With the Philadelphia Eagles 4-0 but playing like the worst team in NFL history (or so you'd think if you have a Twitter account), let's take some questions for a mailbag post, shall we? This is Part II of a two-part mailbag (Part I here).
Question from @theronlongley (via Bluesky): Now that we're 4 games in, what are the biggest needs before the trade deadline? Edge, CB2, or OL?
Though the offensive line hasn't been as stellar as Philadelphians have grown accustomed to, they're still great, relatively speaking. Lane Johnson has left two games early, while Landon Dickerson has played through some stuff and Cam Jurgens might be hampered by his surgically repaired back. The Eagles just kind of have to hope those guys get healthy.
There isn't anyone the team can bring in at a realistic price who is going to drastically upgrade the starting lineup. If we're talking about a backup guard who is better than Matt Pryor, then sure, but even then I don't see that.
I think that edge rusher is pretty clearly the biggest need, and also the most likely spot where the Eagles can make a splash, as we covered a couple weeks ago. Vic Fangio even hinted this week that Howie Roseman could be making a move there, with a couple of their edge defenders — Nolan Smith and Ogbo Okoronkwo — on IR.
"I think we're good with what we have," Fangio said. "The numbers are dwindling and if we need more, I'm sure Howie will get something done."
Through four games, the Eagles' edge defenders have 0.5 sacks.
As for CB2, I'm curious to get another look at Kelee Ringo, who played a competent game as a starter against the Bucs last week. He was shaky as a tackler, but his coverage was mostly fine. If he can rise to the challenge — sort of like Nolan Smith did around this time last year — that would be a big sigh of relief for the Eagles. We'll see.
But the position of sneaky need to me is tight end, where Dallas Goedert is always an injury risk and the backups add very little.
I'd rank the trade deadline positional needs like so:
EDGE
TE
CB2
*Disclaimer: I reserve the right to adjust this order several times over the next month.
Question from @edyjr (via Bluesky): Should we be rooting against teams who could be trade candidates for the trade deadline? For example, if the Bengals continue to lose games, they could be sellers and more likely to trade Trey Hendrickson. (Bonus question, is Hendrickson possible target for Howie to get?)
So, we already know the Eagles tried to trade for Micah Parsons. However, Parsons is a much different player than Hendrickson. He can rush the the passer from a variety of alignments, and in Dallas he played both on the edge and at off-ball linebacker. He's a much more versatile player than Hendrickson, and a better fit in Fangio's scheme.
Hendrickson is a classic 4-3 DE. From the Eagles' perspective, yes, they could line him up tell him, "Just go get the quarterback," but ideally they could add a player who better fits the defense. I wouldn't rule Hendrickson out completely, but I think the Eagles would probably prefer to see another impact edge defender become available who better fits what they do. (Also, the Bengals seem to be a difficult team to deal with.)
There will be a nice handful of teams ready to sell by the trade deadline, particularly in the AFC, where seven teams already have three losses. I don't think you have to root for the Bengals specifically to lose games.
Question from @brian_pagano: Can you kill the A.J. Brown trade rumors from national media by simply explaining the cap impacts to Eagles in such a trade? The math seems to kill the rumors in 2025.
Obviously they're not trading him this season. That's ridiculous.
Next offseason? Maybe 🤷♂️. That's a long way away, though.
Question from @StokesTheWriter: Could Jalen Carter's slow start be due to him playing so many snaps last season, or is it the shoulder injury?
Carter's heavy workload last season is something we flagged in our Eagles dumpster fire post this summer:
Jalen Carter played the most snaps in the NFL among interior defensive linemen last season.
• Jalen Carter, Eagles: 1068
• Zach Allen, Broncos: 1031
• Kobie Turner, Rams: 919
There were concerns about Carter's conditioning heading into the 2024 season, but he put those to bed. However, the new concern is that overuse could compromise his effectiveness.
Carter did not enter the season with the same stamina that he had last year, at least partly because he missed most of training camp. He has taken some plays off this season.
But also, yes, Fangio acknowledged that Carter is playing through an injury.
"I think it's something that every now and then will really sting him and we got to get him out for a little bit and then I think it calms down and he's able to go," Fangio said. "But yeah, there's no doubt he's fighting through an injury and I thought he played well the other day in spite of that."
Carter doesn't have impressive stats, but he is contributing. He helped Moro Ojomo get free for his huge sack against the Bucs, and he was the player in pursuit of Baker Mayfield when Mayfield threw an INT to Jihaad Campbell.
