The gambles, perils, payoffs (and fullback) within the Eagles' offensive identity

Here is a philosophy in Philadelphia that Grant Calcaterra put very simply on Sunday.

“Anytime we get A.J. one-on-one, we’re gonna throw him the ball,” the tight end said.

Players rarely speak in absolutes. Discussing A.J. Brown requires no hesitation. His dynamism defies the common sense of quarterbacks and coordinators. Common rules don’t apply. When it was fourth-and-3 in a one-score game against the New York Giants, Jalen Hurts didn’t seek out the short game. He anticipated the mismatch downfield.

Brown, covered all game by Deonte Banks, the No. 24 pick in 2023, motioned to the opposite side. Backup cornerback Nick McCloud had just subbed in for injured starter Cor’Dale Flott. McCloud still wasn’t settled in his stance when the ball snapped. Bye-bye, Brown. Hurts hurled his best throw of the season — the sort of on-target long ball he’d delivered throughout training camp — and struck Brown in stride along the left sideline for a 41-yard score.

If the Eagles offense holds any identity through six games, it involves this quality: Hurts prefers matchups over progressions. It is not a new quality. Shane Steichen harnessed it in a 2022 system that reached Super Bowl LVII. Brian Johnson failed to support it in a 2023 retread that eventually imploded. Kellen Moore, hired to supply the answers Johnson and Nick Sirianni lacked, has encouraged it within a 2024 scheme in which Hurts has operated with confidence.

Moore shared “the mentality” of the Eagles passing game on Tuesday: “If you get that one-on-one, go take it.” Its mechanics support its mentality. Of course, there are progressions. But Hurts can switch the order of his passing priorities if “certain alerts” identify a one-on-one matchup. Sometimes that involves a pre-snap check. Sometimes a play might include a predetermined option that greenlights such a switch if the defense arranges itself in a way that creates a favorable one-on-one.

The approach allows the Eagles to flexibly, aggressively and proactively make defenses pay for exposing themselves in ways they may or may not have yet realized. Like a lost chance at a checkmate in chess, there’s never a guarantee that they’d ever get the same defensive look again.

“There’s only so many times you get true one-on-ones — just one-on-one, downfield, man-coverage type looks,” Moore said. “So, when you get them, take advantage of them.”

This involves three understood factors: 1) creating the conditions for a favorable one-on-one matchup, 2) correctly recognizing when one has arrived, and 3) capitalizing on the opportunity.

Hurts tussles most with the second. He’s tempted to throw deep when Brown and DeVonta Smith — two perennial 1,000-yard receivers who each just signed three-year extensions — are at his disposal. Only Josh Allen has attempted more passes of 22-plus air yards outside the numbers (108) than Hurts (100) since 2022, according to TruMedia. It’s warranted. It’s one of the reasons the Eagles acquired Brown and Smith. Only eight other quarterbacks have a higher EPA per attempt than Hurts on such passes in that span (0.65).

Moore isn’t the first coordinator to encourage Hurts to choose such throws. But Moore knew he needed to build a better framework in which Hurts would more often be right. Checks Hurts made under Johnson were too often convoluted or catastrophic. Against the Seattle Seahawks last season, Hurts eliminated a shot at a game-tying field goal by forcing a deep pass to Brown in double coverage that was intercepted. In the NFC wild-card loss, Smith and Dallas Goedert collided on a third-and-2 incompletion after failing to see two different pre-snap signals from Hurts.

Although Hurts has been successful pursuing matchups under Moore — delivering a 67-yard score to Brown in Sao Paulo, and a 40-yard dagger to Brown against the Cleveland Browns — the Eagles have still at times demonstrated an over-reliance on those plays. Hurts started 0-for-5 passing in two punt-resultant drives against the Browns while failing to connect with Brown and Smith on three throws. Against the Giants, Hurts overlooked open receivers on two third-down throws in which he zeroed in on other matchups.

On third-and-2 at the Giants 5, Hurts focused on the middle of the field while Saquon Barkley was wide open in the flats. By the time Hurts looked left, Barkley was no longer open. Hurts threw the ball away.

