The Linc – “Kelce” is America’s most popular dog name

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 11/15/23.

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

Kelce is 2023’s top-trending dog name in America, per report – ESPN
The Kelce brothers became a big source of inspiration this year for new dog owners. According to a recent report by pet sitting website Rover, Kelce is the top trending dog name in America, enjoying an increase of 135%. Rover said the Kelce brothers are likely an inspiration for the uptick. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce won his second Super Bowl in February. Kelce’s social media following increased drastically after Taylor Swift attended the Chiefs Week 3 game against the Chicago Bears. Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce played against his brother in the Super Bowl and released a documentary about his career in September. He was also a finalist for People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” list, while the younger Kelce topped People’s “Sexiest Men in Sports” list.

Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, Eagles’ Jason Kelce release Christmas duet ‘Fairytale of Philadelphia’ – CBS Sports
Jason and Travis Kelce already record a successful podcast together, but now they are trying to fly up the music charts. The NFL brethren released a new duet just in time for the holiday season. Early Wednesday morning, the Kelce brothers dropped their own take on The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York.” This brotherly version, however, is titled “Fairytale of Philadelphia” and features Jason and Travis going back and forth on the track.

Eagles Film Review: Midseason Defense Review – BGN
Strengths. Development of the defense line. The play of Jordan Davis has impressed me so much this year. He looks a different player compared to the end of last season, and the Eagles coaches deserve credit for developing him as well as Jalen Carter and Milton Williams. By rotating the defensive tackles more, the Eagles have also managed to keep Fletcher Cox healthy and he has had a really good season. The Eagles’ defensive tackles are playing at a very high level.

NFC East Mixtape Vol.137: Surviving the Washington Commanders – BGN Radio
R.J. Ochoa is joined by former contestant on Survivor: Ghost Island and co-host for the Surviving Snyder podcast, Brendan Shapiro (@brendanshapiro1). Shapiro shares his thoughts on the Commanders, who he thinks will win the division and Survivor. Subscribe to the BGN YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BleedingGreenNationSBN.

Trent McDuffie says Chiefs’ defense has something to prove against Eagles – Arrowhead Pride
Against Philadelphia, the Chiefs’ defense likely turned in their worst performance of the 2023 calendar year. Since the start of this season, the unit has been among the league’s best at holding down opportunities. In spite of the Chiefs’ reputation for a high-scoring offense with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, the club’s defense is the biggest reason Kansas City currently sits atop the AFC.

Eagles at Chiefs: Five matchups to watch – PhillyVoice
In Week 9, the Eagles faced a Cowboys offense that featured a star receiver in CeeDee Lamb, and not much else. This is perhaps remedial analysis, but it stood to reason that Sean Desai and the Eagles’ defensive staff should have sought to take Lamb away, however, Lamb didn’t get much added attention and was often left one-on-one with overmatched players like undrafted rookie Eli Ricks. If the Eagles do not seek to take Kelce away, then (spoiler) he will obliterate them in the middle of the field. Maybe that means bracket coverage, maybe it means covering him with Darius Slay or James Bradberry on obvious passing downs. But the Eagles must challenge Kelce and dare the Chiefs’ other skill players to beat them instead. Also, there’s the Taylor Swift factor. When Swift attends Chiefs games, Kelce is averaging 8.5 catches for 108 yards and 0.5 TDs per game.

Game Review – PHI 28, DAL 23 – Iggles Blitz
Nick Sirianni set the tone early by going for it on 4th down from his own 32-yd line on the opening possession. He went for it on another 4th down on the same drive and those conversions helped the Eagles get out to a 7-0 lead. I didn’t love the play-calling on the final couple of series. I’m not sure how much of that was Sirianni and how much was Brian Johnson. I did think Johnson had a good game overall. The Eagles ran a jet sweep pass to Swift that went for 20 yards. That was a good play. They ran an RPO that turned into a short pass to Goedert that went for 28 yards. That set up a short TD pass to AJ Brown that was well-designed. The Eagles were 3 for 3 in the red zone. It sure seems like Johnson has figured out what to call and the players are doing an excellent job of execution. Sean Desai did some creative things. He had Sweat and Reddick switch sides early on and mixed that look in throughout the game. He lined up with 4-2-5 personnel and would have Cunningham shift from ILB to Edge, giving Dallas a 5-1 look. Desai mixed up coverages a bit, but had no real answers for Lamb. Hopefully the return of Bradley Roby will lead to better slot play.

Eagles mailbag: How much will it help to get Cam Jurgens back? – NBCSP
As for Quez Watkins, that’s a little more interesting. The Eagles have not yet activated his practice window but that could happen in the coming weeks. Watkins has already missed four games on IR with a hamstring injury so he’s eligible to return. And before the Cowboys game, we saw Watkins working on a side field with trainers, so he’s clearly nearing a possible return. But it’s fair to wonder how he’ll fit into the offense or if he’ll even be activated. When he was healthy earlier this season, Watkins was the No. 3 receiver but he’s played in just three games and got hurt in one of them. In the two games he’s been healthy, he’s played 52 snaps in each. That’s a lot. The Eagles need to figure out their third receiver option, especially now that Dallas Goedert is going to miss time with a forearm fracture. Could that still be Watkins? It’s possible. The Eagles really seem to like his field-stretching ability and Nick Sirianni is loyal to his guys. The problem is that there’s a bit of a roster crunch. The Eagles have five receivers on their active roster after the addition of Julio Jones so they’d have to find a spot elsewhere to bring back Watkins.

