Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni stands on the field before a NFL preseason football game against the Miami Dolphins, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni stands on the field before a NFL preseason football game against the Miami Dolphins, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
The Pittsburgh Steelers task against the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend just got a lot more difficult with the Eagles adding defensive end Robert Quinn, while head coach Nick Sirianni talked about rooting for the Pittsburgh Pirates as a kid growing up in northern Pennsylvania.
The Eagles got even better on the defensive side of the ball, as they acquired defensive end Robert Quinn via a trade with the Chicago Bears. Philadelphia is sending a fourth-round pick to Chicago. According to Albert Breer, the Bears are picking up $7.1 million of Quinn’s remaining salary for the season, which means the Eagles will pay him a little more than $700K (the vet minimum) for the rest of the year.
Steven Ruiz of The Ringer ranked Kenny Pickett as the 35th-best quarterback in the NFL. “A jittery pocket passer who doesn’t have an obvious superstar trait to build around,” Ruiz said of Pickett.
Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus was quite blunt when asked about his thoughts on Matt Canada’s offense. “Calling this a high school offense would be an insult to high school offenses,” Spielberger said on 93.7 The Fan.
The Steelers are running play-action at an incredibly low percentage. According to Matt Williamson, Pittsburgh ran play-action 16.3% of the time with Mitch Trubisky at quarterback, while Kenny Pickett is at 17.6%.
Ben Fennell of the NFL Network is worried that Alex Highsmith is wearing down, as he has played the most snaps of any edge rusher or defensive lineman in the NFL this season. Through seven games, Highsmith has played 434 snaps (86.80%).
Wednesday marked the eighth anniversary of when Ben Roethlisberger threw for a career-high 522 yards and six touchdowns against the Indianapolis Colts. Roethlisberger threw for 340 yards and six touchdowns in the following week against the Baltimore Ravens. The Steelers were victorious in both games.
The Steelers will have to get a tremendous offer to trade Chase Claypool. “They’re not going to trade him just for the sake of it. He’s a talented guy. They’d have to get back something pretty sweet,” a general manager told NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni revealed that he grew up rooting for the Pirates, Penguins and Steelers. His mom grew up in Natrona Heights and his dad is from Kane, Pa. in the northeast part of the state. Sirianni’s brother, Mike, is in his 20th season as the head football coach at Washington & Jefferson, a Division III school nearly 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. “You spend a lot of weekends at grandma’s house,” Sirianni said. “One of our favorite things to do after the family reunion was to go to a Pirates game. I grew up a Pirates, Penguins, Steelers fan. I have great memories of that. Most are Pirates memories because my dad was a football coach so we couldn’t go to Steelers games.”
Kenny Pickett will face a vaunted Philadelphia secondary on Sunday, as the Eagles possess arguably the best cornerback tandem in the league in Darius Slay and James Bradberry IV. The Eagles’ defense has allowed the sixth-fewest plays of 10+ yards or more (73) and the fewest plays of 20+ yards (13).
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts shared an interesting story on Minkah Fitzpatrick from their days when they played at Alabama together. “I remember a lot of nights, where it’s a Saturday night, Friday night, and I think I’m the only one going to weight room, to the field to do extra work. And Minkah would be out there, too. He’s a defensive back, but he’d run routes for me,” Hurts said via Zach Berman of The Athletic.
With facing Jalen Hurts on Sunday, Cam Heyward discussed defending quarterback zone reads on his Not Just Football podcast. Hurts has rushed for six touchdowns this year.
The Steelers were fortunate that Dolphins running back Chase Edmonds missed the hole on the fourth-and-2 play n the third quarter, resulting in a turnover on downs for Miami. Had Edmonds made the proper read, he surely would have got first down yardage and possibly even a touchdown if he beat Terrell Edmunds on the edge.
Should’ve been a race to the pylon with the safety. This is painful to watch. Not a wonder Mike McD was so confident in this play call. pic.twitter.com/cLiGvrEygp
