As Saquon Barkley explained the emotions he was feeling after the end of his record pursuit this week, he was asked about winning the rushing title in 2024.
Not so fast.
“I gotta be careful what I say because Derrick (Henry) can still get that, you know what I mean?” Barkley said. “He’s a special player and you can’t count him out of anything.”
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It’s clear that Barkley has a ton of respect for Baltimore’s Derrick Henry, who enters Week 18 with 1,783 rushing yards. Henry is 222 yards away from Barkley so it’s obviously a long shot as the Ravens get ready to play the Browns, but Barkley isn’t counting Henry out.
Barkley actually spoke with Henry on Wednesday. Two of the best running backs in the NFL have grown close. They were rooting for each other this offseason in free agency as they moved on from their former teams and they’ve been rooting for each other throughout this historic season.
When it was brought up to Barkley, who hit 2,000 rushing yards on the season last week, that the first eight members of the 2K Club have failed to get back to that mark, he quickly mentioned King Henry.
Henry finished with 2,027 yards back in 2020 with the Titans and this is now the second-best season of his incredible career.
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“Derrick Henry could do it,” Barkley said.
Then it was brought up that Henry was 217 yards shy of 2,000 for the 2024 season.
“I’m not gonna lie, I knew that number,” Barkley said. “I talked to him today. He was talking to me to see if I was going to get [the record]. Obviously, the news came out that I’m sitting. I told him you could do something special too. Be the first one to do it twice. You never know.”
Get a paw up there
Jalen Carter has the ability to wreck games. You see him beat double-teams, knife into the backfield, hit quarterbacks and take down running backs. All the things that garner acclaim.
But there’s another thing Carter has been exceptionally good at in 2024.
He’s batting down passes at a really high rate. After he didn’t have a single pass breakup as a rookie in 2023, Carter has batted down six passes this season. His sixth came on Sunday against the Cowboys and he nearly swatted the ball into the arms of teammate Nolan Smith.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said that ability is just “innate” in some players.
“Yeah, he's got a knack for it,” Fangio said. “That's usually what it is. Some guys have a knack for it. He seems to have a knack for it. It's been good.”
Carter has his own theory on why he’s been so good at batting pass.
“I think that’s from when I played offense in high school,” he said. “I’m used to running routes, little drags down the middle and stuff, catching the ball. Usually when I’m rushing and I see it’s not going to be a rush where I can get a sack or something, I can real a quarterback’s eyes and I can tell where somebody is coming behind me and I can get my hand up.”
Carter’s six batted passes are second among defensive tackles in the NFL this season behind just Cameron Hayward, who has eight. And this is the most batted passes for any Eagles DT since at least 1999.
Trevor Laws batted 5 passes in 2010, Darwin Walker had 5 in 2003 and the most Fletcher Cox ever had in a season was 3 in his rookie season in 2012. Carter has more batted passes this year than the rest of the Eagles’ DTs combined: Jordan Davis (2), Thomas Booker (1), Milton Williams (1).
Opportunity for Tanner
You’ll hear a bunch of people call Sunday’s Week 18 game against the Giants “meaningless.” And from a playoff seeding perspective, it is.
But this game has plenty of meaning for the backup Eagles who will get a rare chance to show their ability in a regular season game. The top guy on that list is third-string quarterback Tanner McKee, who will make his first NFL start.
“This is my chance to play a significant amount of snaps, reps, and to go out and show what I’ve been working for this whole year,” McKee said. “Obviously, been putting in a ton of work for myself on the practice field and different things like that. I feel like I can showcase that and I’m super excited for the opportunity.”
The Eagles drafted McKee in the sixth round out of Stanford last season and have been developing him since. Last week against the Cowboys, McKee made his NFL debut in relief of the injured Kenny Pickett and played well. McKee completed 3 of 4 passes for 54 yards and 2 touchdowns. His only incompletion was a great ball to A.J. Brown in the end zone but Brown wasn’t able to keep his feet in bounds.
McKee, 24, said this is a big opportunity to show his team and the rest of the league what he can do. It’s also a chance for a big confidence-boost.
Even though McKee has barely played all year, he thinks he has improved as a quarterback.
“I feel like almost having another season under my belt with the offense, just feeling more comfortable,” he said. “Everything’s happening second-nature with different checks or where your eyes should be. Just not thinking as much, being able to see the defense, look off guys or just confirm things a little quicker with your eyes.”
Harnessing Sydney Brown’s aggression
From the first play last Sunday against the Cowboys, Eagles second-year safety/special teamer Sydney Brown wasn’t afraid to mix it up with the opponent in a chippy game.
Eventually, Brown was tossed in the fourth quarter for body-slamming a Cowboys player in the tunnel after two Cowboys went after him.
“Unfortunate that it ended up with a brawl, but that's just something we make a learning experience for Sydney,” Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. “When the whistle blows, so he doesn't put anybody else in a bad predicament going forward. When you have a guy like Sydney Brown you're not going to take away his tenacity. You got to make a learning point to hone in that emotion after the play stops just so you don't put anybody else in a bad spot.”
The week before, starting safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was ejected against the Commanders. And you can also toss in defensive tackle Jalen Carter as a player who routinely plays up to (and sometimes slightly over) the line of aggression.
It’s about finding that balance. But Clay definitely appreciates the edge and emotion that Brown brings to special teams.
“Sydney does it through a physicality standpoint, especially on the outside,” Clay said. “So he does bring an edge. You always want your guys to back each other up. I think they do a good job on special teams of backing each other up and trying to get out of those dustups and make sure we don't lose anybody going forward.”
Developing talent in the NFL
Nick Sirianni always talks about the developmental periods the Eagles hold after practice for their younger players. So as they get ready to play a game where a lot of those guys are going to play, he was asked more about those developmental periods.
Sirianni said that Frank Reich had similar practice periods in Indianapolis when Sirianni was an offensive coordinator and the Eagles had done it before he arrived too. So it was a no-brainer to keep doing them.
Sirianni on Friday explained why.
“It's just so important,” Sirianni said. “When you're on the scout team and you're not getting a lot of the reps with the starters, then you don't rep your plays, right? You're doing what a card says. It's a lot different running a play when you hear it in the huddle and have to go process it and go do it, one of our plays, as opposed to looking at a card, ‘Do this.’ It's just different. We’ve got to try to put them in positions to develop.”
While Sirianni said he didn’t want to give away all of their methods to develop talent, he did offer one more detail. On Friday or Saturday — it’s up to the position coach — those scout team players have an extra meeting to go over their practice reps. The Eagles have to always prepare their starters to play but they want to keep bringing along their backups too.
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