A week after Jalen Carter played every Eagles defensive snap, he was well on his way to doing it again. But thanks to the Eagles’ 37-20 blowout win, the star defensive tackle got a bit of a breather.
Carter played 54 of 64 defensive snaps after playing all 66 against the Commanders in Week 11.
According to NFL NextGen Stats, Carter played the first 51 of 59 plays on Sunday night before the backups came in. That gave him an incredible streak of 114 consecutive snaps dating back to Week 10. That was the longest active streak in the NFL.
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While Carter didn’t fill up the stat sheet on Sunday night — he had just one pressure — he garnered a ton of attention. Carter was double-teamed by the Rams on 22 of his 35 pass rushing snaps, per NextGen Stats. That was his second-highest double-team rate of the season and it freed up his teammates to win their 1-on-1s.
On the season, Carter has now played 548 of 678 possible snaps (81%). To put that into perspective, Fletcher Cox hit 81% just once in his 12-year career.
Here’s how the full DT rotation went on Sunday night: Jalen Carter 54 snaps (84%), Milton Williams 24 snaps (38%), Moro Ojomo 23 snaps (36%), Jordan Davis 15 snaps (23%), Thomas Booker 11 snaps (17%).
Other defensive notes
NFL
• Brandon Graham played 29 snaps before leaving the game with a season-ending torn triceps. While it’s obviously sad that Graham’s season and career might be over, it would be fitting in a way because he was playing incredibly well on Sunday. He had a sack, 3 quarterback hits, 2 TFLs and a pass breakup in those 29 snaps. If that was the end of his career, Graham was relentless until the end.
• Aside from losing a heart-and-soul player, the Eagles are going to miss Graham on the field. They are down to just three healthy edge rushers on the 53-man roster. Josh Sweat had a bit of an injury scare on Sunday but returned to the game and played 36 total snaps (56%). Nolan Smith led the group on Sunday with 39 snaps (61%) and Jalyx Hunt played 24 (38%) after not seeing the field on defense against the Commanders. Hunt had been getting over an ankle injury.
• The only defensive player who didn’t leave the field was rookie corner Quinyon Mitchell, who played all 64 snaps. Cooper DeJean (62), Reed Blankenship (57) and C.J. Gardner-Johnson (54) were right behind him.
• Darius Slay played 28 of 64 snaps before leaving the game with a concussion. Isaiah Rodgers played the other 36. Slay might miss next week’s game in Baltimore.
• At linebacker, Zack Baun played 53 snaps (83%) and Nakobe Dean played 52 (81%). Dean had a very active evening with 8 tackles, a sack and 2 TFLs.
• Avonte Maddox played 13 snaps, getting some non-garbage time as a dime defender. And then the Eagles got to empty the bench a bit at the end of the game. Thomas Booker played 11 snaps, Oren Burks got 9, Tristin McCollum 8, Sydney Brown 6 and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. 5.
Offensive notes
• The Eagles had to play this game without DeVonta Smith, who was ruled out on Friday with a hamstring injury. Without Smith, A.J. Brown led the way for the receivers with 65 of 73 snaps (65%). Brown had 109 yards receiving and a touchdown on 6 catches. The snaps were split up after that: Johnny Wilson 51, Jahan Dotson 50, Ainias Smith 7, Britain Covey 3. Dotson was the only other receiver with a catch and it went for just 4 yards.
• Jordan Mailata and Cam Jurgens were the only offensive players to play all 73 snaps. Landon Dickerson, Lane Johnson, Mekhi Becton and Jalen Hurts played 71 of 73.
• The Eagles got all three of their tight ends in this game. Dallas Goedert got 55 snaps, followed by Grant Calcaterra with 40 and C.J. Uzomah with 16.
• Jack Driscoll, Fred Johnson, Tyler Steen and Kenny Pickett finished off the game with two snaps.
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