Category: Eagles

VIDEO: Who could be the Secret Superstars of Super Bowl LVII?

In this week’s 4-Down Territory, Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling point to one player who could be a Secret Superstar in Super Bowl LVII.

Every week in “4-Down Territory” powered by KIA, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. With Super Bowl LVII just around the corner, Doug and Luke get into which Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs players might transcend their underrated status to become the Secret Superstars in this game.

Every year, there’s at least one hidden gem of a player who comes out of nowhere and has the game of his life to propel his team to the Lombardi Trophy. Who is the one Secret Superstar for either the Philadelphia Eagles or the Kansas City Chiefs that you think could be the Secret Superstar of Super Bowl LVII?

Doug: I’ll pick Eagles defensive back Avonte Maddox. He’s missed time with injuries this season, and he’s working through a toe injury to play in the game, but the Eagles’ on-off splits when it comes to Maddox are pretty telling. Maddox has missed 595 possible snaps this season with hamstring, ankle, and toe injuries, and he’s been on the field for just 417. When he’s on the field, Philadelphia’s EPA allowed drops from -0.03 to -0.17, and EPA allowed is better when it’s negative. Philly’s passing EPA allowed dropped from -0.05 to -0.25, completion percentage allowed went from 67.2 to 60.0, yards per attempt from 7.3 to 5.4, touchdown rate allowed from 5.7% to 2.1%, and interception rate rose from 2.7 to 3.3.

The Eagles have great outside cornerbacks in Darius Slay and James Bradberry, so when you add Maddox in the slot, that allows Chauncey Gardner-Johnson to work more at safety, and Philly’s defense just comes together. Maddox will be a guy to watch on Sunday.

Luke: I’ll take Chiefs CB Jaylen Watson. Watson barely missed the cut for a third-round grade in my rankings heading into the 2022 NFL draft, but the Chief somehow landed him in the seventh round, and have been reaping the benefits throughout his rookie season. He had a huge pick-six earlier in the season, a clutch one-handed pick last week against the Bengals. He’s got a great combination of size, length, athleticism, ball skills, instincts…everything you want in a corner. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith present a huge challenge for this secondary, but if the Chiefs pull this one out, don’t be surprised if Watson has a huge hand in making it happen.

[mm-video type=video id=01grpap504f6904ac9kk playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01grpap504f6904ac9kk/01grpap504f6904ac9kk-8e265162d66db320520edb2e1b324d04.jpg]

Super Bowl LVII’s Secret Superstars

Who are the players capable of playing their best in the biggest games of their lives? Here are the Secret Superstars of Super Bowl LVII.

There are players in just about every Super Bowl who, quite unexpectedly, save their greatest performances for the biggest games of their lives. Packers receiver Max McGee tearing up the Chiefs’ esteemed secondary for seven catches, 138 yards, and two touchdowns in Super Bowl I. Jets running back Matt Snell doing what nobody else could do in Super Bowl III, and tearing through the Colts’ defensive line for 30 carries, 138 yards, and a touchdown. Raiders linebacker Rob Martin picking off three Ron Jaworski passes in Super Bowl XV. Doug Williams resuscitating his career and becoming the first Black quarterback to start in a Super Bowl, win a Super Bowl, and become Super Bowl MVP in one fell swoop in Super Bowl XXII against the Broncos. Eagles quarterback Nick Foles helping his team win its first Super Bowl in LII.

Who could be the Secret Superstar of Super Bowl LVII? There are several candidates who, based on their in-season exploits, might be perfectly primed to take that all-important leap.

Here are the Secret Superstars of Super Bowl LVII.

Super Bowl LVII: How the Eagles cornerbacks can limit the Chiefs’ passing game

How can the Eagles’ outstanding cornerbacks best counter the Chiefs’ passing game in Super Bowl LVII? Laurie Fitzpatrick goes to the tape.

There is a reason why the Philadelphia Eagles are considered to have a shutdown defense. Behind their pass rush, they have arguably the best secondary in the NFL. Most successful defenses are anchored by cornerbacks on the outside.

They went from having the12th ranked pass defense DVOA (3.6%) in weeks 10-14, to the 4th ranked (-25.4%) from week 15 through the NFC Championship game. In their last three games, they’ve had the highest score differential in the league, at +20.3.