Ben Johnson, Mike Macdonald and Jerod Mayo among young NFL coaches to watch – NFL.com
Eagles OC Brian Johnson, 36: A prolific college quarterback at Utah and cover model for the NCAA Football 10 video game, Johnson got his start in coaching at his alma mater and became the youngest FBS offensive coordinator at age 24. He has mentored the likes of Dak Prescott, Kyle Trask and now Jalen Hurts — whose dad, Averion, coincidentally coached Johnson — and is now in his first season as an NFL OC. Three other teams also pursued him for coordinator jobs this past offseason before he opted to stay in Philadelphia.

NFL offensive line rankings ahead of Week 11 – PFF
4. Philadelphia Eagles (Up 1). On the season, the Eagles’ offensive line ranks just 19th in pass-blocking efficiency rating. The unit has allowed 105 pressures — including 10 sacks — on 354 dropbacks.

94WIP continues as Eagles’ flagship radio station with new 5-year deal – 94WIP
SportsRadio94WIP will continue as the flagship radio station of the Philadelphia Eagles, as the franchise and Audacy have agreed to a new five-year agreement through the 2028 NFL season.

Patrick Mahomes wears same unwashed underwear every game for 7 years, and we have questions – SB Nation
Greatness comes from many places. Sometimes it’s a crusty old pair of underwear. This week former Chiefs quarterback Chad Henne explained what it was like to share a locker room with Patrick Mahomes, giving us new details about what makes the QB tick. Henne appeared on a podcast with Adam Schefter on ESPN earlier this year and included a pretty wild anecdote about Mahomes’ underwear superstition.

How Tony Pollard’s struggles could affect his Cowboys’ future beyond 2023 – Blogging The Boys
But barring a dramatic change over the second half of the season and playoffs, Pollard doesn’t appear to be heading into the next offseason with much hype or leverage. It’s now more likely that he could accept a modest, role player’s level of compensation to stay with the only team he’s ever known. It might just be a one-year deal; a chance for Pollard to prove he’s fully recovered and improve his stock before the 2025 offseason while giving Dallas flexibility on the back end. Again, the Cowboys could easily move on after this season. They have plenty of reasons to reduce payroll at running back and reallocate that money to other positions. But the irony here is that success was more likely to make 2023 Tony Pollard’s last season in Dallas, while the current struggles could make it easier for him to return.

NFL Power Rankings: Washington Commanders are “Not good enough to compete. Not bad enough for a full-blown tank.” – Hogs Haven
The Washington Commanders entered Week 10 with a 4-5 record, and a chance to get back into the playoff race. They were visiting the Seahawks, and were in it until the final play, a game-winning field goal for Seattle. That loss didn’t move the needle for the power rankings this week, and the Commanders average only dropped half a spot.

Giants-Commanders injury news: 4 key Giants not practicing – Big Blue View
Daboll said that quarterback Tyrod Taylor, on IR with a rib injury, is making progress. Dan Duggan tweeted that Taylor was seen running sprints before practice. Taylor has missed two games and has to miss at least two more. If he is healthy, he could be activated following the Giants’ Week 13 bye and play Week 15 (Dec. 11) against the Green Bay Packers. Darren Waller, on IR with a hamstring injury also has to miss at least two more games. This update, from a charity function run by Waller, doesn’t seem optimistic.

Detroit Lions place Halapoulivaati Vaitai on IR, sign 2 to practice squad – Pride Of Detroit
The Detroit Lions announced on Tuesday that offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai is headed to injured reserve, amidst a flurry of roster moves. Vaitai was only able to make three starts this season before suffering a knee injury that held him out for an extended period of time. Even worse, when Vaitai was finally healthy enough to start again, a back injury crept up and sidelined him again. Last year, Vaitai missed the entire 2022 season with a back injury that required surgery. Though he spent the offseason mulling retirement, he was hopeful for another go-around with this strong offensive line.

Vikings place Jordan Hicks on injured reserve, make Anthony Barr signing official – Daily Norseman
The Minnesota Vikings’ defense has been a big part of the turnaround the team has had from a 1-4 record to their current five-game winning streak. Now, they’re going to have to play most of the rest of the season without one of the biggest parts of that turnaround. The team has announced that linebacker Jordan Hicks has been placed on injured reserve, meaning that he will miss at least the next four games. He will be eligible to come back in time for the Week 16 game against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Jets Sign DL Tanzel Smart to Practice Squad, Release DB Craig James – New York Jets
James (5-10, 195) appeared in two games for the Jets this season and took 42 snaps. He’s spent time with Minnesota, Philadelphia and the Jets since entering the league as an undrafted free agent with the Vikings in 2018 out of Southern Illinois. James has career regular-season totals of 18 tackles, 2 pass defenses and 1 fumble recovery.

Taking the Points #11: Buckle up for the game of the week on TNF – The SB Nation NFL Show
Chris Dunnells (Canal Street Chronicles), JSpence the King (Buffalo Rumblings), and producer Rob “Stats” Guerrera break down Bengals Ravens from a betting perspective. Each week, you’ll get spread advice, same-game parlays, our Thor of the Week Award, fantasy advice, and more! Each and every episode is brought to you by DraftKings. DraftKings Sportsbook is an official sports betting partner of the NFL! Download the Draftkings Sportsbook App today and use code SB NFL for a special offer when you sign up! That’s code SB NFL — only at DraftKings Sportsbook.

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