The first preceded Brown’s touchdown. On third-and-3, Hurts locked in on a matchup the Eagles liked: Kenneth Gainwell in a wheel route against linebacker Micah McFadden. Meanwhile, Smith was open on a shallow crosser. Gainwell didn’t get separation, and by the time Hurts accepted this, Smith was no longer open. Hurts flung the ball out of bounds.

Moore admitted they “went a little bit aggressive” in that situation. Hurts used the same adjective to describe his decision to launch the subsequent fourth-and-3 pass to Brown. The 41-yard touchdown nullified the negative ramifications of Hurts’ previous misfire. So did his 4-yard scramble after missing Barkley in the flats on the third-and-2 situation. (The Eagles went up 21-3 on a Brotherly Shove score two plays later.) But to look at each situation objectively, one must isolate each decision from its result, which underlines both the limited view Hurts sometimes has in the pocket and the gamble he and the Eagles have been willing to take.

Barkley, who was mic’d up on Sunday, expressed his anxiety from the sideline (“A deep ball?”) as Hurts unfurled the fourth-down throw to Brown, then sprinted down the field to celebrate (“Oh my God!”) after the pass was completed.

“Personally, I wouldn’t have thrown that,” Barkley said when he returned to the bench. “But, hey, 11 down there somewhere. But God d—it, A.J. Brown is f—— good at football.”

So is Barkley. Going back to the first of three understood factors previously stated, Barkley is one of the main catalysts (if not the main catalyst) that create the conditions for favorable one-on-one matchups to emerge. Defenses are only going to choose to stick one man against Brown, a three-time Pro Bowler, if 1) they believe they have a cornerback who can cover him, or 2) they simply must play Brown man-on-man because their defensive attention is required elsewhere.

Barkley demanded such attention Sunday. No team understood Barkley’s capabilities better than his former team, and the Giants had to suffer the indignity of watching their former franchise player nearly set a career-high with 176 rushing yards at MetLife Stadium. The Eagles, a shotgun-oriented team, apparently used this awareness to their advantage by deploying under-center looks 13 times — nearly double that of any other game in 2024. (Sirianni cryptically attributed the uptick to “the flow of the game.”) The Giants understood this usually meant Barkley was getting the ball: 31 percent of their plays were under-center in 2023, and, of those plays, they ran it 73 percent of the time.

On the very first play of the game, Hurts went under-center with Barkley in the backfield. The Giants crowded the box with eight defenders. Safety Tyler Nubin crept even with the linebackers to get a head start on shadowing his old teammate. That left Brown alone against Banks. Brown got Banks to commit to a deep route, then snuck back to snag a 15-yard throw from Hurts.

The Giants laid off for the remainder of the game. They only put eight or more defenders in the box (with Barkley in the game) five other times — all of them in goal-to-go situations. (Hurts and Barkley rushed for touchdowns on three of those five plays). The standard six-to-seven-defender boxes proved favorable for the Eagles run game in a way we’ll soon describe. But the threat of Barkley still yielded favorable one-on-ones in the passing game. On the third drive of the game, Barkley motioned out of the backfield, the secondary shifted in response, and Brown was again left in soft coverage against Banks. Brown twitched to the right in vacant space, snagged a pass from Hurts, then muscled his way for 13 yards.

While facing standard defensive structures, the Eagles flourished using zone-read runs and run-pass options. Barkley rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown on nine zone-read runs, and Hurts completed a 15-yard pass to Brown on what appeared to be an RPO. Again, those were not new concepts. Paired with the success of pursuing one-on-one matchups in the passing game, Philadelphia’s increased efficiency of the option game further reinforced that Moore is embracing qualities that were strengths for Hurts and the Eagles in the past. Sirianni often referenced in the offseason that such concepts wouldn’t be abandoned in the playbook’s rewrite.

