Among all the other things the Philadelphia Eagles did this last offseason with general manager Howie Roseman at the helm, they selected Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis with the 13th overall pick. They did so because the Eagles ranked 24th in defensive Adjusted Line Yards, also allowing 4.69 running back yards per carry. That’s not going to work if you consider your team a Super Bowl contender, and Roseman clearly did.
As Davis worked his way onto the field, the effect of his presence was clear. From Weeks 1-8, per Sports Info Solutions, the Eagles allowed 6.3 yards per carry on the 67 opponent rushing attempts in which he wasn’t on the field, and 4.3 yards per carry on the 60 carries in which he was. Yards after contact for Philly’s opposing runners dropped from 2.5 to 2.2 yards per carry when Davis was on the field, and the Eagles’ blown tackle rate in the run game dropped from 7.5% to 5.0% when Davis was out there.
Then, Davis suffered a high ankle sprain that has caused him to miss every game since Week 9, and the team put him on injured reserve. He would miss at least four weeks, and over the next two games, the Eagles allowed 168 rushing yards to the Houston Texans, and 152 yards to the Washington Commanders in Philly’s first loss of the season. The Commanders ran the ball 49 times for those 152 yards, and up next were the Indianapolis Colts with their Jonathan Taylor-led rushing attack.
Commanders hand Eagles first loss of season as Philly’s defense falls apart
So, Roseman did what he does — he got aggressive, he stayed smart, and he added two street free agents to a defensive line with talent, but also with one fatal flaw. The Eagles signed veteran interior defensive linemen Linval Joseph and Ndamukong Suh to identical base contracts ($2,187,500 for the season with $250,000 fully guaranteed for each player), and somehow got them on the field for that Colts game, though the signings happened so quickly, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon couldn’t even refer to the Suh signing during his Thursday press conference because it hadn’t happened yet.
Can Ndamukong Suh and Linval Joseph save the Eagles’ run defense?
You’d expect a couple guys in their thirties to get a very soft landing in a case like this — perhaps the Eagles were thinking about later in the season, and perhaps Davis wouldn’t be ready until the playoffs — if then. We don’t yet know how that will go, but we do know that both Joseph and Suh made huge differences in the Eagles’ 17-16 win over Indianapolis. For the first time since Week 4 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Eagles allowed less than 100 total rushing yards (99), and that mattered.
Moreover, both Joseph and Suh showed up as pressure players, helping to foil the Colts’ passing game.
“We thought the entire defensive line played really well,” head coach Nick Sirianni said Monday after the win. “Obviously, those two guys played really well. It was exciting to see that, and felt like all the plays that we felt were splash or play-of-the-game type caliber plays had something to do with the defensive line.
“So, it was all of them. Suh and Linval, they both played outstanding games, and it was great to get them going and get in here and make an immediate impact.
“I think that’s what we were all hoping for, and they did, and that speaks to the type of players they are, the types of pros they are, the types of teammates they are, and look forward to continuing to get them in and mixing them into an already really outstanding defensive line that I think a lot of teams in this league would be salivating to have.”
Which is exactly what it looked like for Joseph and Suh — stellar stand-ins in the short term, and fierce rotational cogs when Davis returns to health.
Let’s see what the tape showed.