Eagles open as 1.5-point home favorites to the Seahawks in Week 12
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The Philadelphia Eagles return home on Sunday for a huge matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. With the Birds sitting at 5-5 and needing a win, Philadelphia opens up as 1.5-point road favorites according to odds from BetMGM.
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The quarterbacks will be the star of the show, with Russell Wilson sitting as an MVP candidate and Carson Wentz looking to return to his 2017 form. Wilson currently leads the NFL with a 114.9 passer rating and 23 touchdown passes on the season.
Tra Thomas believes Doug Pederson is the reason Carson Wentz is struggling.
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Anytime the Eagles struggle or lose, the blame usually falls at the feet of quarterback Carson Wentz. For the franchise’s star signal caller, criticism comes with the big contract and Wentz has been getting a ton of it lately.
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One former Eagles legend is placing the blame on head coach Doug Pederson, though.
During his morning radio show with co-host Marc Frazetta, Tra Thomas, one of the greatest left tackles in franchise history (behind Jason Peters), blamed Wentz’s struggles and regression on Pederson.
“When I watch him on tape, I see him only looking to one side of the field, it tells me he’s taught that way,” Thomas said on 97.5 The Fanatic.
Wentz has had a penchant for staring down targets since his days at North Dakota State, but from Thomas’ viewpoint, Pederson gets paid to correct bad habits.
This season, Wentz has completed 210 of 343 passes (61%) for 2,274 yards and 16 touchdowns with four interceptions. He’s struggled as of late, but he’s the least of the Eagles’ problems.
Nigel Bradham hoping to return for game vs. Seahawks
The Philadelphia Eagles are continuing to get reinforcements back on the defensive side of the ball and according to the man himself, Nigel Bradham is close to returning to the lineup.
Out since Week 6 when he left the Vikings game with an ankle injury, Bradham told reporters he was “hopeful” to be back out there this week to face Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
#Eagles LB Nigel Bradham said that he hopes to back this week or next. Still has to see how the recovery from the ankle injury goes.
Touchdown Wire ranks the 32 NFL teams in terms of stability and potential at the game’s most important position over the next 3-4 seasons.
Tom Brady might be the best quarterback ever, but he’s not the best in the NFL right now. He certainly won’t be the best in 2022.
He’s human, after all, and at age 42, regression is inevitable even for someone with six Super Bowl rings. That puts the New England Patriots in an uncertain situation at quarterback two or three years down the road. The New Orleans Saints, with 40-year-old Drew Brees under center, find themselves in a similar scenario.
Other teams, such as the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers, likely will face difficult personnel decisions at the quarterback position much sooner than that. Only a handful of teams, notably the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks, appear secure in their quarterback situation for years to come.
All this got us thinking about the quarterback situations of the future — and where each of the NFL’s 32 teams ranks in terms of preparedness at the game’s most crucial position.
By quarterback situations, we mean the full overview of each team’s quarterbacks group, including backups and a potential succession plan, if necessary. For this exercise, we will define the future as three to four years down the road.
To help form these opinions, we consulted with a blue-ribbon panel of one former head coach, two former general managers and one current general manager. They were asked for their thoughts on each team’s quarterback situation. They provided insight to inform our rankings.
With that in mind, we present Touchdown Wire’s future quarterback rankings for every NFL team, from worst to first:
32. Miami Dolphins
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Earlier this season, many observers accused the Dolphins of tanking to earn the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and presumably select a quarterback. Since then, Miami (2-8) has been eclipsed by the ineptitude of Cincinnati (0-10) and Washington (1-9), so the Dolphins might not get the first QB off the board. Currently, the Dolphins have Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen on their roster. Rosen has failed in his playing time. There’s no way he’ll be back next year. The Dolphins have the option to hang onto Fitzpatrick, 36, who’s currently under contract next season at $5.5 million. It makes sense to keep Fitzpatrick around for one more year to help groom a young quarterback. That could be LSU’s Joe Burrow, Alabama’s Tua Tagavailoa (although his recent hip injury now complicates his draft status), Oregon’s Justin Herbert or Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts. Two members of my panel said they like Burrow better than Tagovailoa. Either way, it’s going to take some time to develop a young quarterback.