There’s a fundamental numbers advantage that’s created within such read-option plays: the Eagles don’t usually have to block the defender they’re reading. But sometimes it’s still difficult to take advantage of that numbers game when facing a formidable defensive tackle like New York’s Dexter Lawrence, a two-time second-team All-Pro, who usually requires double-team blocks. A smaller center like Cam Jurgens (6-3, 303 pounds) is generally going to need help. But in much of Philadelphia’s zone-run schemes, guards can only help for so long before they’re expected to branch off and block another defender on the second level. Struggles the Eagles had against the Browns — another team with a premier defensive front — emerged early against the Giants. On the second play of the game, when Hurts handed Barkley the ball on a zone-read, Jurgens and right guard Mekhi Becton still hadn’t budged Lawrence. Barkley, unable to bounce outside, was left with no other choice but to plow into his blockers’ backsides for a 1-yard gain.

The Eagles made a notable adjustment. They began running zone-reads to the weak side of the defense. They often used tight end Jack Stoll’s predictability as a blocker (he’s averaged 0.5 targets per game in four seasons) as bait. On the first play of the second drive, Stoll motioned to the right. The Giants shifted the strength of their defense in that direction. Only Flott and edge rusher Brian Burns remained on the left edge. That’s where the Eagles directed their zone-read run. Had Flott overcommitted inside, Hurts likely would’ve found himself in a footrace along the sideline with Nubin. Instead, left tackle Fred Johnson clipped Burns in tandem with tight end Grant Calcaterra, worked to the second level, and helped Barkley gain five yards.

Moore bludgeoned the Giants with zone-read runs. In the third quarter, the Eagles ran the concept on five consecutive plays, which included a 38-yard run by Barkley. There were creative variances. In apparent anticipation of a defensive decision to send edge rushers inside to stop Barkley, the running back sometimes became the option to run outside. Moore said Tuesday “we feel very confident” in the zone-read game. It will be notable to track its progress as the season continues. There will undoubtedly be moments in which Hurts will find himself as the primary option.

“I think it’s a matter of utilizing all threats on the field,” Hurts said of the zone-read game Sunday. “And every time I hand it off to (Barkley), I’m a potential threat myself. So, I think that helps the both of us. We just need to continue to play complementary football together. I told you guys Week 1 how complementary of a piece I felt like Saquon was to us. He’s going to continue to work. He’s going to continue to build. And I think for us, we’re going to continue to build that good rapport, have the great conversations that we’ve had, the great moments that we’ve had and continue to build forward, trying to optimize everything we have.”

Everything, indeed. Linebacker Ben VanSumeren, who debuted at fullback in a Week 4 loss to the Buccaneers, was deployed a season-high five times against the Giants. Lead blocking in off-set I-formations, VanSumeren paved pathways for five runs that totaled 60 yards. The Eagles featured VanSumeren on four straight plays in the third quarter. On the first play, while at their own 8, the Eagles essentially faced an eight-man box. VanSumeren took on linebacker and team captain Bobby Okereke along the interior, which helped open a hole for Barkley on a 41-yard gain.

Fielding a fullback package reflects Moore’s influence on the offense. (The Eagles ran only 30 total plays out of the I-formation in their three previous years under Sirianni). Moore deployed such packages 165 times in his five seasons as offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Chargers. Unlike 21 personnel-heavy teams like the San Francisco 49ers, Moore hasn’t required a spot on the 53-man roster for a designated fullback. In L.A., Moore oftentimes placed reserve guard Jordan McFadden (6-2, 303 pounds) in the backfield.

When The Athletic suggested VanSumeren was a more athletic choice than McFadden, Moore chuckled in assent. VanSumeren (6-2, 231 pounds), who totaled 2,888 receiving yards as a high school wide receiver, ran a 4.44-second 40-yard dash at Michigan State’s Pro Day. Moore said the Eagles knew of VanSumeren’s offensive background. At the end of the final training camp practice, the Eagles featured him in what appeared to be a calculated experiment during a competitive one-on-one period. VanSumeren dusted safety Andre’ Sam before laying out for a Kenny Pickett pass that fell too far.

Moore said the process of fielding VanSumeren began “as more of a fun experimental aspect,” then turned “into something serious over the course of training camp and the season.”

“We’ll see where it plays out,” Moore said. “Every week you’re trying to find out what gives us best opportunity to be successful and felt like that gave us an opportunity this past week and he did an excellent job. His effort in the run game he had the juice and energy going, and I think it was a real benefit to us.”

(Top photo of Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkey: Luke Hales / Getty Images)