Inside The Birds: “Get Him Work With Jalen Hurts”

The Eagles take the field for the first time since the end of the 2020 season on Thursday night to face the Pittsburgh Steelers in the preseason opener at the Linc.

On the latest Inside The Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discuss what to expect from all three phases and the amount of playing time certain players should anticipate.

ITB photo: Jalen Hurts will lead the Eagles’ starting offense in the preseason opener.

Miles Sanders

Geoff Mosher: “To me I don’t think you need to see Miles Sanders past one drive. You’d like to get him some work with Jalen Hurts, I do agree with that. But this is your only three-down running back, the only thing you don’t know about him is whether or not he’s going to improve on those passes across the middle. You can work on that a whole lot, you don’t need to in the preseason game. I wouldn’t play him more than one possession, because I want to get Jordan Howard in there and get him some reps at the end of the first quarter.”

Boston Scott

Adam Caplan: “Boston Scott has looked damn good, by the way. He looks explosive, the way that they’re using them is working in a rotation behind Sanders. Both Jordan Howard and Scott will have their roles. There might be some games where Scott has more touches than Howard because Jordan Howard is not going to play on third down, they don’t throw him the ball […] Scott’s got that role there, he’s great as a changeup.”

Offensive Line

Caplan: “Do you go two series with [Jordan] Mailata, Lane Johnson and [Jason] Kelce, and obviously the other guys like [Jack] Driscoll, [Matt] Pryor and [Nate] Herbig?”

Mosher: “That’s a great question, because you can’t afford to get these guys hurt. I think you may want to give yourself two series of Mailata at left tackle. You can pull Lane after one series but only if you’re replacing him with Driscoll for the second series. After that, Jalen [Hurts], you’re out. ”

LB Shortage

Caplan: “They are so down at linebacker [right now]. Shaun Bradley will play but [Jacoby] Stevens is out. Davion Taylor is out, Genard Avery may not play because he’s injured, we’ll see. Who do you play?”

Mosher: “I think Alex Singleton has got to get a lot of run. Alex Singleton and T.J. Edwards, to me, have got to get a pretty decent amount of run along with Eric Wilson, at least to start. You can’t afford to get these guys hurt too much so even though they’d like to get them reps, if they get injuries, you’re already hurt at that position. I just think after the first quarter, you’re probably going to see in certain situations a lot of Shaun Bradley and you’re probably going to see a decent amount of the rookie Patrick Johnson. I think those guys are going to get a lot of that second-half run.”

– Justin Morganstein (@jmotweets_) is a staff contributor to InsideTheBirds.com.

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