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Opportunity for Zach Ertz, treating DeVonta Smith like a No. 1 WR and more Eagles thoughts - The Athletic
Even though DeVonta Smith was targeted eight times against Carolina, that’s still not enough. It’s easy for me to write the Eagles must get Player X more touches — that can be said about the tight ends or Quez Watkins or Miles Sanders or Kenny Gainwell — but it starts with Smith. Frank Reich said before Week 1 of the 2017 season that the Eagles had play designs called “17 plays” on the call sheet for Alshon Jeffery, No. 17. They wanted to make sure they fed their new No. 1 wide receiver. That’s how the Eagles should operate with Smith. Smith has caught 77 percent of his targets during the past two games and consistently finds ways to get open. The priority should be approaching or surpassing double-digit targets for Smith. He’s ready to be a bona fide No. 1 receiver.

Eagles All-22 Film Review: Observations from the win over the Panthers - BGN
Moving onto another 2020 draft pick! Jalen Reagor doesn’t play with great effort and, to be honest, he’s a bad route runner. He can do some things with the ball in his hands but I think the Eagles need to reduce his snap count and target him as little as possible.

NFC East Mixtape Vol.26: Understanding Who These Teams Are - BGN Radio
Brandon Lee Gowton and RJ Ochoa recap the Week 5 action for each team in the division and discuss what each team is looking like up until this point in the season.

Breaking down the Eagles’ punt block vs. the Panthers, with gifs and stuff - PhillyVoice
The Eagles made a subtle adjustment. On Sunday in Carolina, Bradley didn’t just occupy the block of the personal protector, Chandler (34). He also made sure that he crossed Chandler’s face, so that when he was blocked, he would also be cleared out of the way of Edwards, who was following directly behind him. Watch as Bradley makes a clear, purposeful move to his left (our right) to clear out of the way, unlike in Week 1 when Wallace didn’t have a clear path to the punter.

’Thursday Night Football’ preview: What to watch for in Buccaneers-Eagles - NFL.com
Eagles must fly early. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts can ill afford the slow start he got off to last week if he hopes to keep pace with the Bucs’ potent offense. Philadelphia slept through its game against Carolina for more than a half before pulling its season from the flames for the win, and Hurts was sleepy, too, with just 74 passing yards at the half. If the Bucs run defense holds to form and shuts down the zone-read game and designed QB runs (Hurts leads Philly in rushing with 256 yards), he’ll need to light up the vulnerable Bucs secondary from the outset. He’s by far the most elusive quarterback the Bucs defense has faced this season, and he’s got a knack for making big plays off-schedule. A few early highlights could energize the home crowd for the duration.

Erickson: NFL Week 6 fantasy football start ‘em or sit ‘em - PFF
MILES SANDERS, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES. Sanders’ role got a boost in Week 5, as the uber-explosive running back played a season-high 75% snap share and ran a route on 54% of Jalen Hurts’ dropbacks. The increase in routes run led to five targets, but Sanders still finished the week as the RB35 overall. He has yet to produce a top-15 PPR finish since Week 1 — a trend that will undoubtedly continue versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay has allowed the fewest rushing yards to running backs, and Philadelphia ranks 31st in rushing plays per game. Sanders has zero rushing floor and will have to post Myles Gaskin-level numbers in the receiving game to be worth starting Thursday night. And that’s not something worth betting on because Kenneth Gainwell has the much larger sample size of being the team’s primary pass-catching back. The rookie has three more targets than Sanders and a top-five 29% target rate per route run this season.

Eagles film: What’s going on with Miles Sanders and the run game? - Inquirer
Under Sirianni, Miles Sanders hasn’t been featured as much as a downfield receiver, though. Gainwell has been split wide or in the slot on 17 of 107 snaps, while Sanders has lined up as a receiver on just five of 218 snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Sanders is still the lead back. But his percentage of snaps played has decreased this season (66%) vs. last (77%) when active. The Eagles have Sanders under contract through 2022, but it’s fair to wonder whether he’s part of the future when so few running backs sign long-term extensions with their original teams. But that may be a premature question at this stage. Sirianni clearly would prefer to get Sanders going. But it has been a struggle so far.

Plenty of Bucs’ weapons to worry about in Week 6 matchups to watch - NBCSP
The Eagles finished last week’s game with Nate Herbig at left guard but Landon Dickerson (ankle) is expected to play through that injury on Thursday night. And Vea will be waiting. As the nose tackle in Todd Bowles’ defense, Vea doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. But he’s an absolute force in the middle of that defense. At 6-4, 347 pounds, Vea absolutely moves offensive linemen out of the way and in this game he’ll be facing two young guards and a very good but undersized center. “Usually, most guys in the NFL, they’re either really big and slow or they’re really small and fast,” Kelce said. “The guys that are usually very good players are both of those. I think that he’s not only a monstrous human being, he’s also explosive, he’s quick, you can tell he’s smart, you can tell he understands angles and what he’s doing out there, he’s a good athlete. That what makes him a good football player.”

Thursday Night Football: Bucs Leonard Fournette and Eagles Quez Watkins, Players to Watch - Bucs Nation
For the Eagles, they’ll be looking to fast-rising wide receiver Quez Watkins as they enter the contest relatively healthy, only missing offensive tackle Lane Johnson due to a personal matter. Although, they could be without tight end Dallas Goedert, who still has a slight chance of playing at the time of this report. For Tampa Bay fans expecting an easy win, they may find themselves shocked at what the Eagles have to offer. But as long as the Bucs come out on top, they’ll get another week to celebrate their team being one of the best in the NFL.

