The 2019 Philadelphia Eagles season has been nothing short of exciting. Despite just a 2-2 record, every game has been decided by one score. Three of them were decided in the final minute. The wins have come via a 17-point comeback and then a 10-point road comeback/goal line stop of future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers on primetime football; meanwhile, the losses have come via a pair of dropped touchdown passes in consecutive weeks, both times with the Eagles decimated by injuries.
In the first part of a two-part article, I took a look at the 11 offensive starters (plus a few others) and assigned a letter grade based on performance thus far through four weeks.
Quarterback
Carson Wentz
Quarterbacks will always ultimately be evaluated by wins and losses, and Carson Wentz is 2-2 on the season. Take away a goal line stop by the Eagles’ defense against Aaron Rodgers, and he’s 1-3. Then again, you can play that game the other way and say he’s a dropped touchdown on two different occasions from being 4-0.
The most important aspect of Wentz’s game so far is that he’s been healthy. Save for being briefly sidelined for five plays while the medical staff evaluated him for a concussion, he’s started all four games. Wentz has thrown nine touchdowns to just two interceptions (plus a rushing score), and he’s been without his deep threat receiver in DeSean Jackson for three of the games and without his No. 1 receiver in Alshon Jeffery for two of the games. He’s taking sacks at the lowest percentage of his career (4.6 rate), and if you’ve watched him play, you can see how well he’s done at avoiding them. And perhaps his most underrated aspect of the 2019 season – he hasn’t yet fumbled; this after averaging 0.80 fumbles per game through his first three NFL seasons.
Like Nick Foles, Wentz is still converting third downs at an incredibly high efficiency. He’s posted a 125.5 passer rating and 9.2 yards per attempt on such downs. The ‘knock’ on Wentz – aside from his injury history – has been lack of a signature win, but after going into Lambeau Field on primetime football and tossing three touchdowns to lead a 10-point come-from-behind win against Aaron Rodgers & Co., he can check that box off. He’s actually PFF’s highest-rated QB so far in 2019. He’s been plagued by more drops (12) than any other quarterback. And he’s completely healed from his 2017 ACL and 2018 back injury. Expect big things from Wentz for the rest of the year. Grade: A
Running Backs
Jordan Howard
The Eagles didn’t trade for Jordan Howard for him to be the unquestioned workhorse of the offense, but that’s more because Doug Pederson doesn’t use a bellcow running back. He won a Super Bowl with a three-headed running back, and after Howard’s breakout game against Green Bay, it’s looking as if he might have another one in 2019 with Howard/Miles Sanders/Darren Sproles.
Howard’s best attribute is his ability to run hard between the tackles and fall forward. He’s seen his workload increase in every game so far, topping out with an 18-touch outburst against Green Bay that made him the team’s first running back since Corey Clement in 2017 to score two rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown in the same game. His 4.7 yards-per-carry average is currently his best mark since his rookie season and he hasn’t yet fumbled. Grade: B
Miles Sanders
It’s been a roller coaster of a quarter of a rookie season for second-round pick Miles Sanders. In his first two games, he rushed 21 times for just 53 yards, although he did have a nifty touchdown run called back via a holding penalty. He gained 180 all-purpose yards in his third game, including a pair of 30-yard catches, but also coughed the ball up twice – which put him on the bench for some time. And then he rushed for a new career-best 72 yards in his fourth game, also adding a 67-yard kick return.
The big play ability is there. He’s gained 30 yards on a run, reception, and kick return so far this year, even though he hasn’t officially scored a touchdown. He hasn’t yet been the factor in the receiving game you may expect, and his blocking is what gets him subbed out for Howard or Sproles on some plays. Grade: C+
Darren Sproles
The 36-year-old multidimensional back is still producing, even in his 15th NFL season. Sproles hasn’t touched the ball much since his solid Week 1 line (9/47 rushing, 3/16 receiving, 4/46 punt returns), although he’s still regularly playing around 30 percent of the offensive snaps. He’s a fine blocker and still a weapon when used appropriately. Grade: B
Wide Receivers
Alshon Jeffery
Alshon Jeffery will probably never make the Pro Bowl with the Eagles and annual soft-tissue injuries usually cost him enough games that he may not even top the 1,000-yard club again. But his value is extremely evident, both in the games that he does and does not play. Jeffery scored two touchdowns in the opener, missed a pair of contests while rehabbing from injuries, and then came back to catch another touchdown in the Green Bay game. Even with the two missed games (technically he played six snaps in Week 2), he’s still scored three times in a quarter of the year, which has him on pace for a career-best 12 touchdowns in 2019. Grade: B
DeSean Jackson
In his first game with the Eagles since he was unceremoniously released six seasons prior, DeSean Jackson showed that he’s still got it. He hauled in not one, but two long touchdown receptions, fueling an incredible 17-point Eagles comeback and Week 1 win. He finished that game with a ridiculously productive 8/154/2 statline, showing he can thrive not just on the fly patterns but the underneath routes that he didn’t used to do nearly as much.
