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Why I’m concerned about Avonte Maddox playing safety, an unprecedented accomplishment for DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown in 2024, and the only player to score a touchdown in his only game as an Eagle.
We may be entering the only dead period on the NFL calendar (mid-June to late July), but when it comes to the Roob Eagles’ 10 random offseason observations, there are no dead periods.
Dig in!
1. There’s been a lot of talk about Avonte Maddox working at safety during OTAs, and while it makes sense in some ways (the Eagles have too many corners and not enough safeties and Cooper DeJean looks like he’s headed for the starting job) I have my doubts. I like Maddox. I really admire the way he plays. He is a tough, tough, physical defensive back, and there is no doubt that he has the skills to play safety. At least for a while. I just don’t see how a guy who is already injury-prone playing corner and who would be one of the smallest safeties in NFL history is going to hold up if he has to play big snaps at safety. Maddox is listed at 5-9, 184, and according to Stathead there have only been three other safeties in the last 50 years who are 5-9 and 184 or shorter (Terry Cousin of the Giants in 2004, Shaun Jolly of the Rams in 2022, Ar ‘Darius Washington in 2022 and 2023), and neither played more than a handful of games there. Remember, Maddox has already missed 28 games in the last four years and 35 in six NFL seasons. I like Maddox and I play him, but I think it would be a mistake to have him at safety when he hasn’t been able to stay on the field playing corner. At some point, Sydney Brown will return and I think he has a chance to be a player, and Mekhi Garner could also be in the backup safety mix. If the Eagles keep Maddox as a backup and emergency safety and core member of the special team, that could work. I’m just afraid that the more security they ask of you to play, the greater the risk of losing it again.
2. It’s interesting that as Jalen Hurts’ rushing numbers have decreased: 6.7 yards per carry in 2021 to 5.4 in 2022 and 4.2 last year (without kneeling), his first rushing attempts have increased: 56 in 2021 at 67 in 2022 at 68 last year. (and only 17 of them were butt pushes). So he didn’t have long runs to improve his average last year, but he was surprisingly productive when he took off. Despite ranking 35th in the NFL last year with 157 rushing attempts, Hurts had the second-most rushing first downs, trailing only Christian McCaffrey’s 83. His 68 first downs on the ground are the second-most ever by a quarterback — three fewer than Lamar Jackson’s 71 in 2019. No one else in NFL history has had as many 68 first downs on fewer than 160 rushing attempts. . If you take away his knees, he converted 46 percent of his runs into first downs, and that’s the second-highest rate on record behind Josh Allen’s 51 percent last year. The eye test said Hurts wasn’t as effective when he ran last year as he was in 2021 and 2022, and there were a lot of RPOs and goaltenders who had disastrous results, which was more a product of bad plays and offensive concepts than anything he Hurts was doing. . With the right offense and a creative, innovative player with the ability to keep defenses off balance, there’s no doubt Hurts’ running ability can continue to be a major weapon.
3. DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown have a real chance to add their names to the list of the best wide receiver tandems in NFL history by the time they’re done. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but if each reaches 1,000 yards in 2024, they will be just the sixth duo in NFL history to record three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons together and the first to do so before either of them. turns 28 years old. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have done it in each of the last three years and have a chance in 2024 to become the first duo to record four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. Cris Carter and Jake Reed each had 1,000 yards with the Vikings from 1995 to 1997, as did Carter and Randy Moss from 1998 to 2020, Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce from 2000 to 2002 with the Rams, and Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas since 2014 until 2016 with the Broncos. Smith and Brown are the only Eagles duo with 1,000 receiving yards in the same season.
4. I think we should talk about Bobby Thomason’s 1956 season as Eagles quarterback. Good old Bobby threw four touchdowns and 21 interceptions and remains the only NFL quarterback in the last 70 years to throw just four touchdown passes in a season and at least 20 interceptions. His 40.7 passer rating is the eighth-worst in NFL history (minimum 10 starts). Two of Thomason’s touchdown passes (and two INTs) came in the Week 3 win over the Steelers at KeynoteUSA Field. The rest of the season he threw two TDs and 15 INTs. He had a six-INT game against the Cardinals and five starts in which he completed five passes or fewer. The offense averaged 11.3 points per game and scored 10 points or fewer six times. The Eagles went 3-8-1 (after a 2-1 start) under head coach Hugh Devore and finished last in their division for the first time since 1942. Here’s the kicker: Thomason made the Pro Bowl that anus. I’m guessing the other 11 NFL quarterbacks were injured.
5. Only six players in NFL history selected in the fifth round or later have had 90 career sacks. Two of the six were Eagles Draft picks. Clyde Simmons, a ninth-round pick in 1986, had 121 ½, which is 61 more than any other ninth-round pick. And Trent Cole, a fifth-round pick in 2005, had 90 ½, which is the fourth-most ever by a fifth-round pick. The other picks in the fifth round or later with 90 sacks are Hall of Famer Kevin Greene, a fifth-round pick in 1985 (160); Hall of Famer and former Eagle Richard Dent, 1983 eighth-round pick (137 ½); Robert Mathis, 2003 fifth-round pick (123.0); and Dexter Manley, fifth-round pick in 1981 (97 ½).
