Miami Spice

With the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs still very much attainable, a primary topic of conversation this week will center on how the Eagles could, or should, approach playing time Sunday afternoon in the regular-season finale against the Washington Commanders.

The Eagles must weigh the risk-reward of playing prominent players on both sides, or potentially rest many of those players, guarding against injury and preserving them for the postseason.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, Tuesday offered an opportunity to look back on Sunday’s win against Buffalo and hear the perspectives from all three coordinators several topics.

Below are three takeaways from the Eagles coordinators, who spoke Tuesday, with additional context provided.

The addition of Jaelan Phillips has had a widespread impact on the Eagles’ pass rush.

Jaelan Phillips’ impact

The Eagles’ defense has authored its share of gems this season, most recently bottling up a productive Bills offense helmed by reigning MVP quarterback Josh Allen. Sure, Vic Fangio’s bunch swarms to the football and tackles as well as any team. They’re fundamentally sound, communicate well and play the game with a throwback mentality.

But what’s really surged over the past month is pass rush production. In Sunday’s game, OLB Jalyx Hunt collected a pair of Allen takedowns, while positionmate Jaelan Phillips and interior linemen Jalen Carter and Moro Ojomo all found their way into the sack column.

Hunt, in particular, has come on strong lately, attacking the edge with power and violence and showcasing a varied bag of pass rush tricks. His emergence has been eye-opening, though likely reflective of what the Eagles anticipated this offseason from Hunt in Year 2. He’s been terrific. Nolan Smith can’t be excluded, either, as he’s given the team productive snaps as a rusher and run defender. The revved-up pass rush has worked wonderfully in concert with the back end, alleviating the burden of having to cover for an extended period on a given play.

While the group routinely places quarterbacks under siege, the key to the resurgence can be traced back to the deadline move to acquire Phillips, the former Dolphins pass-rusher. Phillips, who provides length, athleticism and an innate knack for setting the edge with authority, has proven to be a seamless fit in his reunion with Fangio.

The 26-year-old was a terror against the Bills, his sack of Allen – who fumbled on the play – kickstarted the Eagles’ first scoring drive and it was Phillips bearing down on Allen on the Bills’ ill-fated end-of-game two-point try. Phillips’ arrival has not only reinvigorated the player himself, but it’s created more opportunities for teammates.

As Fangio will tell you, that’s what happens when you shop at Nordstrom.

“Anytime you add a good player to your team on the field, it’s going to help everybody,” he said. “If your pass rush takes an uptick, that helps everybody. If your run defense takes an uptick, that helps everybody. If your corners can cover, that helps everybody. So it’s a domino effect. I don’t think it helps just one position. It helps everybody.”

The personality of the offense

Approaching Week 18, a common query you’ve likely heard – or perhaps asked yourself – is about the overall identity of an enigmatic offense.

Foundationally, as we know, the Eagles want to tap into their run-first DNA that powered them to a Super Bowl. They want to be the bullies on the block, punishing team up front until they eventually wilt while controlling clock, creating advantageous opportunities in the passing game.

This season, however, has been a stark contrast for a multitude of reasons. Barkley, who of course rushed for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns last season while averaging 5.8 yards per carry is a shade under 1,200 yards. He’s averaging 4.1 yards per attempt. There have been spurts of encouraging signs of life in the ground game, but nothing sustainable.

Barkley, to his credit, has consistently placed the onus on himself, but it’s more complex than that. Sure, it’s fair to point to moments where the star running back appeared to be pressing, determined to rip a home run rather than what the play was blocked up for.

The offensive line, an impenetrable wall last year, has been plagued by inefficiency that can largely be attributed to not being 100 percent. After all, the Eagles played 21 games last season and adopted a grueling, run-heavy philosophy that undoubtedly taxed those who paved the way for Barkley. On a shortened offseason, no less. Regardless, the Eagles haven’t been able to hang their hat on the ground game, as there’ve been far too many negative plays and ineffectiveness.

The passing game, designed to function as an accessory when the offense is at its best, has experienced its share of hardships as well. Disjointed as it might look at times, though, Jalen Hurts has been aggressive, threading the ball into tight windows and targeting the middle of the field. His deep passes are thrown with touch and accuracy. It’s hardly hyperbole to suggest his pass to DeVonta Smith on Sunday, between multiple defenders, might’ve been the best throw of his career.

Still, that operation also hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. Factor in the penalties and negative plays putting the Eagles behind the sticks, and you have a unit largely stuck in neutral, sans for the occasional halves of games.

So, with the playoffs fast approaching, what gives? What is the calling card for this version of the Eagles’ offense?

“I think there’s some things that we’re starting to see now that this is kind of who we want to be going forward,” said coordinator Kevin Patullo. “It’s popped up as we’ve gone on throughout the season, because we’ve played such different games with different opponents that we’ve had and different styles of defenses.

“I think there’s certain things that Jalen’s doing a really, really nice job of, and we’ll continue to lean into that. His exposure to things and experience in the playoffs will really help us going on the long road.”

Braden Mann’s heroics

Pro Bowl nominations these days are typically born out of reputation. Commanders punter Tress Way, now a three-time Pro Bowler, is certainly worthy, though one of the more egregious omissions this year was Eagles punter Braden Mann – and his most recent performance supports that sentiment.

For perspective, amid the freezing rain, Mann averaged 55.4 yards, booming a long of 65 yards. He punted seven times, unfathomable in the modern era, delivering two punts inside the 20, and nearly a third had it not been for a coverage miscue. There was also a 50-yarder Mann crushed from the back line of the end zone, when he could only afford take a step. The veteran punter was a cool customer of a handful of punts in which he was pressured, aiding the Eagles in winning the all-important field position battle in a second half in which the offense sputtered, and the game was hanging in the balance.

This was hardly a one-off for Mann, who has come up big for the Eagles all season long, often in less-than-ideal weather conditions, where his previous experience of handling inclement elements were a prerequisite for playing in the AFC East. Special teams production, aside from the occasional lapse, mostly get lost when zooming out and analyzing a game, but on Sunday, Mann was special.

“Braden’s been punting great all year and he’s shown being in the northeast,” special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. “When he started his career with the Jets, obviously he [had] to be able to go to Buffalo and [punt in] some bad scenarios. For him to go out there and punt like that is not really a shock because I see it every day, how hard he works, trying to perfect his craft throughout the entirety of it, whether it’s windy, whether it’s snowy, whether it’s rain, Braden’s out there and he just gives it his all.

“It’s really cool to see all of his work come to fruition in a big stage like that to help out the team with the flip of the field, that last punt, 55 yards at 5.0 really helped out [and] gave them a long feel for our defensive to defend.”

— Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com