Eagles-Jaguars in London, and a Marvin Harrison Jr. Trade Waiting on Sunday
Philadelphia is bringing a skeleton crew to London, and the Marvin Harrison Jr. trade market is waiting on somebody else's Sunday.
The Eagles ruled out Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith, new starting center Drew Kendall, safety Marcus Epps and receiver Hollywood Brown for Sunday's game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Five names, and the easy reaction is that a roster this deep absorbs them.
It can't absorb the center. Kendall is new to the job, and a neutral-site game with a silent count is the worst possible classroom for a fresh center-quarterback battery. Barkley's absence is the loud one. Kendall's is the one that gets Jalen Hurts hit.
There's already a template for what this offense looks like when it has to throw. Hurts went 21-of-40 for 220 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a 77.1 passer rating. Dameon Pierce got 11 carries and turned them into 14 yards. Will Shipley got five carries for six yards and the only rushing touchdown. That's a Philadelphia offense where the run game is a formality and the ball is in the air 40 times. Without Barkley and Smith, that's the plan, not the emergency.
Somebody has to catch those passes. Dontayvion Wicks (five catches, 63 yards on eight targets), Makai Lemon (five for 43 on seven targets) and Darius Cooper (two for 71, including a 62-yard score) inherit the snaps Smith and Brown were supposed to play. The most valuable Eagle in London, though, is Dallas Goedert, who drew nine targets for six catches and 38 yards in that same line. With two receivers out, the tight end is the safety valve, and Jacksonville's linebackers are the ones who have to cover him.
That's the matchup that decides whether the Jaguars leave London with the best win of their season. I think they do. They don't have to defend Barkley or Smith, and a Philadelphia offense that can't run the ball has to win a throwing contest with Hurts' third and fourth options. That is a real, winnable game for Jacksonville, and the market's reflex to treat the Eagles as the same team without two of their four best skill players is the mistake of the week.
On the other side of the league, the Pro Football Talk report says Sunday's games could become a significant factor in the Marvin Harrison Jr. trade, with one injury potentially altering his eventual destination.
I think that's the wrong lever. Injuries create need. They don't create sellers. What moves a Harrison trade is a team deciding its season is dead, and what decides that is a loss, not a medical report. If Sunday changes anything, it changes a buyer's desperation, and desperate teams overpay. My expectation is no deal this week. For this to get done, a contender would have to lose a receiver and lose a game on the same afternoon, and even then the team holding Harrison sets the price.
Here's the connective tissue nobody's drawing: the team most likely to spend next week wishing it had another receiver is the one flying to London without two of them. If Philadelphia loses with the offense it's bringing, that front office has a very different week ahead.
My call: Jacksonville wins in London, and Harrison stays put. Both can be wrong by Monday.