31. Chicago Bears
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For the moment, Mitchell Trubisky is Chicago’s starting quarterback. But it doesn’t appear that he will be in that role next year — although he remains under contract and the team holds a fifth-year option on the No. 2 overall pick from 2017. Given his level of play this season, it’s highly unlikely he will receive the option year, and he might not even see 2020 with the Bears — although the cap hit for cutting him would be slightly more than $9 million. The Bears are 4-6 after going 12-4 last year. There’s one main reason for the decline. That’s Trubisky. My panelists say he’s holding the offense back and could end up keeping a good team out of the playoffs. All four panelists agree Trubisky should be nothing more than a backup. Current backup Chase Daniel’s contract expires after this season. So there’s no telling who will be Chicago’s quarterback next year. Maybe the Bears will draft a quarterback. But with a talented roster already in place, the Bears should be first in line to sign New Orleans backup Teddy Bridgewater as a free agent.
30. Cincinnati Bengals
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Veteran Andy Dalton has been benched, and the Bengals are giving rookie fourth-rounder Ryan Finley a shot. There should be no turning back to Dalton, even though he remains under contract for 2020 with a $17.5 million scheduled salary. The Bengals can cut Dalton after the season without any salary cap ramifications. It’s too early to judge Finley. Cincinnati is going to end up with an early draft pick and could have a shot at Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert or Jalen Hurts. The Bengals will be starting over. But, given their current state, that’s not a bad thing. “Dalton had more than enough time and couldn’t win consistently,” one panelist said. “I have no idea what they have in Finley. But they have to draft a quarterback if they’re sitting there at No. 1 or 2.”
29. Washington Redskins
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The current situation is a mess. Veterans Colt McCoy and Case Keenum, who clearly aren’t the answer, each is in the last year of their contract. The Redskins have little choice but to play rookie Dwayne Haskins, who has five interceptions and two touchdown passes, the rest of this season. Call it an audition for Haskins. But this situation is complicated because the Redskins currently have interim coach Bill Callahan, who took over when Jay Gruden was fired. There will be a new coach next year, and he might not like Haskins. With an early draft pick likely, the new coach might want his own guy. Give up on Haskins after only one season? Arizona did it with 2018 first-round pick Josh Rosen after drafting Kyler Murray. All four of our panelists said Haskins was overrated when he was drafted.
The Philadelphia Eagles matchup with the New England Patriots was the highest-rated NFL game of the season
The Eagles and Patriots don’t meet that often, but a rematch of Super Bowl 52 seemed to be the recipe for delivering the NFL’s highest ratings of the season.
The Eagles Sunday afternoon matchup with the Patriots was the highest rated NFL game of the season and the highest-rated Week 11 game since 2015.
— Just the fifth NFL regular season window to crack a 14.0 rating in the past three seasons (49 did in the previous three)
— NFL on CBS NFL national window (Patriots-Eagles in 93% of markets) averaged a 14.0 rating and 24.89 million viewers on CBS, marking the highest-rated of the NFL season. The previous high was a 13.8 for Packers-Cowboys on FOX in Week 5.
The ball game was just the fifth regular-season NFL telecast in the past three seasons to average at least a 14.0 rating, compared to 49 in the previous three.
Eagles fall to No. 14 in latest USA Today NFL Power Ranking
The Philadelphia Eagles jumped out to a 10-0 lead on the New England Patriots, only to be outscored 17-0 the rest of way, losing 17-10, and falling to 5-5 on the season. The Eagles are still a good team and are still in the playoff picture.
14 Philadelphia
Eagles 5-5 3 10 / 9 They really need more production from their wideouts, Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor combining for fewer than 77 yards per game.
