**Jaelan Phillips shines in Eagles debut**
A lot has changed for Jaelan Phillips in the last week. The former first-round pick was traded by the Dolphins to the Eagles, and he quickly had to get acclimated to a new city, team, and playbook.
Well, his first impression on Eagles fans couldn't have gone much better.
Phillips finished Monday's win with seven quarterback pressures, six tackles, one fumble recovery, and made the biggest play of the game, stopping Josh Jacobs on fourth-and-1 with less than a minute and a half remaining to help secure the victory.
It was a stellar debut for Phillips, one that started a new chapter in his football life.
"I just felt super grateful," Phillips said postgame. "It was the first time in a while that I've gotten a little emotional before a game. Obviously this stage and coming here, it's my first time at Lambeau (Field), walking out through that tunnel, I mean, it doesn't get better than that. Definitely grateful. Felt amazing energy from the guys. It was just an air of confidence. Everybody played together. We had a great game, honestly, super gritty.
"... This is a completely different feeling, a different environment. You get emotional before certain games. I don't know. It was a new feeling, because this was just like symbolic of a lot of change in my life and kind of a new path, new destiny. So for this to be the first game and for it to play out how it did, it's surreal."
The Eagles' defensive line had its best game of the season, getting to Jordan Love time and time again while slowing down a strong Green Bay run game. Philadelphia sacked Love three times and consistently put pressure on the quarterback (17 total pressures), forcing him to make tough throws or, in one case, fumble deep in Eagles territory.
Love's 68.8 passer rating was his lowest in a game since 2023 and his 55.5 percent completion rate was his worst since he faced the Eagles in Brazil to open the 2024 season.
"I think we rushed well," Phillips said. "I still think there's a lot of meat on the bone and coming in, working together, we only had a handful of days in practice to kind of get this game plan right. So I think that the longer time that we spend together, the more time we spend in practice and meetings and everything, kind of just getting closer and getting that rush as cohesive as possible, I think it's just going to only go up from here."
For Phillips, Monday night marked a strong start to his Eagles tenure. Right now, he's just trying to take it one day at a time and provide value when on the field. Mission accomplished against the Packers.
"I'm just glad I could come in and help the team," he said. "My biggest thing coming in \[was\] like no ego and \[I\] just wanted to earn the respect of my teammates and my coaches and the fans and everybody. All I can really do on my end is obviously do my job and know my plays and everything like that, but just play with fanatical effort. That's what I do, play in and play out. So obviously it's great to be able to get some production and make big plays for the team."