6. If the Eagles signed TO today, he would be their third-best receiver.
7A. There is only one player in Eagles history who played just one game in an Eagles uniform and scored a touchdown. That’s running back Terrell Watson. The Eagles signed Watson to the practice squad on December 20, 2016. They were his fourth team after brief stints with the Bengals, Browns and Broncos. They signed him to the 53-man roster on December 30, and on New Year’s Day, with the Eagles’ playoff hopes gone, Watson was active on game day at the Linc for a game that made no sense for either team. . He finished the game with 28 rushing yards on nine carries, but with the Eagles up 20-13 and a first-and-goal at the Dallas 7-yard line with 1:39 left in the game, Doug Pederson called for three straight runs up the middle for Watson , who gained six yards in the first two and then scored from a yard out in the third. The Eagles released Watson the following May and he bounced around for a couple of years with the Steelers, Giants and Chargers. But he never scored another touchdown. And to this day he remains the answer to a great Eagles trivia question.
7B. Only one NFL player who played in a career game scored two touchdowns. That was Wes Hills, a running back from South Jersey. Hills played high school baseball at Wildwood Catholic (he ran for 35 touchdowns as a senior in 2012) and later played at Delaware and Slippery Rock. He went undrafted in 2018, but spent most of 2019 on the Lions’ practice squad. He was activated for a game later in the year against the Bucs at Ford Field and in a 38-17 loss he scored two touchdowns of one yard each in the second half. He returned to the practice squad and never played in another NFL game. Hills has since played in the CFL and USFL. He remains the only player in history to play in a game and score multiple touchdowns.
8. Rushing success rate is a metric that measures the percentage of carries a running back gains a certain predetermined number of yards in specific situations. It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty good barometer of a runner’s efficiency. A successful run is considered one that gains 40 percent of the yards required for a first down on the first down, 60 percent of the yards required for a first down on the second down, and 100 percent of the yards required on the third or fourth try. Stathead goes back to 1994 in terms of his rushing success rate, and over that 30-year period, 200 running backs have had at least 500 total carries. Saquon Barkley’s rushing success rate of 42.5 ranks 182nd among those 200 running backs. The highest Eagle during that span is Barkley’s college teammate Miles Sanders, who had a 53.9 success rate in his four seasons with the Eagles. His 51.8, including last year with the Panthers, ranks 10th among those 200 running backs with at least 500 carries.
9. Pass rush is an area where the Eagles could be very good in 2024 or could struggle again, and I don’t think anyone has any idea where that’s going to go. Josh Sweat was a Pro Bowler in 2021 and had a career-high 11 sacks in 2023. Bryce Huff is coming off a huge 10-sack 2023 season with the Jets. Nolan Smith was drafted in the first round for a reason last year. Brandon Graham can still give the Eagles a couple dozen quality plays per game. Then there is the other side. Sweat had no sacks the final two months of the season. Huff only had 7 ½ sacks, albeit in limited playing time, in his first three seasons. BG is 36 years old. Smith was a non-factor as a rookie. It will be fascinating to see how this group full of questions behaves in Vic Fangio’s scheme.
10. Devon Allen’s dream of returning from knee surgery in January to compete for a spot on the United States Olympic team is over. Allen, who spent the past two seasons with the Eagles, underwent surgery Jan. 5 in Scottsdale to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that he suffered in practice two weeks earlier at the NovaCare Complex. Allen is the third-fastest hurdler in world history with a 12.84 at the New York Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium in Manhattan on June 12, 2022. He placed fifth in the Olympic final in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth at the 2021 Games in Tokyo. The registration deadline for next week’s US Olympic Trials was Tuesday at 11:59 pm and Allen’s name never appeared on the entry list or the list of accepted athletes. Allen qualified because the qualifying window opened on July 1, 2023, and Allen ran one race after that (13.51 in the U.S. Championship qualifying round in Eugene, Oregon, on July 8 at his track local since college), the last time he ran. . The cutoff for the field of 36 turned out to be 13.74, so Allen would have qualified if he had entered. Allen placed sixth in the world in 2023 with a 13.04 in New York in June. The Trials begin at Hayward Field in Eugene on Friday, with the first round of the 110-meter hurdles scheduled for Saturday. That’s less than six months after he tore his ACL. Allen, who is currently an NFL free agent, could be healthy in time to compete in Europe, where Diamond League competitions continue through September. Allen will turn 30 in December and will be 34 when the 2028 Olympics roll around in Los Angeles. But there will be a World Championships in 2025 in Tokyo, and that is a realistic goal.
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