Eagles notes, thoughts & buzz: Facing the blitz, D'Andre Swift's usage, Britain Covey as a 'hidden gem'

1. After Jalen Hurts’ MVP-caliber season in 2022, opposing coaches spent the offseason watching the Eagles trying to find ways to counteract their high-powered offense. There have been unscouted looks through the first three games, and there has also been a heavy dose of blitzing. The question the Eagles must determine is whether this is the byproduct of the proclivities of the coaches they’ve played, or whether this is how teams choose to play the Eagles this season.

“It starts with the DNA of the defense, right?” coach Nick Sirianni said. “What’s worked for them for many years with (Bill) Belichick, (Brian) Flores, and (Todd) Bowles. Those are high pressure guys throughout the years. So, to me, that’s a product of who you’re playing, at times, and that’s what I felt like for the first three weeks.”

Through three games this season, Jalen Hurts has been blitzed 51 times — the second-most of any quarterback in the NFL. By comparison, he was blitzed 32 times through the first three games last season. But the point about the schemes they’ve faced makes sense, because the per-game numbers have been consistent with some of the blitz-heavy defenses the Eagles faced last year. 

That’s why this weekend’s matchup against Washington will be fascinating to watch. It’s a defense in which the Eagles are familiar — and one that didn’t blitz Hurts often last season. In two games against Washington, Hurts faced 10 total pass rushes with at least five defenders. Those games were among the fewest blitzes that Hurts encountered. 

“I’d say the first three weeks are probably the three most exotic (defenses) that we play with the coaches, the schemes,” tight end Dallas Goedert said. “We feel like going forward, we’ll probably be seeing more defenses that are just kind of routine in the NFL, not the exotic stuff that we have been seeing. So I just think it’s part of the D coordinators, the teams that we played.”

2. It might be playing too much into the Michael Jordan folklore to call Monday’s win over Tampa Bay Jalen Hurts’ flu game, but he played through flu-like symptoms. Asked how it affected him, Hurts simply responded with, “we won.”

“This isn’t the first game where I’ve dealt with this or had to play with something like this,” Hurts said on Monday. “It always happens on Monday night for whatever reason.”

The good news for Hurts — and the Eagles — is that he said Wednesday he felt better. And though Jason Kelce said “it feels like everyone in the world is (sick) right now” and that other players on the team were dealing with similar illnesses, nobody missed practice on Wednesday because they were sick.

3. The Eagles were 1 of 5 in the red zone on Monday — it could be viewed as 1 of 4 because one of those was an end-of-half situation in which the Eagles kicked a field goal on second down — and those missed opportunities are why Nick Sirianni “came out of that dragging myself through the mud there and some of the things that we tried to do.” 

One of the trips was spoiled by an eligible man downfield penalty that pushed the Eagles behind the sticks. But two of those trips included curious fourth down calls — a handoff to Kenny Gainwell out of the shotgun, and a fake quarterback sneak when Hurts tried running to the edge and tangled his feet with a lineman. The Eagles didn’t take advantage of earlier downs, either. The outcome of the game was unaffected, except this was a night in which the Eagles could have scored in the 30s or even the 40s based on their offensive production. 

“We just have to help them be in better positions there, both in the passing game and run game,” Sirianni said. “We’ll spend extra time making sure we’re doing what we need to do to fix that. We’ve been really good in the red zone the last two years. Obviously, credit to the defense. They did a good job. But it’s not up to our standard of where we want to be. I just felt like, again, just felt like that was my fault with just not putting them in great spots to succeed. And that game there could have — obviously we left a lot of points out on the board. Again, Tampa has a really good defense, so credit to them. But, yeah, I didn’t love my coaching in that area.”

The Eagles rank 25th in the NFL in red-zone offense, scoring touchdowns on 45.5 percent of their trips. (With a small sample size, that percentage is affected by Monday’s game.) By comparison, they were No. 3 last year with touchdowns on 68 percent of their red-zone trips.

4. D’Andre Swift has been a revelation for the Eagles, reaching 130 rushing yards in back-to-back weeks and ranking No. 2 in rushing despite only one carry in Week 1.

But it stood out that Swift did not have a carry in the fourth quarter on Monday, with his 16th rush coming with more than two minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Eagles turned to Kenny Gainwell during a nine-plus minute drive in the fourth quarter. 

“We felt like in that scenario right there we were trying to pound it a little bit,” Sirianni said. “We know Kenny’s good at that, being able to do that, protecting the football. And D’Andre has done a good job of that as well, but in that particular case, we thought it was best for the team and that’s why we went that direction.”

Look for the Eagles to continue to use Gainwell, considering the trust they have in him. But it should be clear that Swift will be the Eagles’ lead running back, and the playing time distribution on Monday (43 snaps for Swift, 37 for Gainwell) shows the Eagles are trending in that direction. 

One factor to watch is whether the Eagles are mindful of preserving Swift, considering he’s missed at least three games in each of his first three seasons.

5. Olamide Zaccheaus does not possess Quez Watkins’ speed, but he was effective on Monday with a two-catch, 58-yard performance that should give the Eagles confidence in his ability to play the slot. Watkins remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, which caused him to miss the past two games. Sirianni praised Zaccheaus’ toughness, route-running, and “great football instincts.” Pay attention to how the playing time is distributed when Watkins returns, because those characteristics are valuable in the slot.

