Here are five things I think I learned from the Eagles 14-13 win over the New England Patriots on Thursday night:
Mekhi Becton will be the starting right guard. It’s pretty obvious that’s the case since he sat out Thursday night with the rest of the offensive line starters and played just eight snaps in the opener against the Baltimore Ravens. Also, Tyler Steen injured his ankle against the Patriots and was carted from the sidelines to the locker room after just 12 snaps with the backups.
Nevertheless, head coach Nick Sirianni insists a decision on who starts against the Green Bay Packers has been made.
“Yeah, we still have some time to think through some things,” he said. “We're going to have some really good physical practices next week, almost some operational things, different things like that. So, we'll see. No reason to say anything one way or the other right now because we're still working through it.”
Talk of Nakobe Dean’s demise has been greatly exaggerated. The linebacker scored a 90.0 PFF grade vs. the Patriots, the highest mark among all players on Thursday. He was flying around the field Thursday like he was still at Georgia, where he won the Butkus Award for the nation’s top linebacker in his final season. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has showcased Dean’s quickness as a blitzer in the run and pass game. He's had a solid camp, he's healthy and he's not the bust some may already believe him to be.
Talk of James Bradberry’s successful transition to safety has been greatly exaggerated. The former Pro Bowl cornerback had seemingly been doing well at transitioning safety. He hit a bump in the road against the Patriots. His most glaring mistake came on an easy 4-yard walk-in touchdown by rookie Drake Maye, who made a weak attempt at faking a handoff before tucking the ball and scooting around the edge untouched.
Bradberry seemed to go for the fake and took a bad step to his right as Maye darted around him. Rookie Jalyx Hunt could have done a better job, too, but if Bradberry plays that better, it’s not a touchdown.
The concern over Bryce Huff was unwarranted. The edge rusher was one of only a handful of defensive starters to play on Thursday and in his 10 snaps made three tackles. He also looked more comfortable knowing where he was going.
“I think he's just going to continue to get better within our scheme,” said Sirianni. “He's a good football player. It's just learning a new scheme, learning some different things that we're asking him to do, different techniques. Guys like that – and he works his butt off and he wants to be great, so guys like that are just going to keep getting better with the reps he gets, and that's why we wanted to get him reps (Thursday).”
Will Shipley was under-drafted. Maybe I said the same thing when Kenny Gainwell arrived in the fifth round three years ago, but that was because the pandemic was still around, and he sat out his final season. So, there was some unknown with the Memphis product.
How the Clemson hammer lasted until the fourth round is astounding. He was the 127th player taken overall and the seventh running back to come off the board. It probably had to do with some nagging injuries that cut into his final college season, limiting him to 827 yards and five touchdowns with another 244 yards receiving and two more scores.
Shipley has looked more and more comfortable catching the ball, and his twisting, turning, 19-yard catch-and-run on a short throw was one of the niftier plays of the night. His role is still to be determined with Gainwell and Saquon Barkley ahead of him, but you can see the promise he brings, and the Eagles should feel good about him beyond this season when Gainwell likely departs as a free agent.