Philadelphia host the 8-2 Seahawks at home on Sunday, in a crucial NFC contest.
Jim Schwartz raves about DK Metcalf’s ability to make plays downfield
The Philadelphia Eagles defense will have their hands full on Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks visit Lincoln Financial Field. The Seahawks bring in MVP candidate Russell Wilson, receiver Tyler Lockett and rookie sensation DK Metcalf.
Metcalf was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the second round (64th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft. The Seahawks rookie has been impressive this season, posting 35 catches for 595 yards and five touchdowns.
Metcalf is averaging 17 yards per reception as well, numbers unheard for a rookie. During his weekly press conference, Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz praised Metcalf’s ability to make plays downfield.
Jim Schwartz just raved a bit about Seahawks WR DK Metcalf and his ability to make plays down the field. #Eagles
Schwartz also praised Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, saying the MVP candidate “can be as good as anybody in the league dropping back and throwing the ball. The comments about Metcalf cut deep in Philadelphia when you realize JJ Arcega-Whiteside was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round (57th overall) and seven spots ahead of Metcalf.
Arcega-Whiteside has 3 catches for 43 yards on the season to show for it. In Schwartz’s defense, he was asked about Metcalf in regards to questions about the opposition’s offense, but it still must be hard to conjure up the notion that the Eagles blew it and selected the wrong wide receiver.
We pore over the rankings each week, size up the matchups and weigh the fantasy-point projections each week as we seek to set the best possible lineups.
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We pore over the rankings each week, size up the matchups and weigh the fantasy-point projections each week as we seek to set the best possible lineups.
Most of the forecasts prove to be more or less spot on, but there are still the overachieving surprises and disappointing duds each week, and these are the unforeseen outliers that wind up deciding the majority of matchups.
We’ve been taking of note players on both sides of the spectrum, and here, in our opinion, are eight of the most over- and underrated fantasy performers – going position-by-position – of 2019.
QUARTERBACK
Overrated – In making his return from a second straight injury-shortened season, Philly’s Carson Wentz was a popular QB1 pick this summer, and his 28.1-point opening-week outing (313 yards, three touchdown passes) appeared to have provided instant validation. But, nine games later, that’s easily proven to be Wentz’s best showing of the season as he’s only topped 24 fantasy points twice since then and comes out of play Sunday ranked 20th at the position with an average of 20 fantasy points per outing. A banged-up wide receivers corps certainly hasn’t made his life any easier, but Wentz has finished with multiple TD passes or 17.5 fantasy points or more only once since Week 4, putting him squarely in QB2 streaming territory.
Underrated – The Buffalo Bills really haven’t had a prolific offense since the Jim Kelly-Thurman Thomas-Andre Reed heydays a quarter-century ago, and after entering Week 11 ranked 25th in the league in scoring with 19.3 points per contest, the 2019 Bills don’t appear to be breaking that mold. Meanwhile, in fantasy, though, second-year QB Josh Allen – who wasn’t among the top 20 quarterbacks drafted in the majority of fantasy leagues this summer – is putting up QB1 numbers. Following his best outing of the season Sunday (256 passing yards, three aerial TDs and 56 yards and a TD on the ground), Allen ranks 10th at the position with an average of 23.6 fantasy points per game. But while Sunday’s showing in South Beach was his first 30-point game of the season, he’s delivered steady fantasy production, finishing with 20 or more points in six of his previous eight contests, with a season “low” of 16.2 in a game he didn’t even finish due to a concussion.
