August 15, 2024

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Patriots preseason game

The Eagles came back and won in New England Thursday night

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports

Kenny Pickett, QB3?

The Philadelphia Eagles' and New England Patriots' backups played a football game on Thursday night. As always, win, lose, or tie, and whether the game matters or not, we hand out 10 awards.

1) The 'It's a Wrap' Award 🌯: Mekhi Becton

Mekhi Becton didn't play, and Tyler Steen did. My conclusion: The Eagles starting RG competition is a wrap.

The Eagles' starting OL:

• LT Jordan Mailata: 6'8, 365
• LG Landon Dickerson: 6'6, 332
• C Cam Jurgens: 6'3, 303
• RG Mekhi Becton: 6'7, 363
• RT Lane Johnson: 6'6, 325

Beefy. 🥩

2) The 'Adding Injury To Insult' Award 🩼: Tyler Steen

In addition to losing the starting RG competition for the second straight training camp, Steen also injured his ankle during the game and did not return.

It was an ankle injury that caused Steen to miss four practices early in camp, opening the door for Becton to take his job in the first place. Steen tried to play through the injury in practice and was clearly not 100 percent.

3) The 'Beating' Award 😝: Kenny Pickett

Pickett played the entire first half, and completed 11 of 13 passes for 67 yards. Will Shipley did all the work on 19 of those yards:

Will Shipley makes a nice move on the screen, earns 19 yards pic.twitter.com/KTks3aRGeq
— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) August 15, 2024

Pickett averaged 5.2 YPA despite completing 84.6% of his passes. Take away the screen to Shipley and Pickett was 10 of 12 for 48 yards. He was also sacked four times and took a bunch of big hits.

He didn't have good protection and his receivers weren't exactly world beaters, but it was still an ugly first half of football on offense for the Birds.

4) The 'QB2?' Award 🥈: Tanner McKee

Pickett has some mobility, but McKee is simply a better passer. Like, we can all see that, right? For example:

Tanner McKee with a dime to the sideline 🎯

📺: #PHIvsNE on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/OQ3Ny3qpwi
— NFL (@NFL) August 16, 2024

And:

I’m prepared to say very irresponsible things about Tanner McKee pic.twitter.com/vgIiuDiDwV
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) August 16, 2024

It's fair to note that Pickett had to play against better Patriots players in the first half. It would have been nice to see McKee get some first half reps, but there's no question who looked like the better player Friday night.

5) The 'Uh Oh' Award 😬: James Bradberry

Bradberry had a rough game at safety. First he missed a tackle, badly.

James Bradberry really not beating the allegations pic.twitter.com/L9FSwwfGnR
— Devan Kaney (@Devan_Kaney) August 16, 2024

That's not really even much of a move by the receiver.

And then later on that same drive Drake Maye was already in the end zone by the time Bradberry figured out who had the ball.

James Bradberry got cooked on the fake playing safety #Eagles pic.twitter.com/1OVHHuHZjx
— Philly Talk Podcast (@Philly_Mike25) August 16, 2024

Vic Fangio recently said that it's not as easy as people think to move from corner to safety, and, well...

6) The Derek Barnett Award For Excellence In Committing Dumb Penalties 😖: Nolan Smith

Like what the hell is this?

What a STUPID play by Nolan Smith. In what world is this even remotely acceptable??? pic.twitter.com/Z0QM9zTNRo
— Mark Tyler(Hogs Haven) (@Tiller56) August 15, 2024

What are you doing, Nolan?

7) The 'Stock Up' Award 📈: The young linebackers

The Eagles' linebackers might not be a horror show this season.

Zack Baun made a few plays on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Ben VanSumeren made a nice tackle on a punt return for the second straight game. Jeremiah Trotter blew up a run in the backfield. And last but not least, Nakobe Dean made a really nice play on a screen, and flashed all night.

Nakobe Dean diagnoses the screen quickly and triggers downhill to make the tackle. pic.twitter.com/ADqXXxp1Ld
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) August 16, 2024

We should probably note that Devin White had a shaky moment or two, though.

8) The 'Pick-6, ehhhhh, or not' Award 🙅‍♂️: Avonte Maddox

Maddox intercepted Jacoby Brissett in the end zone and had a chance for a pick-6, but he was like, "Nah, I've taken this return back far enough."

PICK!

Avonte Maddox gets the ball back for the @Eagles 🦅

📺: #PHIvsNE on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/S6aRP8lgQ0
— NFL (@NFL) August 15, 2024

Eh, probably for the best.

9) The 'Rest Up' Award 🛌: Jalen Hurts and the starters

As expected, Hurts and the rest of the Eagles' offensive starters didn't play. This will be the second straight season Hurts doesn't play in a preseason game, because he sure as hell won't be playing in the final preseason game against the Vikings.

The Eagles have won their Week 1 game every season during the Nick Sirianni era, but the offense sputtered out of the gate last season. We'll see if the offense is clicking Week 1 in Brazil soon enough.

10) The 'Undefeated' Award: The Eagles

We should probably also note that the Eagles won the game, I guess. Final score: 14-13. They're now 2-0 in their preseason games, and 1-0 in joint practices.

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