Eagles-Commanders takeaways: Assessing trade-deadline needs and a lingering concern for the defense

It wasn’t easy, but the Eagles completed the season sweep of the Washington Commanders with a 38-31 win at FedEx Field on Sunday, moving to 7-1 and clearing some space in the conference.

Here’s what we learned:

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Watching how Washington carved up the middle of their defense, it’s easy to understand why the Eagles are “poking around” the linebacker market ahead of Tuesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline, according to the Athletic.

Even after the Kevin Byard trade last week, the Eagles have some avenues to add another player. They’ve already traded most of their original Day 3 draft picks with four compensatory picks coming to replace them, but they still have a conditional fifth-round pick from the Jalen Reagor trade to use in a deal.

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Similar to what the Byard trade accomplished for the secondary, a move at linebacker could give the team a clearer picture in the middle of the defense going into the second half of the season.

Who makes sense? Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin, however poorly his return to his hometown for joint practices earlier this summer ended, would be a sensible target. The 27-year-old has minimal salary-cap hits the next two seasons and leads the league in tackles with 102. The 3-5 Colts should be willing to off-load a veteran player like Franklin, who hasn’t missed a game since getting drafted in 2018 and has 40 career starts.

One concern with Franklin may be his coverage issues. According to Pro Football Focus, he has been targeted 37 times this year and has given up 32 catches while logging just one pass breakup.

Former Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks, currently on the 4-4 Minnesota Vikings with Kirk Cousins now out for the year, is another veteran player who could make sense. The 31-year-old is on a low-cost, expiring contract, which could mean he’s attainable for less than Franklin while still boasting years of experience.

Hicks has shed the injury-prone label he received after missing time in three of his first four seasons as an Eagles third-round pick in 2015. Since leaving the Eagles, he has played 74 of a possible 74 regular-season games. He’s got some ball production this year as well with an interception and a pass breakup on his 19 targets.

Lastly, either of the Houston Texans’ inside linebackers could be interesting if made available. Denzel Perryman, 30, is a former Pro Bowler with eight years of experience, but he may not be quite the player he once was. Blake Cashman is having an impressive year and would be a significant upgrade in the pass-coverage department (he has two pass breakups, an interception, and 16 catches allowed on 23 targets), but I could see the Texans trying to extend him rather than move him.

Part of the reason the Eagles should be active over the next 24 hours or so is because of their standing in the conference at the midway point.

Going into the Lions-Raiders Monday night game, the Eagles have a 1½-game lead for the top spot in the conference and a two-game lead in the division entering a matchup with the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. The Eagles are the only team in the NFL with just one loss and are beginning the daunting stretch of their schedule with the necessary breathing room to stay atop the conference for a while.

They’ve been far from perfect through eight games, but the San Francisco 49ers’ three-game losing streak and the Cowboys’ Jekyll-and-Hyde routine show how few juggernauts exist this season. The real tests lie ahead, with the Eagles’ next six games all coming against legitimate playoff teams with Super Bowl aspirations.

Sweeping the season series with the Commanders was a little more interesting than most would have expected.

Some of the strangeness in the two games can be chalked up to the clichés about division games always being tougher and the oft-mentioned difficulty of beating a team twice in one year, let alone one month.

One concern, though — call it a yellow flag — is how easily Washington offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy stayed ahead of Sean Desai’s secondary in each of the games.

Any big-picture evaluation of Desai has to include the thoroughly impressive performance his group had against the Miami Dolphins two weeks ago. He has done well against both Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams and Mike McDaniel’s Dolphins, so the results against the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree would be reason for slight confidence against the man himself when the 49ers travel to Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 3.

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Bieniemy’s success against the Eagles in two games gives similar reason for concern against Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, whether we’re talking about the regular-season matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs three weeks from now or — not to get too ahead of ourselves — a potential Super Bowl rematch.

Washington quarterback Sam Howell was deliberate at the line of scrimmage, diagnosing the Eagles’ secondary and perhaps getting some last-second pointers from Bieniemy on the headset about what the Eagles were in. Howell used those pre-snap tells to get the ball out quickly and nullify the Eagles’ pass rush for most of the game.

The Eagles eventually pivoted, disguising their coverages pre-snap more often and relying more heavily on man-to-man coverage. Bieniemy countered by using bunch sets to complicate things and the Eagles were gashed a few times as a result toward the end of the game.

All of this will likely serve as a foundation for Reid’s plan come Nov. 20. If the defense is going to stand a chance against Kansas City, Desai needs to come up with a counterpunch.

Last week, I wrote about Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown emerging as the best quarterback-wide receiver duo in the league and trailing only Mahomes and Travis Kelce as an offensive tandem.

Perhaps I was a week too early.

» READ MORE: Again and again, A.J. Brown did the seemingly impossible as he entered rarefied air in the Eagles’ win at Washington

Brown’s sixth straight game of 125-plus receiving yards featured the type of catch that just might open his highlight reel for the rest of his career: a one-handed snag in the corner of the end zone, secured just in time to land one knee inbounds with Washington corner Benjamin St-Juste draped over him in coverage.

Brown is now one of just 14 receivers in NFL history to surpass the 900-yard mark in the first eight games of a season, joining Tyreek Hill as the only “900 club” member this year. At 939 receiving yards, Brown has the eighth-best total among the group all time.

It’s fair to expect Brown to eventually come back down to earth at some point, but this start to the season puts him squarely among giants like Calvin Johnson, Marvin Harrison, and new teammate Julio Jones.

Sydney Brown’s new role in the Eagles’ defense had mixed results but was intriguing nonetheless.

Brown wasn’t as much of a seamless fit at safety in Desai’s scheme, so putting him in the slot for early downs makes plenty of sense. The abandon with which he plays isn’t always suitable for a deep safety tasked with keeping things in front of him, but putting the third-round rookie closer to the line of scrimmage gives him a chance to go hunting.

Against teams with elite passing attacks, Brown will be overmatched in coverage. He struggled to stay with Jahan Dotson on a conceded touchdown, although it looked as though confusion on whether he had safety help was part of his trouble.

At the very least, Brown proved his value as an early-down thumper, which should be useful against bruising teams like the 49ers or Buffalo Bills.