Since then, Jackson essentially hasn’t played; he was removed after 11 offensive snaps (and no targets) in Week 2 and has spent the weeks since then rehabbing an abdominal injury. As a result, the Eagles offense has suffered. Considering injuries do need to be factored in a player’s grade, Jackson’s grade reflects a player who turned in a dominating one-game performance while missing close to three full contests due to injury. Grade: B-
Nelson Agholor
When you look at the raw numbers in the two games in which Nelson Agholor was the team’s No. 1 receiver, he produced a 8/107/1 line and a 8/50/2 line. The problem is that he dropped the potential game-winning touchdown in the loss to Atlanta in Week 2, then fumbled away a ball in a loss to Detroit in Week 3. He was all but phased out of the passing game in Week 4; despite leading the team’s receivers with 56 snaps, he had no catches on just one target.
Some consistency would be nice from Agholor. His playmaking abilities have been evident since the 2017 season, but he’ll probably never get past the plague of drops that seem to have constantly hampered him. Grade: C-
J.J. Arcega-Whiteside
The Eagles spent a second-round pick on J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, expecting him to play a role as a junior Alshon Jeffery who comes away with contested catches and plays a huge role in the red zone. So it’s pretty surprising that JJAW has caught just two passes for 14 yards so far, and this despite Jackson/Jeffery combining to miss nearly five full games. JJAW had the holding penalty to bring back Miles Sanders’ touchdown run in Week 1 and dropped the 4th-and-15 game-winning touchdown in the end zone against Detroit in Week 3 (below).
Even more shockingly, he’s been ceding snaps to 2017 fourth-rounder Mack Hollins, a guy valued much more for his special teams prowess than what he does as an actual receiver. Per Pro Football Focus, Arcega-Whiteside has registered just 14 yards on 86 routes for 0.16 yards per route run, which is the second-lowest mark in football among receivers with at least 50 routes. Grade: F
Mack Hollins
Mack Hollins wasn’t even a guarantee to make the 53-man roster, so the fact that he’s seeing offensive snaps and has had fantasy relevance is shocking. Then again, Hollins was only thrust into such a role given injuries to Jackson/Jeffery, and Hollins does have 10 catches for 125 yards. Then again, he’s also committed three offensive pass interference penalties, dropped two passes, and so far, he’s PFF’s lowest-rated wide receiver of the entire season. Grade: D
Tight Ends
Zach Ertz
With the injuries to the Eagles’ top two receivers, Zach Ertz has become increasingly important to the offense. He’s Mr. Reliable, garnering at least four catches and at least 54 yards in every game this year and securing a two-point conversion. He doesn’t have a touchdown but still finds himself on pace for close to a 100/1,000 year. Grade: A-
Dallas Goedert
The preseason hype on Dallas Goedert was overwhelming. Even with his role as just the No. 2 tight end in the offense, there was legitimate Pro Bowl buzz on a player who was expected to be a prominent role in the Eagles’ 12 personnel packages. At this point, Goedert is at just four catches for 32 yards and a touchdown, and he’s missed one game due to injury (and nearly all of another). In the two full games in which he was healthy, he did play in over 50 percent of the offensive snaps but he’s a distant ninth on the Eagles in receptions and eighth in yards. The most impressive aspect about Goedert has been his run-blocking success: PFF rates him No. 1 at his position in run blocking, significantly ahead of No. 2, George Kittle. Grade: C
Offensive Line
Jason Peters
The future Hall of Famer started to show his age in 2017 and 2018, missing the majority of the Super Bowl season due a torn ACL/MCL and then leaving 11 (!) different games early last year due to injury. This year, he’s started all four games and while he’s come out of two of the games, he’s played very well when on the field. PFF has rated Peters as the 11th best offensive tackle among 72 qualifiers, and he hasn’t yet allowed a sack. Grade: B+
Isaac Seumalo
For three games this season, Isaac Seumalo has been an average starter. He’s by far the worst player on the Eagles’ offensive line, but they also have arguably the best offensive line in the NFL, and he’s been ok. But for one game against Atlanta in Week 2, Seumalo was one of the worst recorded players in PFF history, committing three penalties, allowing two sacks, and giving up six quarterback hurries. In a four-point loss to Atlanta in Week 2, you can easily make the case the Eagles would have won the game had Seumalo not been so awful. Grade: D
Jason Kelce
For the last two years, Jason Kelce has been the unquestioned best center in football, starting every game, earning consecutive First-Team All-Pro invitations, delivering a Super Bowl championship to Philadelphia, and then capping it off with a speech for the ages. Kelce has played every snap so far in 2019. He’s exceptional at getting to the second level as a run blocker and PFF rates him as a top-five center in the game so far. Grade: A-
Brandon Brooks
Brandon Brooks has been arguably the unsung hero of the Eagles’ offense through four games. He tore his Achilles tendon in the team’s NFC Divisional loss to New Orleans in January. Given his size and the severity of the injury, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable for Brooks to miss the entire 2019 season. Instead, he’s started every game so far this year and he’s actually better than ever. Per Pro Football Focus, he’s the highest-rated guard in the NFL this year. He hasn’t yet allowed a sack or a QB hit and he’s opening up big holes in the running game. Grade: A+
Lane Johnson
There used to be a consensus among football fans/experts that right tackle was an ‘inferior’ position on the offensive line, one made for the lesser of offensive tackles. But that’s not really the case anymore with a great majority of elite pass rushers playing on the left side. That’s what makes Lane Johnson so valuable to the Eagles. This year, PFF rates him tied for the fifth-best offensive tackle in the entire NFL, this out of 72 qualifiers. Johnson is a good bet to earn his third straight Pro Bowl selection this season. Grade: A
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