Their cornerbacks are a big reason for this!

In matchups including Brandon Aiyuk, Justin Jefferson, Terry McLaurin and in their last matchup against Darius Slayton, the Eagles’ cornerbacks have only allowed eleven receptions for 138 yards.

Let’s dive into the film and see how the Eagles might plan to defend Patrick Mahomes and limit the Kansas City Chiefs high-flying offense.

4-Down Territory: Senior Bowl stars, Super Bowl sleepers, matchups, and predictions!

In this week’s 4-Down Territory: Senior Bowl standouts, Super Bowl LVII matchups, hidden stars, and predictions!

Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. With the Conference Championship games in the rear-view, and Super Bowl LVII set with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, there’s a lot to talk about!

00:00 – Intro

01:16 – Which players stood out from 2023 Senior Bowl practices and the actual game?

07:32 – Who is the one Secret Superstar for either the Eagles or the Chiefs who could stand out in the Super Bowl?

12:21 – What is the biggest matchup nightmare for either team in this game?

16:50 – Who do you have winning Super Bowl LVII, what’s the final score, and why?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory,” powered by KIA, right here:

[mm-video type=video id=01grpa53tctxp8e0wbqp playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01grpa53tctxp8e0wbqp/01grpa53tctxp8e0wbqp-acb74570f0235e3e8a68c09bd96fbea5.jpg]

Super Bowl LVII: The 57 most important players

Who are the 57 most important players to take the field in Super Bowl LVII? With tape examples and metrics as his guides, Doug Farrar put together this large list.

Who are the best players set to play in Super Bowl LVII between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs?

It’s a valid question, and there are no Super Bowl teams who make it with a bunch of scrubs and no stars.

Perhaps a more valid question as we start to look at the matchups that define this upcoming game is, which players are the most important to their teams? Since this Sunday’s Super Bowl is the 57th, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to rank the 57 most important players in this game. The obvious players of paramount importance are up top as you might expect, but as you go down the list, there are all kinds of players you may not know much about who could come out of nowhere and make the difference in their team’s quest for the Lombardi Trophy.

I did not include Chiefs receiver Mecole Hardman (who probably would have been Top-20) on this list, based on what Andy Reid said this week regarding the pelvic injury he suffered in the AFC Championship game.

“I think it will be tough for him. I doubt that he’ll make the Super Bowl. But listen, like I said, he wasn’t going to be denied the other day. It’s a tribute to the kid, he just pushed himself like no other. And he’s a tough nut. He’s all smiles with you, but when it comes down to playing, he’s a tough, tough kid.”

So, with that aside, and with copious tape study and a ton of metrics as my guide, here are my 57 most important players to take the field in Super Bowl LVII.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus, Sports Info Solutions, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated). 

Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts know the significance of the first all-Black QB Super Bowl

Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts will be the first Black quarterbacks to start against each other in a Super Bowl, and they both know what that means.

There will be all kinds of storylines in the week leading up to Super Bowl LVII. Did you know that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid used to coach the Eagles? Did you know that Jason and Travis Kelce are the first set of brothers to oppose each other in the big game? Did you know that Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni served as an assistant in various roles in Kansas City from 2009-2012? And on and on.

The most significant of these storylines may well be the one created by Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. This Super Bowl will be first in which both starting quarterbacks are Black. And if you think that isn’t a big deal, maybe you don’t understand just how much Black quarterbacks have had to overcome to get to the place of possibility at all.

Neither Mahomes nor Hurts want to minimize it.

“To be on the world stage and have two Black quarterbacks start in the Super Bowl – I think it’s special, and I’ve learned more and more about the history of the Black quarterback since I’ve been in this league,” Mahomes said Thursday. “The guys that came before me and Jalen set the stage for this and now I’m just glad we can kind of set the stage for the kids that are coming up now. It’ll be a great game against two great teams and against another great quarterback. So, I’m excited to go out there and try to do what we can to win against a great team.

