Well, Thursday night’s game in Cleveland was definitely a … classic.
The Eagles lost 5-0 to the Browns in the third preseason game, which is supposed to be the most watchable of the bunch. These two teams didn’t get the memo.
But there was still some good and some bad from the game. Here are three “stock up” players and three “stock down” from the game:
Stock up
DeAndre Carter
A month ago, Carter wasn’t even on the team, but now, he has a serious chance to make the 53-man roster (see story). It’s been an impressive few weeks. Carter has been showing up in practice since he was signed in late July and has done the same thing in games. Thanks to a bunch of injuries, Carter got first-team reps, which was a good sign. And then he made the most of them. He caught four passes for 73 yards and also returned a punt for 29 yards. He has a real shot at taking that sixth receiver spot.
Wendell Smallwood
It seems like fans would much rather Josh Adams win the fourth running back spot, but Wendell Smallwood isn’t going down without a fight. He started Thursday’s game and after a slow start, got things going. He broke off some big chunk plays and showed that burst we’ve seen from him before. Adams had a good game too, but right now, I’d give Smallwood a slight advantage in that race. Good for him.
Haloti Ngata
It turns out the former All-Pro might have something left in the tank after all. In the last two games, he’s turned it on. While he didn’t start Thursday — Destiny Vaeao did — Ngata showed up. It’s still going to hurt the Eagles to be without Tim Jernigan for a while, but we’re seeing good signs Ngata might at least be able to fill in some.
Stock down
Nick Foles
After Thursday’s game, Foles said he hasn’t been himself (see story), but that’s not entirely true. We’ve seen this Nick Foles before. It was the same Nick Foles who was really bad on Christmas night. It was the same Nick Foles who has had really bad clunkers before. For whatever reason, it always seems like Foles is really good or really bad; no in-between. Bad Nick Foles showed up Thursday. It’s a shame too because, on a couple drives where he started to get into a rhythm, turnovers killed the momentum.
He just can’t make plays like this.
Matt Jones
After last week’s debacle where Jones dropped three passes, one of which was intercepted, he couldn’t afford another bad performance. Welp. Jones finally got on the field with the first unit and actually caught a pass from Nick Foles. Then he promptly fumbled it away. Gotta think the last chance he had of making the roster went with it.
Matt Pryor
Before you get too upset, the rookie offensive lineman is going to have bad snaps and bad games. And I still think he’s going to be a good player in the league for a long time. But after a tremendous training camp, I think he’s come back to Earth over the last couple of games. On his second snap Thursday, he gave up a sack and wasn’t great after that. For a while, I thought he might take over for Isaac Seumalo as the key backup guard/tackle. I don’t think so anymore.