Eagles stats: Lane Johnson is a stalwart; Jalen Hurts is Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded passer
Johnson last gave up a sack in 2020, and his consistency has helped the Eagles' passing attack led by Hurts.
The Eagles are off to a hot start that has some reevaluating what their potential is this season.
The 24-8 win against the Commanders on Sunday helped prove the team is capable of turning its talent advantage into wins against lesser opponents. There are plenty of tests to come, but it’s an excellent start to a much-anticipated season.
Here are five numbers that help tell the story of where the Eagles are through three weeks:
39.9
The Eagles’ 39.9% defense-adjusted value over average, a stat that measures efficiency and considers the strength of opponent, ranked fourth in the NFL going into Monday night.
The percentage reveals more than the ranking does in this case. The Eagles are behind the Buffalo Bills, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Baltimore Ravens, who are all above 40%. The next team after the top four? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 20.7%. That’s quite a tier separation.
The Eagles’ offensive DVOA comes in at fourth and defensively they rank sixth. It’s obviously still early, but considering DVOA’s predictive nature, maintaining a high ranking throughout the regular season will be important for those hoping the Eagles skip some steps and turn a hot start into a playoff run.
Since 2016, only one team that has ranked outside of Football Outsiders’ top five regular-season teams has gone on to win a championship.
3.7
Three games feels like a benchmark for quarterback performance. Even though it’s still quite a small sample, steady success over a three-game stretch can’t be hand-waved as a flash in the pan or an outlier.
With that said, Jalen Hurts has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL over the last three games.
Ignoring conventional stats, which are quite favorable for Hurts but can sometimes be unreliable, Hurts ranks in the top tier of signal-callers. His 3.7% completion percentage over expectation, a stat that can often serve as a litmus test for how much a quarterback is creating independent of the framework of an offense, ranks fifth in the NFL according to Next Gen Stats. His numbers put him just ahead of Josh Allen and just behind Aaron Rodgers.
He was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded passer going into Monday night, earning an 88.2 out of 99. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, Hurts’ former Alabama teammate, ranked second at 76.9. PFF also credits him with six big-time throws and just one turnover-worthy play. For Hurts, the formula of explosive plays both as a passer and a runner combined with his ability to limit turnovers might lead to him being an advanced-metric darling and an MVP candidate.
CPOE can be a volatile stat, especially early in the season; Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith leads the league in CPOE by a wide margin through three weeks. Still, Hurts’ traditional stats are even better. His 9.7 yards per attempt lead the league and he’s second in total offense behind only Allen.
The MVP race isn’t worth delving into too much this early in the season, but Hurts’ play this year goes a long way in proving he’s the long-term answer at the position.
» READ MORE: A Jalen Hurts contract extension from the Eagles is more a question of when than if after his significant leap
32%
Is Josh Sweat quietly solidifying himself as one of the top edge rushers in the league?
Sweat’s pass-rush win rate of 32% ranked fourth in the NFL going into Monday night, according to ESPN. The metric measures how often a rusher sheds his blocker within 2.5 seconds of the snap.
Sweat sits behind just Micah Parsons, Von Miller, and Myles Garrett and is one spot ahead of Jadeveon Clowney. He has 3½ sacks so far this season and has tallied four tackles for losses as well. According to PFF, he leads the Eagles’ edge rushers with 11 pressures. Brandon Graham is second with 10 and Haason Reddick has seven. Also, Brandon Graham is tied for eighth with a 25% pass-rush win rate.
96%
Speaking of win rates, right tackle Lane Johnson has gotten off to another excellent start, holding pass rushers at bay for longer than 2.5 seconds 96% of the time, according to ESPN.
Johnson has gone 17 games without allowing a sack, according to PFF. His last surrendered sack was in 2020.
Teammate Landon Dickerson has always gotten high marks from ESPN’s metric, tying for first among guards with a 100% win rate through three games.
4
Any concern about the Eagles defense’s willingness and capability to tackle should be quieted by now.
After missing 15 tackles in the season opener against the Lions, the Eagles defense missed just four tackles against Washington.
» READ MORE: ‘Nine sacks — that’s crazy’: Eagles defense pummels Carson Wentz in a win over the Commanders
Unlike the Detroit game, no one was a repeat offender. Jordan Davis, James Bradberry, Kyzir White, and Josh Sweat each missed one, but it was a much better effort from the group as a whole. The Eagles’ cautionary approach to training camp may have led to sloppy play in Week 1, but the team knocked the rust off quickly.