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Five Things to Hope for Eagles Coming out of Their Bye
The Eagles are 6-0, but far from perfect.
Here are five things I’d like to see coming out of the bye:
MORE JORDAN DAVIS
It’s time to bump the rookie defensive tackle’s snaps into the range of 30-to-35 then in the final quarter of the season push that to 35-40. He is the future but needs to become a more significant part of the present.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said that Davis is still adjusting to playing in a four-man front and is more accustomed to being in five.
“That's his comfort level right now, “said Gannon. “We play enough of the four-man and the five-man that he'll continue to get his touches. We'll look at that, too. But I feel very comfortable with him going in any spacing we play. He'll continue to do that.”
GREATER DEFENSIVE VARIETY
The Eagles are running the risk of becoming too predictable with their defensive front. Their five-man fronts typically are deployed in perceived running downs while they move into four-man fronts on perceived passing downs. Eventually, opponents will begin to pass against five-man looks and run on four. It’s already begun, with Dallas doing it last week.
MORE SECOND-HALF SCORING
It’s hard to complain too loudly here, especially after last year when slow starts typically had the Eagles trailing at halftime and had to fight to come back.
So far, they have done a terrific job getting out to big early leads. They have yet to trail at halftime thanks to highly productive second quarters where they have outscored opponents, 112-27. It’s a nice trend, but can it continue? Probably not, which makes second-half scoring imperative.
During the bye week, you know that offensive coordinator Shane Steichen took a long, hard look at what he needs to do better or differently. He talked on Tuesday about everything the offensive staff is doing.
“We look at where we are around the league statistically and categories and then we look at two-minute situations, four-minute, backed up, first, second down, run-pass tendency, bi-formation, motions, shifts, all those different things, because at some point you're going to have tells and we got to break those tells,” he said.
A TRADE
GM Howie Roseman will do something, won’t he?
But what?
Trades always invigorate a team, and, with 11 straight games coming out the bye, re-invigoration is good.
Here are some of my thoughts on this earlier in the week
IMPROVED SPECIAL TEAMS
It’s been a slog with opponents successfully blocking a field goal, converting a fake punt into a first down, and, last week, against the Cowboys, giving up a 63-yard kickoff return late in the first half that gave some momentum to the Cowboys heading into the third quarter.
“This whole thing is never a finished product,” said special teams coordinator Michael Clay. “It's always going to evolve. Guys are going to get better. It's one of those things where it's always growing, and hopefully it's always growing in a positive manner. You go out there and you try to get these guys in the right situation to succeed at their biggest levels.
“There are times where these young guys are out there playing some heavy minutes for us, especially when they're making big plays. But regardless of the situation, the outcome, we're out there to help this team win regardless of the score, the time of the game, or who we're playing against.
“It's one of those things we have to keep growing and eliminate those bad plays week in and week out. We’ve got to get after it. These guys are always working.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
