Why Eagles fans should be grateful for the head coach of one of the NFC’s best teams, an undrafted rookie running back who’s got a chance to make the roster and Jeff Lurie’s role in the Brotherly Shove vote.
May is usually a quiet month in the NFL but between the Push being saved, Nick Sirianni’s extension and the Dallas Goedert extension it’s been a busy few weeks.
Here’s this week’s batch of 10 Random Eagles Offseason Observations, fresh out of the oven.
1A. Dan Campbell is a hero. Don’t think any of us had that on our 2025 Eagles offseason Bingo cards. But he is, and good for Campbell and the Lions for aligning with the Eagles on the tush push vote Wednesday in Minneapolis. There isn’t one team with more to gain by having the play banned. The Eagles and Lions are the consensus top two teams in the NFC. They were the top two seeds in the playoffs last year and although Washington did knock the Lions off in Detroit last January, the Eagles and Lions go into the 2025 season as favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Take away the push, and the Lions’ chances to reach the Super Bowl increase. Yet they were the only NFC team other than the Eagles and Saints with Kellen Moore to have the guts to vote against the ban. And NFC teams, fighting directly with the Eagles for playoff position, obviously have much more to lose if the play remains. Almost half the AFC voted with the Eagles – seven of 16 teams. But only two of 15 NFC teams other than the Eagles. Just more evidence that the teams voting against the play had motives other than the nonsensical “player safety” narrative in mind. Simply, other franchises are jealous of the Eagles and their success and tried to level the playing field a little bit by eliminating a play the Eagles are really good at that nobody else has figured out. There has never been a rule proposal in the history of the league that was crafted to hurt one specific team. Until now. The Lions were one of the few teams that voted out of a belief in what’s best for the league, not what’s best for themselves. Shame on the 22 teams that didn’t. Bunch of hypocrites.
1B. And how about Jerry Jones of all people being the only guy with the guts to admit that maybe his motivation for voting against the play was purely selfish: “Am I really against the tush push or just don’t want Philadelphia to have an edge?” Dumb thing to admit but it beats pretending he has the best interest of players in mind like the owners. Then the Cowboys voted in favor of the ban. Typical Jerry Jones.
2. Keep an eye on rookie Montrell Johnson Jr., a running back from Florida. Johnson was projected as a Day 3 draft pick but went undrafted before the Eagles snapped him up. He’s a tough, physical inside runner who ran 4.41 at 5-foot-11, 210 pounds at the Combine and you have to love the college production. Including one year at Louisiana and the last three at Florida, he rushed for 3,089 yards with a 5.4 average and 33 touchdowns and also caught 61 passes for 411 yards and two more TDs. He’s one of only seven BCS running backs with 3,000 rushing yards, a 5.4 average, 30 TDs and 60 catches over the last four seasons. Johnson has a real chance because after Saquon Barkley, there really isn’t an established running back on the roster. Will Shipley will be around as a 4th-round pick last year and showed some juice last year but remains largely unproven, and the Eagles signed former Packer A.J. Dillon, who missed all of last year after a poor 2023 season, so who knows what he’ll have to offer. The Eagles released Tyrion Davis-Price, a former 49ers 3rd-round pick, earlier this month, which made the RB room even thinner. Another hint that the Eagles like Johnson: He got a $200,000 guarantee, tied for the largest they gave out this year to an undrafted rookie (Toledo safety Maxen Hook also got $200K). There could be a real opportunity for a guy like Johnson to not only stick with a good camp, but compete for the RB2 spot.
3. The Eagles have won more playoff games under Nick Sirianni than they won during the 39 years from 1961 through 1999.
4. Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor is a way to quantify every player’s Hall of Fame qualifications with a single number that we can compare to players already in the Hall of Fame or those who’ve come close. For running backs, yards-per-carry and receptions aren’t part of the equation. But even without his 4,000 receiving yards and 4.5 average, LeSean McCoy still has a grade of 82.84. Every eligible running back with a score of 80 or more is already in the Hall of Fame. McCoy is the only running back in NFL history with 11,000 rushing yards, 4,000 receiving yards and a 4.5 rushing average. Love him or hate him, he belongs in Canton.
