Roster turnover is a fact of life in the NFL. It can be really frustrating when you lose players you like and had hopes for. The flip side is that it can be great to add a player to an area that is hurt by injury or simply needs upgrading. The Eagles made several changes in recent days.
Signed TE Zach Ertz to the practice squad
Signed NB/S Kenny Moore to the practice squad
Released DT Gabe Hall from the practice squad
Lost S Maximus Pulley from the practice squad when he signed with the Rams
Moore has spent most of his career playing in the slot. He was with the Colts when Nick Sirianni was there so they have experience together. Vic Fangio was asked about Moore in his PC today and said he knew nothing about him and hadn’t watched Moore. This is a Howie move, not something the defensive coaches pushed for. The addition of Moore could mean Michael Carter will focus on playing safety. He’s been the top backup at slot and safety to this point. We’ll find out more about the plan for Moore and the other DBs in time. We can only speculate for now.
Across his 9-year career, new #Eagles nickel/safety Kenny Moore II (#23) 51 plays where he aligned at either safety spot, per @NextGenStats, and 24 of them came in 2025, when Lou Anarumo took over for Gus Bradley as DC.
The Eagles had a trio of talented young DBs in Kapena Gushiken, Maximus Pulley and Cole Wisniewski. Gush is now with the Colts and Pulley is a Ram. Ugh. You hate to lose guys that showed promise and gave you potentially cheap, young options in the secondary. Wis is still on the Eagles practice squad. He was slowed by injuries in the spring and summer, but has good NFL potential.
I was surprised Hall didn’t get claimed when the Eagles let him go as part of the roster cuts. He played well this summer. He’s got a good combination of size and athleticism. It will be interesting to see if anyone picks him up.
Expectations should be set low for Ertz, considering his age and return from a significant injury. But if the tight end can look somewhat like he did as a receiver last season, when he contributed a throwback performance against the Broncos one game before his injury (10 catches, 106 yards) the Eagles may get more than a feel-good story.
I think that is a fair summary.
Ertz is a talented pass catcher, even at the age of 35 (almost 36). He has good hands. He is still a good route runner. Ertz is comfortable working the middle of the field and remains a solid red zone threat. He can help this offense. The big X-factor is his return from an ACL injury. Ertz has had enough time to heal and get back to where he needs to be from a generic perspective, but every ACL injury can be different based on the player’s size, injury history, the position they play and the severity of the injury. I’m guessing the Eagles wouldn’t have signed Ertz if they didn’t feel strongly that he could help them.
Dallas Goedert will miss a few weeks. The Eagles will need a combination of Johnny Mundt, EJ Jenkins and Ertz to get them through Goedert’s absence. Ertz is the best receiver. He’s never been a great blocker, but hopefully can be effective. Mundt is more blocker than receiver. Jenkins had a strong summer as a blocker. He’s still a mystery overall since he’s not played that much on offense. This group should be good enough to get the Eagles through 2 to 3 games. It certainly wouldn’t be ideal for an extended period.
It will be interesting to see if the Eagles use 11 personnel even more in DG’s absence. The WRs played well on Sunday and that group has good depth. They have mostly been in 11 personnel so far this season and the number could get even higher.
*****
The team still has an open roster spot. We thought they might use that on Ertz, but put him on the practice squad instead.
We don’t know for sure what Howie is thinking. He could be looking to add a safety or another TE. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Keeping the spot gives the Eagles options. We know Howie is constantly talking to agents and other teams to see who is available. He always wants to upgrade the roster when the right move is possible.
Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts are winners. The Eagles had never won in Nashville, losing in 2002, 2010, and 2018. Hurts had never won a game where Robert Saleh was the head coach or DC. Both streaks came to an end on Sunday with the Eagles 24-20 victory over Tennessee. It isn’t always pretty. But these guys both know how to win.
The expectation was that a healthy OL would help the Birds running attack get going and they would control the game. That would wear down the Titans and let the Eagles win comfortably. So much for the best laid plans of mice and men. The revamped OL had Drew Kendall at center with Cam Jurgens moving to LG. The OL struggled again and Saquon Barkley got hurt on the first play of the game. The Eagles finished the game 32-89 on the ground.