“I think you’ve seen over time whenever a guy like Doug Williams or Michael Vick or Donovan McNabb go out and plays great football against other guys, it gives other guys like me and Jalen chances to have this platform and have this spot on an NFL team. If we can continue to show that we can consistently be great, I think it’ll just continue to open doors for other kids growing up to follow their dreams and be a quarterback of an NFL team and it’s good that we have guys like Jalen on the other side because he’s a great person and obviously a great quarterback.”

Hurts also understood the magnitude of the moment when asked about it on Thursday.

“I think it’s history. I think it’s something that’s worthy of being noted and it is history. I think it’s come a long way. I think there’s only been seven African-American quarterbacks to play in the Super Bowl. To be the first for something is pretty cool. It’ll be a good one.”

Doug Williams, the first Black quarterback to play on the winning side in a Super Bowl — he did so for the Washington Redskins against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII at the end of the 1987 season and took home the game’s Most Valuable Player award for good measure — had this to say recently on this subject when it became clear that Mahomes’ Chiefs and Hurts’ Eagles were advancing to the NFL’s biggest game:

“I was emotional about it. I had water in my eyes. Just to see it was happening… People ask me who I want to win. I’ve already won. For me, I’ve already won because both are in it.”

Williams won on that day, but it was a long time before another Black quarterback participated in a Super Bowl, much less as the winner. Seattle’s Russell Wilson did so in a winning sense in the Seahawks’ 43-8 thrashing of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLIX at the end of the 2013 season.

Before that, Steve McNair of the Titans broke the post-Williams logjam in Super Bowl XXXIV at the end of the 1999 season. Donovan McNabb of the Eagles started in Super Bowl XXXIX at the end of the 2004 season in a close loss to the Patriots. Cam Newton of the Panthers in Super Bowl 50 at the end of the 2015 season. Then, there was Mahomes winning in Super Bowl LIV at the end of the 2019 season, and losing Super Bowl LV the next year to the Buccaneers.

And of course, Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers lost a close Super Bowl XLVII to the Ravens at the end of the 2012 season, but the league would prefer that you forgot about that one.

And now, no matter what, a Black quarterback will walk away with the Lombardi Trophy.

Opportunity has a lot to do with it. For a very long time in the NFL, Black players who plied their trade as quarterbacks at the college level had little to no chance of playing that position in the pros, much less succeeding.

There was Marlin Briscoe, who set a Broncos rookie franchise record for touchdown passes in 2968 with 14 that stands to this day. After Briscoe’s rookie season, head coach Lou Saban circumvented his future by calling quarterback meetings without Briscoe, who was in Nebraska finishing his degree. Briscoe became a receiver — and a good one — but the denial of opportunity haunted him throughout his life.

Williams himself remembers that it wasn’t until 1979 that two Black quarterbacks started in the same game. That happened in Week 5 between Williams’ Buccaneers and the Bears, who started quarterback Vince Evans. Williams, who helped the Bucs from historical irrelevance at their beginnings to a trip to the 1979 NFC Championship game, was soon caught in a contract battle with team owner Hugh Culverhouse, and it took him years to become a presence in the league once again.

The NFL banned Black players from 1934 through 1945, and once that ban finally came down, it was decades before Black players were accepted at the “positions of intelligence” — quarterback, center, middle linebacker, safety. For every Black quarterback who made it through the gatekeeper’s gates, there were two who didn’t. Even today, Black quarterbacks face scrutiny and dismissals that white quarterbacks simply do not — ask Bill Polian about that.

So, it is a big deal that this Super Bowl will be started by two Black quarterbacks. But as Andy Reid said this week, it’ll be an even bigger and better deal when it isn’t.

As the only coach to go to Super Bowls with two different teams and with two different Black quarterbacks, it’s appropriate for Reid to have the last word on Mahomes and Hurts..

“The biggest thing is they’re really good. I think that is a tribute to the kids. I mean, that is unique, it is unique. I don’t ever look at it that way [though] — I don’t really care what color you are. If you’re a good player, which at that position takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, I can really appreciate that. I’ve never been one that really looked at the color part of it. Where I grew up, we had everybody — everybody was a part of the equation. Someday I hope that’s the way it all works and as we go on, you’ll never have to be asked a question like this again.”

Jerry Jones does not understand how the Eagles were built

Jerry Jones took some passive swipes at the Eagles with a complete misunderstanding of how their roster was built.

