A finally look at Isaiah Rodgers, Jalen Carter’s expectations and Nakobe Dean’s wait. It’s Roob’s random offseason observations of the Eagles in the middle of spring OTAs, and we actually have some football to talk about.
1. The guy I most wanted to see at OTA practice was Isaiah Rodgers. I am fascinated by his story, I am intrigued by the signing, I am fascinated by the possibilities. Until these practices at NovaCare, Rodgers had not stepped foot on a football field since he suffered a knee injury on December 26, 2022, while playing for the Colts against the Chargers at Lucas Oil Stadium. There are 512 days without stepping on a football field. And it’s not like he’s at an NFL facility in meetings watching film and chatting with his coaches. Even after signing with the Eagles in April 2023, he was not allowed to be with the team, so he was back in Tampa, working out alone and counting the days until he finished his suspension. So on Wednesday, for the first time, we got to see the 26-year-old Rodgers in an Eagles uniform, and while you don’t want to get carried away with an OTA practice without pads, it was definitely an encouraging look at the cornerback. who had the fifth-highest PFF grade with 105 cornerbacks playing at least 400 snaps in 2022. He seemed confident. He seemed comfortable. He seemed fluid. He seemed clingy. He was communicating with the other DBs. He looked nothing like someone who just went 512 days without football. Where does he fit in? I have no idea. It’s May and we’ll see this summer how all the pieces fit together. Darius Slay is CB1 and Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were standout picks and impressive kids, and last we checked, James Bradberry is still here too. But it’s May and it doesn’t matter where Rodgers fits. What matters is that at first glance he seems like a guy who is going to help this team.
2. Dak Prescott’s 189 passes without an interception are not only the most by a quarterback at the Linc, but they are also the second most by any quarterback in any stadium. Kirk Cousins has thrown 222 passes at Ford Field without an INT, and is the only QB to throw more passes in any stadium without being intercepted than Prescott at the Linc. Next on that list is Drew Brees, with 177 passes at Levi’s Stadium without an interception. Most INT at the vet without INT? That’s 136 for Kerry Collins. The most at Franklin Field? Rick Arrington with 39. And the most in Shibe Park? Paul Christman was 66. Now you know.
3. I liked what I heard from Jalen Carter on Wednesday. I like that he was disappointed with his 2023 season. I like that he embraces old school coaches like Vic Fangio. I like that he wants to be pushed hard. He said all the right things, but ultimately what matters is that Carter does the things he talked about and gets in the best shape of his life and finds a way to maintain the way he played earlier in the season. passed for a whole year. If he can do that, and I believe he can, he will be a first-team All-Pro sooner rather than later. Six weeks into his NFL career, Carter had a ridiculous six hurries, four tackles for loss, four QB hits and 3 ½ sacks, the first rookie defensive tackle with those numbers in six career games since Eagle Ndamukong Suh in 2010. Imagine if Carter kept that up for 17 games? You are facing a season of all time. And he can be that good. Carter is very talented. The possibilities are terrifying. He just has to commit to doing it.
4. It’s funny to me that Jalen Hurts can go 29-3 in a 32-game span from December 2021 to November 2023 while throwing 46 touchdowns and 17 interceptions and rushing for another 32 touchdowns, with a near-flawless career in the Super Bowl in the middle of that – and then, thanks to an ugly finish under an outgoing offensive coordinator on a losing team that played a “stale” offense, in the head coach’s own words, suddenly people question it? And even down the stretch last year, Hurts only had two legitimately bad games: the Seattle loss and the Giants loss. He’s the last guy on this roster I worry about.
5. Only two wide receivers in the last 25 years drafted in the fifth round or later have had 800 yards, 17.5 receiving yards and eight touchdowns in a season: Marvin Jones of the Bengals in 2017 and Riley Cooper of the Eagles in 2013.
6. Zach Baun may have been taking first-team reps at off-ball linebacker during last week’s open practice, but I just don’t see him as a viable off-ball linebacker in any role beyond a few snaps here or there. Baun played 660 defensive snaps in four years with the Saints and, according to Pro Football Focus, 170 were at linebacker. And in the last two years he played 320 snaps as an edge rusher and 39 as a linebacker. He’s not the guy. The reality is that Nakobe Dean remains the Eagles’ best hope for a viable off-ball starting linebacker, opposite Devin White. Unfortunately, as of last week, Dean had yet to be fully cleared after suffering two foot injuries last year and undergoing surgery in November. Dean told me on locker cleaning day that he hoped to be cleared by now: “I can’t wait for OTAs, I can’t wait for training camp, I can’t wait until next year,” he said on Jan. 1. 27. But here we are. Dean did some individual work last week but we haven’t seen him on the field for team drills yet. Hopefully, Dean will be back this week or next month for mandatory minicamp. This is a big year for him and he has a lot to prove. We’ve all seen the potential in him and while I understand why some people despise him, it’s too early to give up on the former Georgia star. Dean has played big plays in five games of his life. He left two of them with foot injuries and wasn’t 100 percent on the other three. Dean was never hurt at Georgia, so it’s not like he’s injury prone. We just need to see him play healthy and find out who he is and what type of player he can be. And it would be good if that process began very soon.
7. I never understood why Asante Samuel’s Hall of Fame candidacy has been unsuccessful. In addition to his 51 career interceptions and seven pick-6s, he had seven more INTs in the postseason and an NFL-record four more pick-6s. He is one of five players in NFL history with 50 interceptions and 10 pick-6s, and the only other one not in the Hall of Fame is Darren Sharper, and that’s for non-football reasons. Samuel hasn’t even been a finalist, which is absurd. Eric Allen finally made it to the final round before being ridiculously excluded from the Hall. He’s not the only former Eagles cornerback who deserves a much closer look.
8. The only Hall of Fame quarterbacks the Eagles have beaten in the postseason in the last 70 years are the Packers: Bart Starr at Franklin Field in the 1960 NFL Championship Game and Brett Favre at the Linc in the 2003 conference semifinal, 4th and 26. This statistic will disappear in 2028.
9. Remember when Bobby Hoying and Boomer Esiason faced off in that wild Eagles-Bengals game at the Vet in 1997? Hoying outscored Esiason with four touchdowns (to Kevin Turner, Michael Timpson, Jimmie Johnson and Chad Lewis) and just one interception, and the Eagles won 44-42. After that game, Hoying threw four touchdown passes and 14 interceptions over the remainder of his career.
10. Parris Campbell is one of four WRs in NFL history selected in the first two rounds with at least 100 career targets while averaging less than 25 yards per game and less than 10 yards per catch. The others are David Palmer, Dexter McCluster and Tavon Austin.
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