Verdict In for Some to Stay on Roster in 31-31 tie to Jets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Well, the Eagles’ Super Bowl dreams died on Friday night.
A Hail Mary completion with no time left and an ensuing two-point conversion run by one of their former players led to a 31-31 tie against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in the preseason finale.

There has only been one team that went winless in the preseason that won a Super Bowl and that was Washington, which did in the strike-shortened 1982 season.

The Eagles were 0-2-1 in their three exhibition games and, ready or not, rookie head coach Nick Sirianni’s team will spend the next two weeks getting ready to play the Atlanta Falcons.

“We haven’t, obviously still, we haven’t won in this preseason and it’s Nick’s first job as a head coach, a new staff, so I’ve been there before and you know these guys want to get a win, so these games are still important,” said Joe Flacco, who was terrific in the first half, completing 13 of 16 passes for 188 yards and touchdowns to Boston Scott and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside.

Really, though, this was a game for players to state their case that they belong on the 53-man roster, which will begin to take shape this weekend.

During a team meeting, Sirianni showed clips of five players who changed coaches’ minds with a strong final preseason game.

“I think what you saw was a lot of players play their hearts out, and play hard and play physical,” the coach said. “I saw a lot of guys have success. I don’t want to single anyone out. I have to watch the tape and see it.

“That was definitely the message I wanted to get across last night. ‘Hey, here’s five guys that have made the team on that last game.’ Sure, you don’t discredit what they did all the way to that last game, but in particular, and we showed clips of those guys, but here’s the plays they made in that last game that changed our minds as coaches and got them to stick. I think the guys really felt that.”

Michael Jacquet had a wild up-and-down game.

He was beaten on a fourth-and-goal pass from the 2-yard line in the first quarter that evened the game at 7-7.

The cornerback then appeared to seal the game with a nifty strip of Daniel Brown as Brown was going to the ground after catching a pass. Jacquet then scooped and scored from 32 yards out to make the score 31-23 with just over a minute left in the game. He also had a game-high 10 tackles.

But Jacquet was on the scene when the Jets connected on a Hail Mary pass. He looked like he lost sight of the ball after somehow getting turned around.

Josh Adams, who the Eagles signed as an undrafted RB from Notre Dame in 2018 and played one season in Philadelphia, then ran the ball in for the two-point conversion and a tie game.

Sirianni said afterward that Jacquet should have just gone down or run out of bounds after recovering the fumble. The Jets were out of timeouts and the Eagles could have run out the clock.

“We talk about that all the time,” Sirianni said. “It’s a no-mas situation. That’s what we call it in that scenario. You get a turnover and you’re supposed to stay down. We didn’t communicate that well enough with him, so he tried to make a play. We have to do a better job coaching it.”

Verdict on Jacquet’s future this weekend: Practice squad.

Here are some others:

T.Y. McGill. The well-traveled DT, who turns 29 in November, had two sacks and three total in the preseason. He also stuffed a run play for a three-yard loss and a QB hit in the fourth quarter.

Verdict: 53-man roster.

J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. Wouldn’t you know it, the third-year WR finally made the kind of play he was drafted to make, on the receiving end of a nice throw from Joe Flacco. Isaiah Dunn had nice coverage on JJAW, but that didn’t stop him from making a catch, then keeping his balance as another defender banged into him.

Arcega-Whiteside did the rest, scampering into the end zone to complete a 42-yard touchdown with five seconds to go in the first half that ended with the Eagles in front 21-7.

Not only that but JJAW also was credited with the tackle on the ensuing kickoff.

Arcega-Whiteside had two catches for 57 yards.

Verdict: 53-man roster.

John Hightower. The WR showed some toughness making a catch over the middle and forced a fair catch on one punt when he served as a gunner and made it down the field in good time. He had three catches for 21 yards.

Verdict: Practice squad.

Kenny Gainwell. There was no doubt the RB had a spot on the 53-man roster, but he showed just how impactful he could be in his rookie season. On the Eagles’ second scoring drive of the night, he accounted for 47 yards on the 78-yard drive, 32 on the ground, including a 5-yard TD run, and 15 yards on one reception.

Verdict: 53-man roster

Andre Dillard. The left tackle had a nice block to open a lane for Gainwell on his TD run, but he had a false start penalty on the final drive of the first half that could have been more painful had the Flacco to Arcega-Whiteside TD not happened shortly after he penalty.

Verdict: 53-man roster.

Kevon Seymour. The CB made a case for the final roster with a nice interception that he appeared to wrestle away from Lawrence Cager on the way to the ground. The Eagles' offense cashed the turnover into a 34-yard FG from Jake Elliott to make the score 24-14 with 6:55 left in the third quarter.

Verdict: Practice squad.

Travis Fulgham. He had a nice catch near the 5-yard line on a promising Eagles drive with them leading 24-17 but had the ball ripped out for a fumble. Nobody could secure the football until it went over the end-zone end-line for a turnover.

Verdict: Cut

Nick Mullens: The QB missed a wide-open Elijah Holyfield on a third-and-one throw. Maybe Holyfield didn’t turn the right way. Mullens seemed hesitant to cut it loose deep, settling for too many checkdown throws. He was 10-for-14 for 98 yards.

Verdict: Practice squad.

Elijah Holyfield. The RB did what he always does – runs hard. He had 16 carries for 60 yards and three catches for 22 yards.

He will be a victim of a numbers game at the position.

Verdict: Practice squad.

Marlon Tuipulotu. The rookie sixth-round pick played his best game of the preseason. It wasn’t all good, but he made enough plays to stand out and show some promise. Still, it’s a case of too little too late for him.

Verdict. Practice squad.

Shaun Bradley. The linebacker was active and played plenty of snaps. He also served as one of the game captains.
Could that be a clue that he will make the 53?

Verdict: Practice squad.

Tarron Jackson. The rookie sixth-round pick was noticeable, making a stop on a running play for a loss that forced the Jets to settle for a field goal that cut the Eagles’ lead to 14-10. He also delivered a crunching hit on QB James Morgan just as Morgan released the ball and had a strip sack fumble, but New York recovered.

Verdict: 53-man roster

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.