The Eagles picked a heckuva time for Hakeem Butler’s first offensive snap in the NFL.
The Eagles’ TE/WR, who didn’t join the team until Sept. 29, played just one offensive snap in the 22-21 win.
And Doug Pederson inexplicably called a fade designed for Butler on 4th-and-goal from the 3-yard line with the Eagles trailing in the fourth quarter.
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“Initially, he was going — he was heading to the wrong side of the field,” Pederson said. “When he got back over to the right side of the field or the right side of the formation, he was uncovered. When we snapped the ball, the defender had gotten back over there just in enough time to really knock the ball away. He's a big, athletic guy and we put that play in specifically for him and the Giants made a play.”
Sure, the ref should have called DPI on Logan Ryan on that play — Butler could have made more of an effort to come back to the ball too — but the play call was more than questionable. That was literally the first offensive snap of Butler’s career and Pederson drew up a fade (which is all timing) even though he’s been here less than a month.
And then Butler started to line up on the wrong side of the field!
Butler on Thursday night also played 14 special teams snaps. So for his career, Butler has now played a total of 29 special teams snaps and one offensive snap.
NFL
Even though Butler lined up as a receiver on that play, he’s listed as a tight end. So here’s how the tight end snaps finished on Thursday night:
Richard Rodgers: 69 snaps (85%)
Jason Croom: 9 snaps (11%)
Hakeem Butler: 1 snap (1%)
Other offensive notes
- Carson Wentz and the starting OL (minus Lane Johnson) played all 81 offensive snaps. Through seven weeks, Wentz, Jason Kelce and Nate Herbig have played all 504 offensive snaps.
- Travis Fulgham led Eagles receivers with 78 snaps, a new career high. He was followed by Greg Ward Jr. (77), DeSean Jackson (39), John Hightower (30) and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (13).
- Boston Scott got 56 snaps, followed by Corey Clement (18) and Jason Huntley (8).
- Just five offensive snaps for Jalen Hurts. To me, that’s not enough.
Defensive notes
- Working his way back from an ankle injury, Avonte Maddox played just three defensive snaps and two on special teams. Nickell Robey-Coleman started at outside CB opposite Darius Slay.
- Rodney McLeod played all 60 defensive snaps and is now 492/492 on the season.
- With the return of Duke Riley, Shaun Bradley got just one defensive snap and Davion Taylor didn’t get any. Nate Gerry 55 snaps, Alex Singleton 40, Duke Riley 34.
- As far as the DE rotation: Brandon Graham (43), Derek Barnett (38), Josh Sweat (24), Vinny Curry (20) and Genard Avery didn’t get a single defensive snap. He played five on special teams. Avery is clearly the fifth guy in the rotation and when the Eagles play just 60 defensive snaps, he’s not going to get on the field, which is a shame. Because earlier this year, he started making plays.
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