RUNNING BACK
Overrated – It hardly sounds possible that the lead back, who’s averaging 15.1 touches per game, on the run-heaviest (53.2 percent) and second most productive rushing squad (149 yards per game) in the league could be underperforming, but yet we have Tevin Coleman of the 9-1 49ers. Coleman does rank 17th in standard leagues (11.5) in terms of running back fantasy points per contest, but consider that 38.8 percent (35.8) of his 92.3 points on the season came in one game – his 118 total-yard, four-TD performance in Week 8 – and he’s finished with 12.1 points or fewer in six of his other seven contests, including five single-digit outings. Since that monster Week 8, Coleman has consistently been ranked as a solid RB2 but only has delivered a total of 17 fantasy points over those three games, including a meager 77 rushing yards on 33 attempts. And with Matt Breida (when healthy), Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson Jr. (when Breida is out), and even fullback Kyle Juszczyk continuing to be regularly involved as well, Coleman is simply a flex flyer at best until we see otherwise.
Underrated – The Rams’ Todd Gurley has been assailed for his usage decrease (16.3 touches per game – down from 21.8 over the previous three seasons and 2.0 receptions per contest – down from 3.7 from 2016-18) in a Rams’ offense that has struggled through most of the season, but , coming out of Sunday, we found Gurley ranked 11th (standard) and 16th (PPR) at his position in terms of fantasy points per game. He’s also tied for sixth among RBs with eight total TDs, having found his way into the end zone in six of nine contests. On Sunday night, Gurley hit season highs in rushing attempts (25), touches (28), total yards (133) and fantasy points (19.3/22.3) in the Rams’ 17-7 win over the Bears, and, believe it or not, has now scored double-digit fantasy points in seven of nine contests this season. Perhaps coach Sean McVay and the playoff-seeking 6-4 Rams have been saving Gurley for the all-important stretch run after he wore down late last season, and if so, Sunday night just may have offered a tantalizing view of things to come.
WIDE RECEIVER
Overrated – Check the top three of the wide receiver rankings, regardless of format, each week and you’re sure to find the Falcons’ Julio Jones listed. But through 11 weeks and 10 games now, Jones has only finished as a top-three wideout once and a top-10 performer only three times. Overall on the season, Jones ranks 13th among wide receivers in standard scoring (11.2 points per game) and 10th in point-per-reception formats (17.1 points), and the main culprit has been Jones’ now-seven-game TD-catch drought after snaring four scoring passes in the first three contests of the season. Jones famously failed to catch a scoring pass in the first seven games of last season, and in his current seven-game scoreless skid, he’s failed to wind up on the receiving end of any of the team’s 12 TD passes since Week 3 while watching teammates such as TE Austin Hooper (four receiving TDs in that span), WR Calvin Ridley (three) and RB Devonta Freeman (three) prosper during that span. Now, you’re likely still starting Jones each week, but expecting week-in and week-out WR1 production – let alone elite WR1 production – is simply unrealistic, especially as long as his latest TD drought continues.
Underrated – Even prior to his monster outing Sunday (season-best 25.7 standard points on nine catches for 137 yards and two TDs), the Bills’ John Brown was plugging along as one of the most overlooked consistent week-to-week fantasy performers. Allen’s speedy top target has finished with at least four catches and 50 receiving yards in all 10 of his games this season, and the only other wideout who can say as much is none other than league receiving leader Michael Thomas of the Saints. That means Brown has finished with at least 9.5 PPR points in every contest and is a rock-solid WR2, ranking 15th at the position with an average of 16.2 PPR points per outing.
TIGHT END
Overrated – Overvalued prospects at fantasy’s thinnest position are few and far between, but Lions rookie T.J. Hockenson is among the closest to qualify. Big things have been expected since his monster 19.1/25.1-point explosion in Week 1. Hockenson caught six of nine targets for 131 yards and a TD that afternoon in Arizona, but he’s caught all of 20 passes for 218 yards and one TD on 37 targets in nine games since while scoring no more than 8.7/11.7 fantasy points in any one contest. And now with backup QB Jeff Driskel at the controls for the foreseeable future, Hockenson is nothing more than a deeper-league streaming dart-throw.