Even though Zaccheaus spends his time in the slot, his ADOT (average depth of target) shows that he can be a threat downfield. The ADOT was 11.5 yards last season, with nine catches of 20-plus yards (eight of which were deep passes), and his ADOT was 13.8 in each of his first two seasons before dropping to nine yards in 2021. On Monday, his ADOT was 19 yards. 

6. It was obvious throughout the spring that Reed Blankenship would be a key player for the Eagles this season, and his interception on Monday was the type of highlight-worthy play that he made a few times in training camp. Blankenship’s instincts are hard to ignore. His ball skills are apparent. 

“He’s the man with the plan — smart player,” James Bradberry said after the game.

Blankenship missed the Eagles’ Week 2 game. There’s a difference when he’s on the field. He went from basically the last player on the roster during the 2022 training camp as an undrafted rookie out of Middle Tennessee State to perhaps their clear top safety this year. Blankenship’s story is a credit to him for his work, to the coaching staff for developing him and the front office for finding him. When a team can have a player on an undrafted rookie contract contributing as he is, it helps allocate resources elsewhere on the roster. It would be ambitious to suggest the Eagles need to find more players like Blankenship when building the roster during the next few years while the Eagles carry some massive contracts, but similar success in the undrafted market can be a contributing factor in sustaining a strong roster.

7. Speaking of Bradberry, credit to the veteran cornerback for moving over to the slot (as we wrote was a possibility last week) and combining with Sydney Brown to be effective in that area against Tampa Bay. Bradberry played 24 snaps in the slot, three snaps in the box and one snap along the line against Tampa Bay, according to Pro Football Focus. He played 18 snaps at right cornerback. Brown played 11 snaps in the slot, and his recovery speed to break up a potential touchdown to Mike Evans was a key play in the game.

I’d expect the Eagles to rotate based on matchups in a given week, although the idea of using Brown in that role would intrigue me. The Eagles need to find ways to get him on the field, and his athleticism could be an asset. It would also enhance his long-term development because of how interchangeable safety and nickel cornerback can be in the present-day NFL.

8. The Eagles signed Britain Covey to the active roster last week, and he responded with a career-long 52-yard punt return — the longest of the Nick Sirianni era. Covey had a slow start last season. Since Week 13 of last year, though, he’s first in the NFL with a 14.6-yard average among players with at least 15 returns and he leads the league in returns of 10-plus yards and 20-plus yards. 

He needs to ensure ball security does not become an issue, but his ability to pick up yards in chunks is noticed within the building.

“Reliable. Really explosive,” Sirianni said. He did what we’ve seen over and over again in practice since he got here. …We know we have maybe a hidden gem that not everybody always fully appreciates. We sure do. He is a locker room favorite here. These guys love Britain Covey because he’s tough, he works his butt off, great personality. So, yes, the 50-whatever-yard return got the sideline excited, but it’s the connection that our players have and our coaches have to Britain Covey the person, that even made that maybe look a little bit even more uptick.”

9. The “Tush Push” continues to receive much attention — Sirianni actually thinks “Brotherly Shove” is a better name for it — and my view is it can be overblown. The Eagles’ success with the play is mostly due to one of the best offensive lines in the league and a strong quarterback who is adept at making it work. It’s not because of the Eagles taking advantage of any loopholes in the rules. 

They’re not the first team to have success with quarterback sneaks. And the credit should go more to those in front of Hurts on the play than those behind Hurts on the play.

“Not everyone has] Jason Kelce, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens. Not everybody has Jordan Mailata. Not everybody has Lane Johnson on the other side. Not everybody has that type of quarterback,” Sirianni said. “We noticed that last year when people were making maybe some big deals about it. There are a lot that are unsuccessful. ….But there is clearly a talent to it that our guys have, because it’s not as — maybe it’s automatic right now for the Philadelphia Eagles, but it’s not automatic around the NFL. …You hear it and you’re like, well, I get that some people are complaining about it, but stop it. Stop the play. It’s not as automatic as people think as we’re seeing across the NFL. Our players make it work, right? Frankly, us as coaches aren’t doing anything. We’re calling the play and the players are going out there and making it work. Now, we did a lot of studies on everything in the off-season to help ourselves be even better at it, but it’s about those guys up front. It’s about Jalen. I think we would be pretty successful without the push, but we’re just pushing them sometimes to give that extra thump.”

10. The Eagles did not have practice on Wednesday because it’s a short week, going with a walkthrough instead. Had they practiced, Sydney Brown (hamstring), Justin Evans (neck) and Quez Watkins (hamstring) would have been absent. The safeties will be important to monitor in the coming days. Reed Blankenship and Terrell Edmunds are the only other safeties on the 53-man roster. 

Defensive coordinator Sean Desai deserves kudos for finding ways to adjust to a revolving door on defense and remaining so effective this month. Of course, that also speaks to how well the defensive line is playing.

Elsewhere on the injury front, there should be no concern about Landon Dickerson. He said he’s playing this weekend after suffering a knee contusion against Tampa Bay.