The 2022 marks the 27th straight that the Dallas Cowboys have not only failed to make it to the Super Bowl, but haven’t even sniffed the NFC Championship game. That has left owner, team president, and de facto general manager Jerry Jones with a list of excuses for that comparative long-term failure, but the one he came up with this week after his Cowboys were demolished by the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs is especially… well, half-weird.

“Anybody who thinks I won’t take a chance, has misread the tea leaves. But I do think longer term,” Jones recently said, via Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “And I’m real hesitant to bet it all for a year. There’s a lot of things that can happen for that year. In essence, we’re seeing a couple of teams that have had some real success putting it all out there and paying for it later, in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

“That’s pretty impressive to have two teams in the last two years empty the bucket and get to the Super Bowl,” Jones said. “But if you miss, it is a long go.”

While Jones is right about the Rams’ “F them picks” strategy that won them Super Bowl LVI, he could not be more wrong about the ways in which Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and his staff have built a a team that is one game away from their second Super Bowl win in six years.

Yes, Roseman did trade his 2022 first-round pick to the Tennessee Titans for receiver A.J. Brown, but he did so knowing that Brown had signed a four-year, $100 million contract extension with $57.22 million in guarantees that makes Brown relatively reasonable, financially speaking. Brown, who also changed Philly’s offense decidedly for the better, ranks ninth among receivers in guaranteed money, and he’s entering the peak of his career at age 25.

Meanwhile, Roseman got an extra 2023 first-round pick from the New Orleans Saints in a 2022 pre-draft trade, which now has the Eagles picking 10th in the 2023 draft, no matter what happens in Super Bowl LVII next Sunday. And because 2022 was quarterback Jalen Hurts’ breakout season, the Eagles are in the always enviable position of being able to build around their quarterback’s rookie deal for at least the next year. hey do not have the fifth-year option because Hurts was a second-round pick in 2020, but it’s still a favorable landscape.

Going into the 2023 league year, per OverTheCap.com, the Eagles (-$1,239,378) are far less in the hole in terms of effective cap space than the Cowboys (-$10,091,623) are. And that’s with the fact that Roseman and his crew have built the NFL’s best-balanced roster.

Jones is a master of telling himself tales to make himself feel better about how things have gone for his team over the last nearly 30 years, but the truth is, that’s all this is when it comes to the Eagles and their roster architecture.

“I like where we are right now, more in the middle,” Jones concluded.

Without a better understanding of how things work in the NFL, that’s exactly where the Cowboys will stay.

What color jerseys will the Chiefs and Eagles each wear in Super Bowl LVII?

What color jerseys will each team wear in Super Bowl LVII?

The fashion statements have been delivered for Super Bowl LVII.

The Kansas City Chiefs will be in their white jerseys.

The Philadelphia Eagles will wear green.

And, if you are looking for a trend … teams wearing white jerseys have won 15 of the past 18 Super Bowls.

Super Bowl LVII: Chiefs DL Chris Jones is set to test the Eagles’ NFL-best offensive line

Chiefs DL Chris Jones put on an absolute pass-rush clinic against the Bengals in the AFC Championship game. The Eagles should be VERY concerned.

It is amazing to consider that Sunday’s AFC Championship game marked Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones’ 13th postseason appearance, and he didn’t have a single sack in his first 12 playoff performances. This included Kansas City’s win over the 49ers in Super Bowl LV — a Jones game so dominant, it could be argued (as I did) that he should have been named the gane’s Most Valuable Player. You can completely disrupt an offense without sacks, and Jones has done it more often than most.

That said, when Jones finally broke his sack drought against the Bengals on Sunday, he did it with authority. Jones had two sacks, and he also had three quarterback hits and five quarterback hurries. Cincinnati’s injury-ravaged offensive line, which looked impressively solid against the Bills in the divisional round, had no shot of keeping Jones at bay. Nor did the rest of Kansas City’s defensive line fail to eat. Joe Burrow was pressured on 21 of his 49 dropbacks. Burrow took five sacks, and under pressure, he completed just five passes on 13 attempts for 81 yards, no touchdowns, both of his interceptions, and a passer rating of 20.5.