Underrated – Starting in Week 4, with their WRs corps depleted, the Eagles have been one of the league’s most heavy “12” personnel teams. Second-year tight end Dallas Goedert has played at least 58 percent of the offensive snaps in all seven of those contests and has caught 22-of-34 for 241 yards and four TDs, good for 46.1/68.1 fantasy points. During that same seven-game span fellow Philly TE Zach Ertz has totaled 55.1/93.1 fantasy points, but while Ertz is seen as a must-start TE1, Goedert is lucky to appear on the list of prospective streamers most weeks. Don’t be fooled any longer, and realize Philly fields a pair of start-worthy tight ends.
EXTRA POINTS
Injured Lions QB Matthew Stafford ranks sixth among QBs with an average of 25.9 points per outing, and right behind at No. 7 is replacement Driskel at 25.4, establishing him as a solid streamer after only two starts. However, Driskel is averaging 239 passing yards per game and 6.63 yards per attempt to Stafford’s 312.4 and 8.59 figures, respectively, and is averaging 7.4 rushing fantasy points per game to Stafford’s .8 mark – all of which lowers the weekly fantasy ceilings and floors of the Detroit pass catchers.
One wide receiver who continues to produce despite his team’s less-than-ideal QB play is the Broncos’ Courtland Sutton, who notched his second 100-yard outing of the season in Sunday’s loss to the Vikings. A high weekly floor is what stands out for the second-year wideout as Sutton has received at least seven targets in 100 games this season and has had 56 receiving yards in all but one contest. He’s a locked-in WR2.
Another young wide receiver on the rise is 49ers rookie Deebo Samuel who’s been targeted 21 times over the last two games and has reeled in 16 for 246 yards. With TE George Kittle missing both contests and WR Emmanuel Sanders being limited to a combined 60 snaps due to a rib cartilage injury, Samuel has garnered seven more targets, eight more receptions and had 166 more receiving yards than any other San Fran player during that stretch. Samuel suffered a shoulder injury in the second half Sunday but came back in to put the wraps on a season-best 134-yard outing on eight catches and should continue to be involved even with Kittle and Sanders get healthier.
Back to the Motor City, take note that Lions RB Bo Scarbrough – signed to the practice squad two weeks ago and activated for the first time Sunday to face the team (Cowboys) which drafted him in the seventh round last season – logged 14 of the team’s 19 RB rushing attempts and finished with a team-most 55 yards and a TD in the 35-27 loss. Every team’s lead back has a degree of value this late in the season, and it looks like Scarbrough just may have jumped into the driver’s seat for the Kerryon Johnson-less Lions.
Out of nowhere, we suddenly have to beware of the Falcons’ defense. In its last two games, facing the division-rival Panthers and Saints, the Atlanta “D” has registered 11 sacks and four interceptions while not allowing a TD pass in posting a pair of 17-point-plus road wins. During their 1-7 start, the Falcons were torched for 19 touchdown passes while totaling only seven sacks and two interceptions. That makes the Falcons’ D a must-start in Week 12 with Jameis Winston and the Bucs (league-high 18 interceptions thrown and fourth-most 36 sacks surrendered) visiting Atlanta this coming Sunday.
It’s been a while since we’ve posted an “OMG TONY ROMO PREDICTED THE FUTURE!” story, and that’s partially a testament to Romo going beyond predicting plays while in the CBS booth with Jim Nantz.
But even NFL players know Romo is right about a lot of things he says on the air. Just ask Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz.
While he waited for a review on a Dallas Goedert touchdown to see if the Patriots had forced a turnover before he had reached the end zone, Wentz apparently asked a CBS camerman what Romo thought. The ex-Cowboy said it was indeed a score, so Wentz responded: “Well, Romo’s always right.”
While the Eagles were waiting for that call, Carson Wentz asked our cameraman what he thought the call was.
The cameraman said "Tony Romo said no question it's a touchdown."
And he’s right! Romo sniffed out a trick play the Patriots ran with Julian Edelman, with him saying New England likes to pull up something “unique” when the receiver runs across before the snap:
