover. Those are MVP numbers.

I don’t really understand why he isn’t in the MVP conversation. The biggest knock against him seems to be that he isn’t winning the way people want him to. Take today against the Giants for example. He only threw for 179 yards. It seems that the conversation is more impressed by losing with gaudy stats than winning with pedestrian ones. Dak Prescott has less TDs, more turnovers, a weaker schedule, and a worse record, but he seems to be the MVP front runner because his team is often behind so he throws for more yards. What about the comeback kid, Baker Mayfield? Is it better to be losing and come back in the 4th quarter or, you know, win without doing that? Baker has less total TDs and his INTs have directly lead to losses including to Jalen Hurts and the Eagles. I’m assuming the Hurts MVP train will pick up steam soon.

Health

The team’s overall health was not talked about enough leading to the Super Bowl last year. Other than Nakobe Dean getting injured in the playoffs and BG going down earlier in the year, for the most part there was unrivaled continuity week to week. Not this season.

AJ Brown and Cam Jurgens missed this week. Nolan Smith and Jakorian Bennett have been on injured reserve. Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson, and Jalen Carter have all been in and out of the lineup. The bye week is coming at the perfect time. Expect Bennett to take over CB2 starting duties in 2 weeks plus Nolan Smith will be back to help a pass rush in dire need of his juice. The offensive line needs serious rest.

Brandon Graham’s Contract

Problems

I don’t know if AJ Brown is really a problem or not. The media certainly wants him to be and his odd Instagram posts certainly aren’t helping, but overall he wasn’t’ wrong about the offense and things seem to be back on track. Is he a competitor that feels the only way for him to be heard is through this behavior? Maybe. Is he a malcontent that would rather catch 10 passes for 200 yards in a loss instead of 2 for 10 yards in a win? Maybe that too. Honestly it is probably both. I do know that the Eagles are a better team with him than without him. It also seems like this might be his last year with the Eagles. Do not expect him to get traded at the deadline though.

The running game was trash until today. If today had been through the air with nothing on the ground again, the feeling wouldn’t be nearly as positive. Whatever they changed needs to be preserved going forward because the Eagles cannot get back to dominance without a running attack.

The Eagles have been victims of bad officiating, but also of their own sloppiness. For a team that prides itself on the details, these bullshit false start, offsides, and late hit penalties need to stop. These aren’t rookies and they aren’t dummies, they are champions. Champions don’t make preventable mistakes like this with such regularity.

The pass rush still wasn’t getting home today. It seems like the only time they get to the QB is after about 5 seconds and the play has broken down to the point where the defense wins on attrition. Nolan Smith and the return of BG should help, but they won’t dramatically change things. This team needs some juice on the defensive line. What a perfect segue to…

Trade Deadline

Deadline Day is November 4 at 4pm. The Eagles have extra draft ammunition to make any move they want. The guy I have been focused on is Danielle Hunter of the Texans, but they had to go and beat the 49ers today (SF a-holes). After him, the targets have to be Trey Hendrickson and Bradley Chubb if they want to add real firepower or Jermaine Johnson and Jaelan Phillips if they just want to add depth to the rotation and rely on fresh legs like back in 2017-18.

There is also the need in the secondary for simply competence at CB2. Jakorian Bennett coming back should help, but that would be putting all our eggs in one basket post-deadline. Gambling isn’t exactly something Howie likes to do. The flashy target has been Riq Woolen out of Seattle, but he hasn’t looked great. What about Alontae Taylor from the Saints or Roger McCreary from the Titans? Neither will cost too much and are in the final year of their deals.

This will be my big focus this week considered the bye.

Upcoming Schedule

I wish I could tell you we just finished the hard part of the schedule, but it is more like 1a and 1b. The rest of the schedule sucks just as bad:

• Monday Night at Green Bay
• Home against Detroit on a short week
• Travel to Dallas
• Short week again playing the Bears on a Friday at home
• Travel to Los Angeles to play the Chargers on MNF
• Finish up with the Raiders at home, 2 against Washington sandwiching a trip to Buffalo.

At the very least, we can take these 2 gauntlets as the battle testing that other teams simply won’t have. Even if we lose some games and do not get the #1 seed, we will still have the claim of dealing with tough crowds in Arrowhead and Lambeau plus the bad weather of Tampa and Buffalo.

Overall

With the schedule, all the drama, and the negative attention of AJ Brown and the Tush Push, I have to reiterate just how good 6-2 is going into the bye. The 2025-26 Eagles have not played their best yet. For a defending champion, this is about as good as we could hope at the unofficial halfway point of the season. We are in this and probably still considered the favorite.

See you in Green Bay. Literally. PFO will be at the game.