For the second week in a row, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts did not have his best game, but just like in Week 1, he and his teammates found a way.
Hurts completed 18 of 23 passes for 193 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. In addition, he ran for 35 yards and added two more touchdowns on the ground as the Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings 34-28 in the team’s home opener on Thursday night.
“For us, we found a way to get it done,” Hurts said after the win. “The reality is that the league is different from moment to moment. For us, we just continue to grow. Obviously, there were a ton of guys that made plays out there, not just myself. But there were a lot more plays out there for us to make.”
While Hurts has not been putting up eye-popping numbers, he’s getting the job done. In fact, Philadelphia has won 19 of its last 20 regular-season games Hurts. Since 2021, Hurts’ .750 winning percentage (24-8) leads all NFL quarterbacks.
After two weeks, teams are trying to limit the big plays this offense got last season in the passing game. The offense does not look entirely in sync; at this point, Hurts believes the team is finding its way.
“I think we are a work in progress,” he said. “What better way to be a work in progress than sitting on two wins out of the gate in ten days, or however many days it was. We strive for progress, not perfection. Obviously, we all have a standard for ourselves. Obviously, we demand the most of ourselves because of everything that we go through together, all the work that we put in together, and all of those things. We are going to continue to keep chipping away.
“In fact, the same things that I’m saying now I’d be saying if we lost. But the reality is winning is the only thing that matters, and everything is done with winning in mind. For us, we just want to continue to grow as a team, continue to develop, and find that identity for us and continue to grow together.”
In the second half, cameras caught an animated A.J. Brown talking with Hurts on Philly’s sideline. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was seen saying something to both guys. Brown did not speak after the game, but Hurts explained Brown’s reaction.
“I think everybody wants to make plays, and everybody wants to contribute,” he said. “I have no worry about him; he’s a great player, a great teammate, a great friend, and we’ll do anything and everything to win.”
Sirianni says things will remain private.
“The conversations we have on the field are going to be private, and the conversations we have in our locker room are going to be private,” Sirianni said. “You don’t need to know what was going on right there.”
It’s all about getting wins, and that’s what the Eagles are doing right now, winning. As the schedule toughens up, this team will have to better if they want to continue winning.
Swifty!!
-Philadelphia rushed for 259 yards and 3 TDs on 48 attempts, averaging 5.4 yards per carry. It was the 2nd-most rushing yards of the Nick Sirianni era (since 2021), behind a 363-yard performance on 11/27/22 vs. Green Bay. The Eagles’ leading rusher was newcomer D’Andre Swift, who totaled a career-high 175 yards in the win.
-D’Andre Swift’s 175-yard effort marked his fifth career game with 100+ rushing yards and was the most by an Eagle since LeSean McCoy on 12/8/13 (217 yards). Swift’s last 100+ yard game was on 9/11/22 vs. Philadelphia with Detroit (144 yards).
Smitty!!
DeVonta Smith registered 131 yards and 1 TD on four receptions (32.8 avg.). It marked the 2nd-most receiving yards of his career (169 yards on 9/25/22 at Washington).
Smith became the first Eagle to record multiple 50+ yard receptions in a single game since
DeSean Jackson accomplished the feat on 9/8/19 vs. Washington. Smith caught a 54-yard reception in the first quarter to set up a FG by Jake Elliott that gave the
Eagles a 3-0 advantage early in the game. He also hauled in a 63-yard TD from Jalen Hurts during the third quarter to make it a 27-7 score.
The Philadelphia Eagles running back room will look slightly different in 2023 and deeper.
Last season, Pro Bowl running back Miles Sanders was the leading rusher for the Eagles; Sanders moved on and signed with the Carolina Panthers in the offseason.
With Sanders gone, Philadelphia signed running back Rashaad Penny and acquired D’Andre Swift from the Lions. Philly re-signed Boston Scott to go along with Kenny Gainwell.
According to the depth chart, Swift is the starter, but expect Penny, Gainwell, and maybe even Scott to get a decent amount touches in 2023.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni says he’s still determining how he will use his running backs in 2023, which he discussed on Tuesday.
“It’s a deep group,” Sirianni said. “And we’ll see how it goes. Really, the running back room can go — I’ve said this to you guys before — the running back room can be either way. It can be by committee. It can be with one guy that’s taking all the carries or a majority of the carries.
“And so, we’re excited that a lot of different guys can do it. We were capable of that last year, in my opinion, as well, and I think you saw a little bit more of that in the playoffs. But [Former Eagles RB/ current Panthers RB] Miles [Sanders] just had a tremendous year last year. But we were still capable of doing so.
“So, we’ll see how it plays out. I can say it’s by committee, and then somebody gets hot, and we stick with them. We’ll see how it plays out. But what I love is the depth in that room and the capabilities of the guys in that room.”
Sirianni believes the depth the Eagles have at running back will make the team less predictable.
“I don’t think it’s like you force anything because I think they’re all good at inside zone,” Sirianni said. “I think they’re all good at pin/pull schemes. I think they’re all good at toss/crack schemes. I think they’re all gap schemes. I think that gives you some flexibility and some abilities to say we’re not predictable going in because they all have a very wide, broad skill set.”
