If, before the 2022 started, you wanted to place a bet that the Week 4 matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars might be the game of the year so far… well, your odds would have been remarkable, and if you did make that bet, you should get to Les Vegas as soon as possible, because you were seeing things very few people saw.
But here we are, and when these two teams kick off at 1:00 p.m. EST at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, the eyes of the NFL will be upon it. The 3-0 Eagles are benefiting from a radically redefined defense and the impressive development of quarterback Jalen Hurts, while the Jaguars under new head coach Doug Pederson are far more than a nice-culture feel-good story following the disaster that was Urban Meyer.
We might be dealing with the NFL’s two best teams right now. The Jaguars currently rank second behind the Buffalo Bills in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric, and the Eagles rank fourth. The Jags lost a close one to the Washington Commanders in the season opener as they were still figuring a few things out. Since then, they shut out the Indianapolis Colts, 24-0 in Week 2, and demolished the Los Angeles Chargers, 38-10 last Sunday. Seemingly every free-agent signing and draft pick has worked out incredibly well for Pederson and general manager Trent Baalke, and this is now a legitimate contender on both sides of the ball.
The Eagles haven’t really stumbled at all. They’re 3-0, they’ve beaten their opponents by a combined score of 86-50, and just as has been the case for the Jaguars, all the moves made by general manager Howie Roseman this past offseason — from free agency, the trade for Titans receiver A.J. Brown, and through the draft — well, it’s been aces overall.
Perhaps most importantly, Hurts’ development as a quarterback (he currently ranks fifth in DVOA and sixth in DYAR) means that when the 2023 offseason comes around, the question that was is no more — do the Eagles have to use their cap dollars and/or multiple first-round draft picks to address the game’s most important position?
Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, who was understandably put in a vice by the unforgivably bad coaching by Meyer and his subordinates, currently ranks third among quarterbacks in both DVOA and DYAR. So, no problems there.
There are so many interesting matchups in this game, one All-22 article wasn’t going to get it done. My esteemed colleague Laurie Fitzpatrick has written about how the Jaguars can beat the Eagles; you can read that at the link below.
The Jaguars have announced their presence with authority, but the Eagles are eager to move to 4-0. Here’s me on how the Eagles can pull that off.