I don’t know that I have ever seen a NFL team win three straight “Defensive Player of the Week Awards” with three different players capturing them. Yes, the Eagles defense had an amazing accomplishment in three of the first four weeks of this 2022 NFL season. Jonathan Gannon’s defense has had three defensive players named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week in three consecutive weeks. In week two, it started with Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay. In week three, it was veteran defensive end Brandon Graham, and in week four, it was pass rushing linebacker Haasan Reddick. That’s an amazing accomplishment but what it says is that the Eagles defense has dominated in different areas and that it is capable of taking over a game with their defensive line, or at the linebacker position or in the secondary. Thanks to the offseason performance of General Manager Howie Roseman, they have a tremendously talented group that’s gotten off to a very good start.
In the second week of the season, Slay and the Eagles secondary was looking forward to competing with Minnesota Vikings superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson, who was coming off of a NFC Offensive Player of the Week performance. Slay not only put a blanket over Jefferson by shutting him down, but he picked off two passes by Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and broke up for five more. Slay had Jefferson and Cousins both wondering what went wrong. “Big Play Slay” could’ve had as many as four or five interceptions in that single game. It was a tremendous performance by Slay and rightfully so he was voted the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.
In the following week, the Eagles defensive line just went off. The Birds were taking on the Washington Commanders, who are led by former Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. The Eagles defensive line led by Graham, knew they had a chance to register a big number of sacks because of the way Wentz loves to hang onto the football. On the first series of the game, Josh Sweat and Fletcher Cox each registered a sack of Wentz to get things started. Graham soon got in on the fun by registering a sack of his own. In the second half, Graham went to work and continued to beat his man and get to the former Eagles quarterback.
When the veteran defensive end and his teammates were through, they had pursued and pressured Wentz for nine sacks and Graham had registered 2 1/2 of them. The Eagles defensive line led by Graham made a statement with the nine sacks and that’s why the captain was selected the NFC Defensive Player of the Week after his performance against the Commanders.
In the following week, the Eagles were battling a surprising Jacksonville Jaguars team, which was led by former number one pick in the draft, quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The young signal caller had been playing great football and the Jaguars came into the game with a buzz about them. Eagles linebacker and outside pass rusher, Reddick has proven to be a hunter of quarterbacks and footballs. He goes after the football not just the sack. With only five games played, Reddick has done a tremendous job with strip-sacks. I believe he already has four or five strip-sacks on the season.
Reddick’s strip-sack habit and Lawrence’s bad habit of holding the ball in one hand collided during the Eagles battle with the Jaguars. Using both his speed and power to get to Lawrence, Reddick was able to garner four solo tackles and three pressures. He also added two strip-sacks and both of them occurred in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. The former Temple Owl standout, also recovered two fumbles, along with a quarterback hit and a tackle for loss in the Eagles 29-21 victory over the Jacksonville. Reddick’s amazing performance ended with him being named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week.
In addition, Eagles backup cornerback Zeke McPhearson was also named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for the job he did against the Detroit Lions, in the first week of the season. On a key play in the second half of the game, the Lions tried an onside kick, thinking that they would catch the Eagles sleeping, but McPhearson was alert and was able to field the ball and put the Eagles in position to drive down and kick a field goal. Those three points would turn out to be what separated Birds from Detroit in the 38-35 victory. That was a key play in the win and in addition he made two tackles while covering punts and kickoffs. For his work, McPhearson was singled out and named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
I also want to point out that Birds quarterback Jalen Hurts has been named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for the month of September. He has been simply amazing so far this season and he’s the number one reason the Birds are 5-0. If I were to point out everything Hurts has done in the five victories, I would have to write five separate articles. If they were to give out the NFL MVP so far this season, it would be Hurts in my opinion.