Others on that Chiefs line got their work in, but Jones was the superstar. The Bengals tried just about everything to stop him short of double-teaming him on every play (it was about half the time), and nothing worked. Jones played all over the line, and got pressures from the left and right edges, and from the left and right defensive tackle gaps.

“Yeah, he’s so good,” Burrow said of Jones after the game. “He makes it so hard on you. He’s so big, strong and physical. He really understands what you’re trying to do to him up front. You have to give them credit, they had a really good rush plan. They let their big-time pass rushers go to work.”

There was an element of last year’s AFC Championship game that stuck in Jones’ craw all season long, and he was more than ready to prove his readiness this time around.

“I think I planned for this game – my whole offseason was dedicated to this game. I missed a few big plays last year, unfortunate they were able to move forward, and I put that on my shoulders. So this offseason, I dedicated my whole offseason to making sure that when that moment calls, for me specifically, that I’ll answer the call.”

Not that Jones played badly in that game — he had six quarterback hurries in 34 pass-rushing snaps — but this time around, he cranked things up several levels.

As for that first sack (and the second), Jones claimed not to care about it (and them).

“It’s been a lot made by you guys,” Jones said with a laugh. “Y’all make it bigger than what it is. I really personally do not care about stats in the playoffs. My job is to make sure that I play hard, play physical, set a different side of the line of scrimmage and make my teammates around me make plays. Rather it’s taking the double team the whole game or rather it’s getting the one-on-one and winning. I think you guys blow it out of proportion. It doesn’t really matter to me, but I’m glad that you guys can have another story that Chris Jones finally got a sack.” 

Well, in that spirit, let’s get past the obvious and dive into what Jones did in what amounted to a perfect pass-rush clinic.

VIDEO: How will Patrick Mahomes deal with the Eagles’ historic pass rush in Super Bowl LVII?

Super Bowl LVII features a great matchup in the Chiefs’ offense vs the Eagles’ killer pass rush. Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling discuss.

In this week’s episode of “4-Down Territory,” powered by KIA, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire discuss how the Kansas City Chiefs’ top-tier offense will deal in Super Bowl LVII with the Philadelphia Eagles’ historically great pass rush, and the rest of that great defense.

This Super Bowl marks the third time in NFL history that the passing yards leader will take on the NFL’s No. 1 pass defense, at least by conventional metrics. The last two times did not go well at all for the prolific quarterbacks – the Seahawks beat the brakes off Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Super Bowl 48, and the Buccaneers vivisected Rich Gannon and the Raiders in Super Bowl 37. Now, we have Mahomes against the Eagles’ defense. How does Mahomes overcome this historical deficit when he takes the field against the Eagles? 

Doug: The matchup I’m most concerned about for the Chiefs is Philly’s ridiculous pass rush (especially Haason Reddick, who basically stole the deed to San Francisco in the NFC Championship game) against Kansas City offensive tackles Orlando Brown Jr. and Andrew Wylie, who have been vulnerable all season to pressure off the edge. That vulnerability has shown up especially against guys like Reddick, who can win on the back half of the arc to the pocket,and that is Brown’s Kryptonite in particular. If Mahomes can overcome that with pocket movement and second-reaction plays with however much he’s able to recover from the high ankle sprain over the next two weeks, things might be okay. Otherwise, we could be looking at a replay of Super Bowl 55, when the Buccaneers’ pass rush gave Kansas City’s explosive offense no chance to explode.

And speaking of bad blocking plans, the Chiefs should not try to block Reddick with tight ends and receivers, as the 49ers did. That was suboptimal for them.

Luke: I think Isiah Pacheco is going to be the key here. The Chiefs have GOT to run the ball consistently and effectively if they want to win this game. It’ll take pressure off Mahomes, set up some big plays down the field by luring the Eagles defense down into the box, and he can make big plays in the screen game to punish that aggressive pass rush, as well. Keeping Jalen Hurts and the Eagles off the field as much as possible, and not allowing them to dominate time of possession, will be critical. That’ll come down to the running game for KC.

[mm-video type=video id=01gr43avta7z7b59wpp7 playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gr43avta7z7b59wpp7/01gr43avta7z7b59wpp7-6c4cad7857dd87f769067cf2d77339c8.jpg]