Question from @will.technology (via Bluesky): Is it just a coincidence that the passing game stalled after Hurts was hit on the slide? He didn't get up immediately and I was surprised he didn't get evaluated for a concussion.
I was a little surprised he didn't get evaluated for a concussion after that play as well, at least that we know of.
Question from @GenuineBuckley: Who are the top three Eagles CBs of the modern era (Vermeil and later)? I can’t think of any better than Quinyon Mitchell.
Eric Allen is a Hall of Famer, so that's a pretty high bar. I think Mitchell has a chance to be better than him, but he doesn't yet have Allen's ability to produce turnovers. Allen had 54 career INTs in the regular season, 4 in the playoffs. Mitchell has 0 career INTs in the regular season, 2 in the playoffs.
So it's a little difficult to put Mitchell ahead of Allen right now.
Asante Samuel was also a takeaway machine. He had 51 career INTs (regular season), plus 7 more in the playoffs. Mitchell is obviously a much better run defender.
Troy Vincent also has 51 career INTs (regular season plus playoffs).
They're the three guys he's chasing. Mitchell is already a lockdown corner, easily top five in the NFL. I imagine the INTs will come, but they just haven't yet.
Question from @DrewSportsNews: If, say, the Commanders go like 9-8, the Cowboys a bit worse than that, and the Giants even worse than that, do you think that lack of competition helps the Eagles because they could coast to an NFCE title, or do you think it's more of a negative because of the lack of a true challenger?
The Patriots went almost completely unchallenged in the AFC East for most of the Brady years. Always cherish an easy division.
Question from @ChipReiderson: Hey Tio Jimmy. Do you think Sean Payton will have the team buses circle the stadium again?
Ha, I forgot about that. For those of you unaware, when Sean Payton was the Saints' head coach, he had their buses do a lap around the stadium after road wins in Philly. I wonder if the Eagles thought of that as bulletin board material this week.
Question from @tcflou: What’s your take on Vic’s kicking comments? I think it’s nuts because if you give up 20 yards after a kickoff it’s almost an automatic 3 points.
Vic's quote on the kicking balls:
"You know what you guys have missed? Not just you but everybody is, we gave up a 65-yard field goal and a 58-yard field goal. These kicking balls that they changed this year have drastically changed the kicking game, field goals in particular. So it's almost like they need an asterisk here. It was the live ball era or the asterisk for those home runs Bonds and Sosa and McGwire were hitting. The way they've changed the ball. The NFL, the kicking ball has drastically changed the field goals."
For the record, I would like to say that we as a media contingent have not "missed" the kicking ball stuff. Michael Clay got a bunch of questions about it from us weeks ago.
Q. To follow up on the kicking balls question, I've read that it can add distance to it, but I haven't seen why. I'm curious if you know the why to that? (Jimmy Kempski)
Michael Clay: Yeah, I mean just with this new rule prior to it you would get new kicking balls and you only had a certain amount of time to work them in. Now you're able to work them in and get them to that feel that the kicker's like very similar to what a quarterback ball would be. They get to work all week with it, whatever the quarterback has to feel with it. So now you get that whole week to work with the ball, give them the amount of balls the refs need right there. It's more just a feel when you could deep dive on how kicking balls are made. There's a film on it, so you're trying to get that off and allow it to be more of a smoother texture than the rigid bumpy feel that a quarterback ball has. That's why you see in hurry-up situations when it's a quarterback ball, the ball doesn't travel as well. It's not as smooth as a regular kicking ball.
Q. So you get the whole week to prepare the ball or is there an infinite amount of time on it? (Brooks Kubena)
Michael Clay: There's a whole process of it, but it's a lot longer now than the hour you get before on game day.
So take THAT, Vic.
But yes, the distance at which kickers are hitting kicks — coupled with the new kickoff rules — is going to make for higher scoring games.
Question from @89tremaine: Do you credit the Eagles loss to the 49ers in Sirianni’s first year for the Tush Push? The drive that started with the bomb to Quez Watkins and ended with the imitation Philly Special, when all reporters asked after the game why didn’t you just sneak it twice from the 1.
I think that by "all reporters" you mean this guy (points thumbs at self):
By the way, where's my ring?
And yes, I think that if they had the Tush Push in 2021 — or at least understood the value of the QB sneak back then — they win that game.
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