The Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars dropped some snap count numbers that are tough to swallow, especially when you look at how their offense is struggling. Darius Cooper played the most snaps of any Eagles wide receiver, cementing his WR1 status on the field, but only saw three targets the entire game. Three! The dude led the team in receiving with 71 yards on those three looks. They absolutely have to be more intentional about getting him the ball. He’s clearly a good player, and that kind of efficiency screams “feed me.”
Offensive Woes Are Getting Real
The offensive line saw some new faces and some durability concerns. Jordan Mailata is the only player who has been out there for 100% of the Eagles’ offensive snaps this season, which is crazy consistency. But Week 5 also marked Jake Majors’ first career start at center in his first regular season game, and Willie Lampkin’s first start at left guard. Rookies getting thrown into the fire early is one thing, but then you’ve got Tyler Steen missing snaps with a shoulder injury before returning, with Fred Johnson filling in at right guard. That kind of churn and injury up front just isn’t a recipe for success. Dontayvion Wicks ranked second among pass-catchers in snaps, targets, and receiving yards. Makai Lemon, though, is making some moves, setting career highs in snaps, targets, receptions, and receiving yards. That’s some progress, at least.
Running Back Roughness and Tight End Troubles
The run game was a mess. Will Shipley started at running back, but he had to leave the game early with a foot injury. That immediately pushed Dameon Pierce, who was previously RB4, into the RB1 role. What happened next wasn’t pretty. Pierce’s 11 carries behind that less than stellar offensive line resulted in a pathetic 14 yards. And then, he saw five targets, but those led to just two catches for negative two yards. That’s 13 total touches for 12 yards. You can’t make that up. It’s just not good enough.
Even Dallas Goedert’s return from a knee injury was a bit of a mixed bag. He had a smaller playing time workload than usual, which is expected coming back from injury. But he still logged a team-high eight targets, converting them into six receptions for 38 yards. Meanwhile, the tight end depth chart feels like a revolving door: Johnny Mundt is still TE2, E.J. Jenkins is TE3, and then there’s Zach Ertz at TE4. Ertz got two targets but zero catches in Week 5, and he’s only had three receptions for 22 yards on eight targets over the last three games. Is he still adjusting after last year’s injury, or is the 35-year-old just cooked at this point? And then there’s Elijah Moore, who still hasn’t seen a single target this season and doesn’t contribute on special teams. If DeVonta Smith and Hollywood Brown get healthy, you gotta wonder if he’s gone and ends up on the practice squad.
Defense Is Getting Absolutely Gassed
Another game, another brutal workload for the defense. This unit just can’t get off the field because the offense simply isn’t sustaining drives. They logged 70 snaps in Week 1, 72 in Week 3, 84 in Week 4, and another 72 in Week 5. That’s absolutely insane. By contrast, they only had to play 53 snaps in Week 2. To put it in perspective, the NFL lead in opponent plays per game last year was 65.5. Vic Fangio’s defense is seeing an average of 70.2 so far this season. They’re going to get completely worn out at this rate, and it’s not sustainable for a long season. Zack Baun played his normal workload in his first game back from a concussion, which is good to see, but the overall trend is worrying.
The Eagles are in a tough spot right now. With the offense unable to stay on the field and key players struggling or hurt, the defense is being pushed to its absolute limit. They need to figure out how to give Darius Cooper the ball more, and get some kind of consistent production from their run game, fast, if they want to turn this season around. Otherwise, these defensive snap counts are just going to keep piling up and wear this unit down completely.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleeding Green Nation.
Leave a Reply