The Eagles were great on offense in 2022, and if this team stays healthy, they could be even better in 2023.
In 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. The Eagles got great quarterback play from Carson Wentz and Nick Foles during that season. In addition, they had a very good running game, but it wasn’t just one running back; it was running back by committee, which was led by LeGarrette Blount, Jay Ajayi, and Corey Clement.
Philadelphia was third in the NFL in rushing yards per game.
Fast forward to 2023, with Miles Sanders off to the Carolina Panthers, it appears that the Eagles will be running back by committee again. In the offseason, the Eagles signed running back Rashaad Penny and acquired D’Andre Swift from the Lions to go along with what they have with Kenneth Gainwell, Boston Scott(re-signed), and Trey Sermon.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was asked how he will utilize his running backs this season, and based on his answer, it could be by committee.
It can look any way,” Sirianni said about running back by committee on Thursday, “Again, we’re early on with pads. Running backs show out when their pads are on even more so.
“Again, you’re just looking for different things that they can do. You always adapt to what your players do well, but also, there are some things that you want to be able to run. You want to be like, ‘All right, who can do this job well and who can do this job well and who can do this job well?’ Sometimes it’s the same person throughout, and sometimes it’s by committee.
“We’ll see how it plays out. We’re still learning some of the new guys and what they’ve done, but I’m really pleased with the new guys, and I’ve really liked with [RB] D’Andre [Swift] and with [RB] Rashaad [Penny].
“And then I’m really pleased. Obviously, we’ve been through [RB] Kenny [Gainwell] and [RB] Boston [Scott] have been productive the last two years and have made a lot of plays for us the past two years not only in the season but in the playoffs.
“Then I can’t say enough about [RB] Trey [Sermon]. We were really excited to get him last year. He was able to get some game reps. We really liked him in practice. So, it’s a good thing when you have competition at a position because it just brings out the best in everybody.
“But, again, it can look any way we need it to look. We’ll see. We’ll see as we continue down the road, we’ll see. Good thing is I don’t have to make a decision on how it needs to look quite yet.”
Sanders would be the best back in the room if he were on the roster. However, this is a solid collection of backs for the Eagles, and if they stay healthy, they can definitely get the job for Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia Eagles may have done it again. In the first round, some feel they got one of the best players in the draft, former Georgia DT Jalen Carter, and later in the round, they got talented LB Nolan Smith, another Georgia product.
On Day 3 of the draft, they added some talent to the running back room when they acquired Philadelphia native, and once again, former Georgia RB D’Andre Swift from the Detroit Lions for a 2025 fourth-round pick and a flip of seventh-round selections.
Last season, Swift, 24, ran for 542 yards and five touchdowns, and the third-year running back, had 48 catches for 389 yards and three touchdowns, so he’s a versatile player.
Eagles Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman is excited by the acquisition of Swift.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to get [newly-acquired Eagles RB D’Andre] Swift, bring him back to Philly,” Roseman said. “He’s a guy that we’ve known for a long time. Even when he was in high school, we were watching him. We knew what kind of player he was, watched him through college. Really excited for that opportunity here.”
Roseman discussed how things came together between the Eagles and the Lions in the Swift trade.
“When they took [RB Jahmyr] Gibbs 12th, we thought maybe it was an opportunity,” he said. “They signed [RB David] Montgomery in free agency, and they took Gibbs, and we knew he was in the last year of his deal, and we went into this draft feeling really good about our running back room. We really liked the guys that we have on the roster. We think it was a talented group.
“It wasn’t in our mind a position that we were actively looking to upgrade, but at the same time, we’re always looking for opportunities to improve the team. When this came about, we just felt really good about the player, we felt really good about the person, and it adds another tremendous player and person to our locker room. We feel like we really know who he is as a person, have a lot of connections with him…
“It really started week one when we played them(Lions). You saw the explosiveness when we played them. He had a heck of a game. Every time he touched the ball, you knew there was a chance he could take it the distance.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni added on Swift: “First, want to say the same thing that Howie just said right there. We really are happy with our running back room. This was just another great piece to add. But you can definitely see his ability to make people miss in space, and you saw that against our defense last year. He had some unbelievable runs against us last year, where you look at each other like, man, that guy is hard to tackle. So, he has the ability to make you miss and also accelerate through the hole, which will serve us well in some of the draws that we run and some of the RPOs that we run.
“I don’t know exactly how we’ll use him perfectly with each individual run, you have to get your hands on him to see that, but also, in the passing game, I think he’s a dynamic playmaker that’s done some things that we’ve done with guys in the past, with some of the different routes that he runs. But he has a great ability to read defenses out of the backfield, to make guys — to separate from tight coverage out of the backfield, and has really good hands.
“Obviously, again, can’t say enough about the running back room that we have. We’re really excited about the pieces that we had going into the draft, and we’re even more excited about it with the addition of D’Andre.”
The Eagles running back room consists of Swift, Rashaad Penny, Kenneth Gainwell, and Boston Scott, which is solid, especially if they stay healthy. Again, another great day for the Eagles.
