October 11, 2024
The Philadelphia Eagles are healthy coming out of their bye week, and in Week 6 they'll face the banged-up and struggling Cleveland Browns. Here are our five matchups to watch.
The two best players I have ever watched in Eagles joint practices with another team were Tom Brady and Myles Garrett.
Notes from 2023 joint practices:
Browns DE Myles Garrett is an absolute beast. I mean, we already know this. The guy has had double-digit sacks in each of the last five seasons and 16 sacks in each of the last two seasons. Why are we starting off talking about a Browns player? Well, he wrecked parts of the practice yesterday because Jordan Mailata couldn't block him. Garrett ran around him and one occasion, through him, which just does not happen very often to Mailata. This isn't so much a "Mailata stinks" observation, to be clear. It's much more a "Myles Garrett is freaking awesome" observation.
"That was a long day," Mailata said on Wednesday. "I like to think I got better."
Garrett won NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2023, when he had 14 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 30 QB hits, and 3 batted passes. He now has six straight seasons with double-digit sacks, and 50 sacks in 54 games since 2021. Here are Garrett's four sacks so far in 2024:
"I don't even need to say anything," Mailata said, when asked what makes Garrett so good. "His film is a great example. I don't need to say anything about him. Just watch the film, see how explosive he is, how reactive he is just from his get-off. He's got the fastest get-off in the league... so that sticks out. You see the length he plays with, the strength that he plays with. He's got a high football IQ.
"When you find a weak spot, let me know."
Mailata spoke at length with Garrett after joint practices both in 2022 and 2023.
Garrett gave Mailata some tips after those practices.
"Cues on what he's looking at, as a tackle," Mailata said, when asked what Garrett told him. "Hands, where I shoot my hands. He's looking at hips when he's rushing... It was pretty valuable to get those tips from him."
A recent trend in the NFL is to put your best edge rusher up against the opposing offense's RT, because that is typically the weaker of the two tackles. In the Eagles' case, Lane Johnson is one of the best pass protecting offensive tackles ever, left or right, and he usually draws the most difficult assignment. Garrett, however, primarily rushes against the LT, so Mailata will have his hands full.
One way that the Browns can win this game is if Garrett wrecks it. Mailata has developed into a Pro Bowl-caliber LT, but the Eagles still must give him help against this all-world type of player.
Saquon Barkley is second in the NFL with 108.8 rushing yards per game. With the exception of his drop against the Falcons, Barkley has been awesome. The Browns' run defense, somewhat surprisingly, has been awful.
| Browns run D | Stat | Rank |
| Rush yards per game | 141.6 | 24 |
| Yards per rush | 5.0 | 29 |
| Rushing first downs per game | 7.8 | 23 |
| Rushing TDs allowed | 8 | 28 |
| Rushes of 20+ yards | 8 | 32 |
The Browns have given up 23 rushes of 10+ yards this season, or 4.6 per game. That is unacceptable run defense. Here are those 10+ runs, broken up into three videos that are about two minutes each.
No. 1:
No. 2:
Aaaaand No. 3:
If you watched all of that, you saw a Browns defense that gives up big run plays in a variety of ways, whether it's power, QB scrambles, misdirections, end arounds, etc. Unsurprisingly, what you'll also see is a lot of missed tackles.
What's really alarming is that the Browns have been really bad against the run against a bunch of teams that mostly don't really run the football all that well. Their opponents so far this year, and their rushing yards per game ranks:
| Opponent | Rushing yards per game rank |
| Cowboys | 31 |
| Jaguars | 11 |
| Giants | 23 |
| Raiders | 30 |
| Commanders | 2 |
Anyway, we've gone a long way here to say that, you know, the Eagles should run the football against this team.
MORE: Eagles-Browns Week 6 odds preview
The best the Eagles' offense has looked this season was Week 1 against the Packers. Uncoincidentally, that was the only game A.J. Brown has played in this season. He and DeVonta Smith will very likely both be back for the Eagles' matchup against the Browns on Sunday. The Browns are very banged-up in their secondary:
• CB Denzel Ward: Ward got knocked out of the Browns' Week 5 loss to the Commanders with a hamstring injury, and did not return. His injury was serious enough to warrant an MRI. As of this writing on Friday morning, he has not yet practiced this week. Ward, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, is the Browns' best defensive back by a mile.
• S Juan Thornhill: Starter, on IR, won't play against the Eagles.
• S Grant Delpit: Starter, in the concussion protocol, hasn't practiced yet this week as of this writing.
• S Ronnie Hickman: Hickman filled in as a starter due to injuries. He has an ankle injury and hasn't practiced yet this week as of this writing.
If Ward can't go, the starting corners will likely be Martin Emerson and Greg Newsome. Emerson has been particularly bad, as PFF has him down for an opposing QB rating of 127.2 on his 25 targets, with 7 missed tackles.
At safety, if the above three players can't go, the starters would likely be a 34-year-old Rodney McLeod, and D'Anthony Bell.
The Eagles can do damage against that group.
As noted in our weekly picks, Deshaun Watson has been horrendous this season.
Deshaun Watson is averaging -0.30 EPA per dropback, the lowest number for any Browns QB in Weeks 1-5 since at least 2000.
— Austin Gayle (@austingayle_) October 6, 2024
The second-worst performance? Deshaun Watson last season (-0.20).
As such, it's probably not the worst thing if they force him to have to throw the ball. That starts with stopping the run.
I counted 13 Eagles missed tackles against the Buccaneers last week. If you want to go relive those, you may do so in this Twitter thread here:
Vic Fangio said on Tuesday that the Eagles counted 15 missed tackles against the Buccaneers Week 4. I counted 13. Here they are (thread)... 🎥🧵
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) October 2, 2024
Their tackling must improve drastically. They don't necessarily have to rack up a bunch of tackles for loss, but they must get their ball carriers to the ground instead of allowing them to break away for big gains. The same goes for the passing game. If Watson completes some passes, that's fine to an extent, but they cannot allow what should be short gains to turn into long ones. They must force Watson to sustain long drives all day, and capitalize on his eventual and inevitable mistakes.
When healthy, the Browns' usually excellent offensive line looks like this:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Jedrick Wills | Joel Bitonio | Ethan Pocic | Wyatt Teller | Jack Conklin |
• Teller is a two-time All-Pro who has also made three Pro Bowls. He went on IR with a knee injury after the Browns' loss to the Giants Week 3. He will not play in this game.
• Wills (knee) and Conklin (hamstring) were limited in practice both on Wednesday and Thursday. They will probably (?) play on Sunday, but they are banged up.
• Pocic has a knee injury, and has not yet practiced this week, as of this writing.
The only healthy starter is Bitonio. Beyond the starters...
#FeastinMeter™️: The Eagles haven't created pressure against anyone all year. They'll have an opportunity to get after an extremely banged-up Browns offensive line. And yet, I can only put the #FeastinMeter™️ at 4 turkey legs. 🍗🍗🍗🍗
MORE: Is Nick Sirianni fulfilling his 'CEO coach' responsibilities?
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