Hurts was able to keep the chains moving in the first half, but the Eagles only led 14-10 at the break. The offense was less effective in the second half, not really coming alive until the final drive. The Eagles never got much separation. Give the Titans some credit for keeping it close and then putting themselves in position to win. The Eagles had a significant talent advantage in each of the first two games. But I think the opponents played with more physicality and more urgency. That’s not ideal.
The temperature was a factor. The field was 133 degrees at kickoff. It was up to 157 degrees at halftime. Players mentioned their cleats started to melt. There is hot and then there is whatever insanity that is.
The game winning drive was well executed. There weren’t any miracle plays or crazy flukes. Brett Favre used to say that the key on end-of-game drives is to focus on first downs. Don’t worry about scoring a TD. Just keep the chains moving and you’ll get down to the red zone. Then you can think about scoring. It felt like that was Hurts mindset as he marched the team down the field. The players didn’t seem rushed or panicked. They just kept moving the chains and got out of bounds when possible. It was great to see them so calm and composed instead of being frantic.
This wasn’t a good overall showing from the Birds. But we do need some context. They were on the road on a brutally hot day. Tennessee was the more desperate team after getting embarrassed by the Jets in Week 1. They played with an edge that the Eagles just didn’t have. Give the Eagles credit for finding a way to win, even if it wasn’t pretty.
COACHING
Nick Sirianni should be somewhat concerned with the way his team has played the first two weeks. They have won because of talent, not effort, detail and execution. There was a play where Tennessee was able to stop an outside run by the goal line because their CB out-battled a TE who tried to block him. Later in the game the Titans did score on an outside run when their TE blocked an Eagles corner. Same play, two very different results. One team was tougher and more physical, and it wasn’t the Birds.
The Eagles went for it once on 4th down. I liked the decision (and it worked). I thought Sirianni used his timeouts wisely at the end of the game.
Sean Mannion started with a conservative plan that focused on running the ball. That led to mixed results. The offense was more of an aerial attack in the second half. There were some really good signs overall. The passing game showed great promise. It would be good to see them embrace that and lean more on Hurts and his receivers.
The short passing game (mainly screens) is not working well at all. Defenses seem to know the plays are coming and blow them up. They must stop throwing the ball to Lemon behind the LOS. The blocking is awful and defenses aren’t surprised. Lemon has no chance on those. The run game wasn’t good, but they did mix in some creative plays and looks. I loved Hollywood Brown getting two chances on an end around.
Vic Fangio didn’t do anything special that I could see. Badd tackling was probably the biggest issue the defense had. They also must get better at red zone defense. Teams are scoring TDs way too often. It would also be great to come up with a takeaway.
The Eagles did have a key strategic advantage late in the game.
Titans chose to kickoff into the end zone and give the Eagles a free start at the 35 yard line with 1:56 left and no timeouts.
Of course, every yard and second ended up being extremely valuable as they scored a TD with very little time remaining.
QB – Jalen Hurts had a good game, going 26-37-264. He threw 2 TDs and 2 INTs. He was able to win from the pocket and thrived in some areas where he’s gotten criticism in the past. He worked the middle of the field. He was good vs the blitz. He was good vs zones. He spread the ball around, completing passes to 9 different receivers. He hadn’t done that since 2022. Hurts was 5-16 on the ground, with two of those being tush push plays.
Hurts wasn’t perfect. He was off target with a couple of throws. The INTs were complicated. The first one featured a good play by the safety, but I also think Hurts forced the ball to DeVonta, who wasn’t open. DeVonta was being mugged by the CB (no call), but Hurts should have seen that before throwing the pass. The other INT was a deep ball to DeVonta. Jurgens didn’t get a good block on Jeffery Simmons and the DT hit Hurts as he released the ball. That affected the play, with the pass being underthrown. I still felt like Hurts should have been able to get more on the throw, but it was a complicated play to be sure.
Jalen was great on the game-winning drive.
Jalen Hurts was on time and on target from the pocket on the game winning drive for the Eagles
Hurts went 6/8 for 61 yards and a passing touchdown to clinch the win against the Titans pic.twitter.com/As9A9WwSMV
I can’t stress enough how impressed I was with his overall performance. Hurts was missing Barkley and Goedert for most of the game. The OL was shaky. The defense was erratic. Hurts came up big when his team needed him and led them to victory. Read the rest of this entry »