5. In 2017, Carson Wentz threw a touchdown on 7.5 percent of his passes and an interception on 1.6 percent. That’s how the NFL measures TD and INT percentages, as a ratio. So that’s 7.5 TDs and 1.6 interceptions per 100 pass attempts. Only five other quarterbacks in NFL history have averaged 7 ½ or more TDs and 1.6 or fewer INTs in a season (minimum 400 attempts): Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning. Carson was that good in 2017.
6. Here’s who played defense for the Eagles in the 2021 playoff loss in Tampa: Steven Nelson (72 snaps), Rodney McLeod (71), Darius Slay (71), Alex Singleton (64), Anthony Harris (63), Derek Barnett (58), Fletcher Cox (58), Javon Hargrave (52), Avonte Maddox (51), Milton Williams (39), T.J. Edwards (35), Ryan Kerrigan (35), Marcus Epps (32), Genard Avery (30), Haason Ridgeway (23), Shaun Bradley (18), Tarron Jackson (15), Cameron Malveaux (15) and Patrick Johnson (1). Precisely none of them are still on the roster.
7. The only Eagle with a pick-6 in consecutive seasons over the last nine years is Alex Singleton.
8. Milton Williams is a good, solid, productive interior lineman, and gave the Eagles four quality seasons. He’s a guy who’s always going to give everything he has and will never let anyone out-work him. But it’s going to be very tough for Williams to live up to that four-year, $104 million contract. Williams is now the 3rd-highest-paid interior lineman in the league, ahead of Dexter Lawrence, Vita Vea, Quinnen Williams and Jalen Carter (for now). As much as I appreciate what Williams gave the Eagles as a 2021 3rd-round pick, and he had a terrific postseason, he’s never made a Pro Bowl, he ranks 23rd among interior linemen with 11 sacks over the last four seasons, he’s only started 19 games, and his 41.6 percent snap count ranks 66th among defensive tackles since 2021. And he’s not an elite run defender. Pro Football Focus ranked him 77th against the run out of 79 interior linemen who played at least 200 run snaps last year. But he does give you very good pressure from the inside and had 10 quarterback hits, 5.0 sacks and seven tackles for loss in 2024. He will make the Patriots a better team. But when you get that kind of money, expectations change. Along with superstar money comes superstar expectations, and Williams isn’t a superstar. Now, he’s still only 26 and he is coming off his best season and big Super Bowl, so maybe he’ll continue trending upward. I’m certainly not knocking the player. Williams is really good, and good for him getting that kind of money. But people are going to expect more than the guy he’s been for four years for $26 million per year, and I’m just not sure if Williams can play up to that amount.
9. Last thought on the vote in Minneapolis: There aren’t many owners who would speak as passionately and persuasively and intelligently about a football issue as Jeff Lurie did on Wednesday. About revenue? Yeah. About stadium issues? Yeah. About expansion? Yeah. But owners are rarely this well-versed on football matters to be able to articulate a position and back it up. Lurie has devoted his life to the Eagles, and they’ve won 21 playoff games and two Super Bowls under his watch. And since he bought the team from Norman Braman 30 years ago, they’ve had just eight losing seasons. Lurie cares so deeply about this city and this team, and it’s rare to see an owner openly challenge the commissioner like he did, all because he’s so profoundly protective of the Eagles and was going to do all he could to make sure this ill-conceived proposal failed. Other than Bert Bell, who founded the Eagles 92 years ago, Jeff Lurie is the most important person in franchise history. And every Eagles fan and every Philadelphian is so lucky to have him. There’s no way to know how many votes he swayed with that speech, but there’s a fair chance the proposal passes without Lurie’s wisdom and eloquence.
10. The Eagles’ 21-0 fourth-quarter advantage over the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game is tied for 3rd-largest in NFL postseason history. The last team with a larger 4th-quarter scoring margin in a postseason game was the 1993 Eagles, who outscored the Saints 26-0 in the fourth quarter of their 1992 wild-card game – also at the Superdome.
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