Jason Pierre-Paul, Ryan Jensen are expected to play Thursday night - PFT
Pierre-Paul missed two games with shoulder and hand injuries before returning for last Sunday’s win over the Dolphins. The short week was a cause for some concern about his ability to play again this week, but it appears it’s all systems go for Thursday night. Jensen is dealing with a hip injury that led to him being listed as a non-participant in practice on Monday. His listing went to limited on Tuesday and full on Wednesday, which points to him snapping the ball to Tom Brady in Philly.

Tra Thomas: The Technician - PE.com
The former first-round pick set a high standard for all future left tackles to follow. He will enter the Eagles Hall of Fame on Thursday alongside Jon Runyan.

State of the NFC East: This week looks extremely promising for the Dallas Cowboys - Blogging The Boys
Still. though, the Eagles offense is dreadful right now. While we can attest ourselves that the Panthers defense has some legitimate talent, the Eagles only had 88 yards of total offense in the first half. But Philadelphia did win, and did so because they rallied late, but this team still seems like one that isn’t going to be good over the stretch of the rest of this season. Up next for them are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who are rolling right now) on the short week that Thursday Night Football can bring with it. 2-4 also seems probable here.

Giants’ backup QB Mike Glennon “ready to go” if Daniel Jones is not - Big Blue View
Mike Glennon is in his ninth NFL season. He has been a backup quarterback for eight of them, only being a team’s true starting quarterback as a rookie with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2013. In all those years, Glennon that Sunday when he relieved an injured Daniel Jones was only the second time in his career he has been pressed into service mid-game due to injury. “All those times, you kind of prepare to get ready for it and really, it’s rarely happened, particular for me. But I felt comfortable out there, I felt like I was prepared,” Glennon said. “So, it was good to see all the work I’ve put in throughout my career, throughout the duration of the week come to fruition.” Glennon completed 16 of 25 passes (64 percent) for 196 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions as the Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 44-20. If Jones does not clear the NFL’s concussion protocol in time, Glennon will make the 28th start of his NFL career on Sunday when the Giants face the Los Angeles Rams.

After a brief uptick, Washington fan confidence falls in the wake of loss to the Saints - Hogs Haven
The Saints game was a bit of a gut punch. Watching the game, I got the sense that, if the team had played to their potential, they would have handed the Saints a loss. Instead, we saw more confusion, coverage breakdowns and poor tackling that have plagued the defense all season, and Taylor Heinicke had a pair of brutally bad interceptions — one of which ended a scoring drive and the other of which put the defense in a bad situation defending a short field. The result was that fan confidence, as measured by the weekly SB Nation poll, dived to its lowest point of the 2020 season, with just 33% of Hogs Haven readers who responded saying that they currently feel confident in the direction of the franchise.

Colts Injury Report: 6 Starters Miss Practice Today - Stampede Blue
Kicker Rodrigo Blankenship missed practice today with a right hip injury. Blankenship injured his hip in the Monday night game against the Ravens and it affected his performance massively. Blankenship looks like a long shot to play this Sunday against the Texans. The Colts have signed a potential replacement in Michael Badgley. Linebacker Darius Leonard did not practice today due to ankle and shoulder injuries. Leonard was a huge factor for the Colts on Monday against the Ravens and the Colts need him massively. Hopefully Leonard can continue to play through his injuries on Sunday. Cornerback Xavier Rhodes and Andrew Sendejo both missed practice today with concussions. Both Rhodes and Sendejo picked up concussions on Monday night against the Ravens, both will have to work there at through the concussion protocol in order to play Sunday.

Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa practices on Wednesday; should be ready to go Sunday vs Jaguars - The Phinsider
Tagovailoa is still officially on injured reserve, but everything seems to be headed in the right direction, as many have reported Miami’s QB1 practiced with the team earlier today in Miami Gardens. All that is necessary now for Tua to play on Sunday is a healthy week of practice. And if today was any indication, it looks like Miami might get their starting quarterback back for this weekend’s matchup vs. Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars in London.

Jon Gruden is the worst kind of fraud - SB Nation
n one week, Jon Gruden went from coaching the 3-1 Raiders to their best start in years to being out of the NFL. On Monday night, following another damning report by the New York Times, Gruden was given the dignity of taking the coward’s way out by resigning as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders rather than having his ass fired as it should have been. In a report by the New York Times expanding on their previous details about Gruden, it was revealed that the coach’s prejudice extended far beyond initial reports. Gruden allegedly wrote emails to former Washington president Bruce Allen that featured not only racist statements, but misogyny directed at women becoming NFL referees. Gruden also said Eric Reid, a figurehead of the protest movement alongside Colin Kaepernick, should be fired. He capped it all off by using a homophobic slur in talking about Roger Goodell, then another in regards to the Rams drafting Michael Sam as an openly gay man.

NFL University #11: Chargers RB Austin Ekeler + Jon Gruden, Urban’s Revolutionary Plan, & Lamar Jackson is Unstoppable - The SB Nation NFL Show
Welcome back to another edition of NFL University! Stephen Serda, Kyle Posey, and Justis Mosqueda sit down with Chargers running back Austin Ekeler to discuss that Browns game, and the Chargers season moving forward. Plus, we discuss the larger problem the NFL is now facing after the Jon Gruden resignation. Gruden stepping down seems to represent a larger story at hand coming in the near future. Urban Meyer wants to achieve something no other team in the NFL accomplishes on a regular basis, and the NFL isn’t close to figuring out Lamar Jackson. The Browns and Chargers is a win for analytics everywhere!

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