Quinyon Mitchell’s stellar rookie season, keys to beating the Commanders, and more of Reddit’s top Eagles questions
David Murphy answers questions from r/Eagles heading into the team’s Thursday night matchup against the Commanders.
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Q: Why can’t Will Shipley get all of Kenneth Gainwell’s play time? He almost got Jalen killed early on. It’s the last bad position battle.
A: You know things are going well for the Eagles when we’re debating who the backup running back should be.
I’d love to see more of Shipley, mostly out of curiosity’s sake. But Gainwell doesn’t look like a big issue to me. Shipley really hasn’t popped at all when he’s been in there.
Q: Why don’t we have blowout wins every week?
A: Because you don’t play Cooper Rush every week.
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Q: When will Jalen Hurts learn to dump the ball?
A: The sacks are definitely a place for improvement. He’s taken at least four in four of the last seven games. That said, the dump-off thing is kind of par for the course with scrambling quarterbacks. Hurts has looked a lot better in that department this year than he did down the stretch last year.
Q: How good is Quinyon Mitchell and how did he fall to us in the draft?
A: I’ve been real impressed with him. Better question might be how Cooper DeJean fell to them in the second round. He was my guy this year — when they were on the clock I wanted him instead of Mitchell.
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I didn’t think there’d be any chance of him falling into the second round. It was a weird draft. Lots of quarterbacks and offensive linemen, which knocked everything else down. It was the kind of draft that can make a decade for a team. Similar to Lito Sheppard/Sheldon Brown way back when.
Q: What are your keys to winning against Washington Thursday night?
A: This is a really interesting game. Kliff Kingsbury has done a great job with the Commanders’ rushing attack. Obviously, it all starts with Jayden Daniels, but it’s a really impressive scheme as a whole.
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The Steelers and Ravens both shut it down, which is where two of the Commanders’ three losses come from. The Eagles haven’t given up more than 100 yards rushing since before the bye week. I’m not sure what Brian Robinson’s status is going to be for the game. That is a big loss if he can’t play again.