Week 6 Eagles Power Rankings Round Up- Coming Off The Bye
The Eagles did not lose this weekend. Thank you bye week. Despite not playing, they actually had a great weekend. The teams they needed to lose may not have lost, but they are getting much-needed reinforcement. DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown, and Lane Johnson are back, and the practice window was opened for Sydney Brown. Did all of this help them in the Week 6 Eagles Power Rankings round-up?
Week 6 Eagles Power Rankings
ESPN- 11 (Previously 13)
“Hurts scored the fifth-most fantasy points in 2023 (357) and was ranked second among quarterbacks behind Josh Allen. It has been a different story this season. Hurts is currently QB12 in average points per game (16.9).“
ESPN did a thing where they talked about the Fantasy surprise for all 32 teams in the rankings, which is why the entire entry was about Fantasy points. But it does speak to a larger point, Hurts has not been good enough. He has been without AJ brown, and missed Devonta Smith and Lane Johnson in week 4. Hopefully getting healthy improves Hurts performance going forward.
NFL.com- 11 (Previously 13)
“The stagnant pass rush falls under a different category, but it remains a big worry. The NFC East might not be out of reach, but the Cowboys suddenly are back in business and the Commanders don’t appear to be going anywhere. There’s plenty of work to be done.”
The pass rush is by far the biggest concern for me. Gettting players back can realisticly fix many of the offensive issues. The secondary, outside of Maddox, has been good most weeks. The linebackers are passable. But they badly need Bryce Huff to give them something. Brandon Graham is playing good right now, but at 36, he can’t keep playing 60% of the snaps and keep this up.
CBS Sports- 16 (Previously 16)
“They come off their bye in need of victory in the worst way to cool the heat on Nick Sirianni. Jalen Hurts needs to be better.”
We just saw the Jets fire their head coach 5 games into the season. Would the Eagles do something similar? I don’t know, but Nick is coaching for his career. If the Eagles don’t turn into a team that can at least contend for the Super Bowl, he will be gone. Just sneaking by is not going to cut it.
Yahoo Sports- 9 (Previously 9)
“Philly’s next four games are vs. Browns, at Giants, at Bengals, vs. Jaguars. No NFL games are easy, but those are all winnable. If the Eagles, presumably more healthy off of the bye, struggle over the next four weeks then we’ll know something is wrong.”
Against 4 mediocre teams, they need to not just win these games, they need to dominate in a couple. The Browns offense sucks. If they make Deshaun Watson look good, or even decent, it will be incredibly troubling. Same goes for the Bengals defense.
The Athletic- 18 (Previously 20)
“Why are the Eagles struggling? Maybe because what everyone thought in the preseason could be the best wide-receiving trio in the league has really just been one guy playing well... Jahan Dotson, acquired in a preseason trade, has only five catches in four games.”
They acquired Dotson not just the be the 3rd guy, but also to help fill in if they lost one of their main guys. Well, Brown missed 3 games, and Smith missed 1 and a 1/2th games. Yet Dotson is nowhere to be seen. That trade is looking like a complete bust, the latest of many moves by Howie that did not pan out.
USA Today- 9 (Previously 9)
“They should be rested out of the bye, WRs A.J. Brown (hamstring) and DeVonta Smith (concussion) due back Sunday. And for a team that also figuratively needs to get healthy, a date with Cleveland is made to order.“
If there was a positive note to leave it on, this is it. They are getting 3 great players back, and have what should be a get-well game on Sunday. Hopefully beating up on an awful Browns team sparks some life back into this team.