On Friday night, the Eagles and Packers will meet in Brazil for the NFL’s first game played in South America. It’s a tough but winnable game for the Eagles, as long as they do (or don’t do) the following.
Do: Throw the ball to Saquon Barkley
The Eagles new running back has nearly half as many receiving yards (2,100) as rushing yards (5,211) in six NFL seasons. Former Eagles running back D’Andre Swift was criminally underused as a pass-catcher last season, seeing a career-low 49 targets in 16 games. Barkley had 60 targets with four receiving touchdowns in 2023 and may be the team’s third-best receiver behind A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Don’t: Forget to run the ball
After trading fourth- and seventh-round picks to get Swift from Detroit, the Eagles gave him a single carry against the Patriots in last year’s opener in a game they were lucky to win. They’d finish the season with the sixth-most rushing attempts (510) in the NFL, but 157 of those carries came from quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Do: Blitz
In 2022, Philadelphia set a franchise record with 70 sacks despite blitzing on just 22% of dropbacks. Last year, the team blitzed at the same rate but managed only 43 sacks. With quarterbacks like Joe Burrow, Jordan Love and Dak Prescott on the schedule and last year’s sack leader, Haason Reddick, off the team, new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will have to get creative if the Eagles’ front four can’t get pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
Don’t: Fall back on the “Tush-Push”
It was fun while it lasted, but it’s time to put Philadelphia’s signature play on the shelf. Not only will the team be without retired All-Pro center Jason Kelce this year, preseason games clearly showed backup quarterback Kenny Pickett is no Hurts.
Hurts is simply too valuable to keep putting in harm’s way. He and Barkley have both been known to squat nearly 600 pounds but when it comes to pounding the ball for a first down, the team’s $255M quarterback should defer to its $37M running back.