September 08, 2022
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts will enter his second season as the full-time starter.
The NFL is BACK! The Bills and Rams kick things off Thursday night before a full Week 1 slate on Sunday. To prep you for a world where football is consuming everything you do, here's a roundup of the latest news, rankings and notes regarding the Eagles.
Jalen Hurts is attempting to solidify himself as a franchise quarterback in 2022. There have been vocal proponents and detractors about Hurts all offseason, but one outlet that's high on Hurts is the analytically inclined site FiveThirtyEight. They rated Hurts well based on their Elo model.
FiveThirtyEight describes their Elo model as follows for the NFL:
The top quarterbacks for each team and their value in Elo points, which are used in our quarterback-adjusted model. Our ratings are a rolling average of recent performances and incorporate both passing and running. Initial rookie ratings are based on draft position; undrafted rookies begin their careers with an Elo value of zero, while a first overall draft pick starts with an Elo value of 113. [538]
These are the ultimate rankings Fivethirthyeight presented based on Elo score:
Here are this year's official 538 QB ratings.
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) September 7, 2022
Thoughts?https://t.co/tGA40G6IWn https://t.co/DqKR1uNbxg pic.twitter.com/FGRfOgUu9s
Noteworthy for Eagles fans, QB2 Gardner Minshew comes in at No. 18 and former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles is No. 23. I ranked the league's best backup quarterbacks earlier this week and had Minshew and Foles second and third, respectively. I wrote that Minshew is a top-30 quarterback. Top 18? I don't know about that one. Carson Wentz came in at No. 34 and while his play has fallen off and his standing around the league has worsened, that feels a tad too harsh.
Allen Robinson... almost an Eagle this offseason? We know the Eagles were aggressive in trying to acquire top receiver talent. They were in on Calvin Ridley before he was suspended for the entirety of the 2022 season for gambling on football. It now appears they were in on Robinson as well, who spurred them for an opportunity to join the reigning Super Bowl champion Rams.
Here's what Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic had to say about the situation in a new feature about the Rams' and Bills' Super Bowl pursuits:
The energy in the room started buzzing as the group turned on film cut-ups of Robinson. Still, the Rams were cautious. They knew they couldn’t offer him more than the framework they had set aside for Kupp. They also figured he had a couple of suitors already. Would he consider them?
Late that Wednesday night, the Rams called Robinson. He was deep in talks with the Eagles, two sources told The Athletic, but the Rams asked him to postpone his final decision long enough to get on a video call with McVay and Stafford. The coach and quarterback showed Robinson clips of Beckham that they had hustled to put together for the occasion showing how the passing offense eventually evolved around him and Kupp.
The Eagles lost out on Robinson but ended up with A.J. Brown. I think most Eagles fans would take that. Yes, the team needed to part with significant draft capital to add the Pro Bowl wideout, but he's a tier above Robinson in the league's receiver hierarchy.
If you want to know what kind of impact Brown will bring...
When targeting AJ Brown over the last 2 years, Ryan Tannehill has had +2.3 Yards Per Attempt, +3% Success Rate, +19 QB Rating, and +2.85 TD:INT Ratio.
— Shane Haff (@HAFFnHAFF_TPL) September 8, 2022
I can’t wait to see what he does for the #Eagles offense. pic.twitter.com/bM36i6DuZa
Philly is buzzing about the Birds and that energy has certainly carried over to the national media. On NFL.com alone, six writers predicted the Eagles to make the Super Bowl. Only one, Gregg Rosenthal, predicted them to actually win, taking down Andy Reid and the Chiefs in the big game. Rosenthal was frank about how Eagles fans should view a potential championship, writing, "Eagles fans won't be able to complain anymore after their second surprise Super Bowl in six years."
Writers Jim Trotter, Adam Rank and Gennaro Filice all picked the Eagles to lose to the much-hyped Buffalo Bills. Marc Ross has the Eagles losing to Kansas City and Marc Sessler has them falling to the Chargers.
Howie Roseman loves a good contract restructure immediately preceding or during the NFL season. He's done so again, restructuring All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson's deal:
In a near annual rite of passage, the Eagles have restructured the contract of OT Lane Johnson, per source.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) September 8, 2022
Philly converted $5.88M of Johnson’s base salary and $2.715M of K Jake Elliot’s base salary into signing bonuses, creating about $6.9M in 2022 cap space.
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