Nakobe Dean’s return to a full-time role after his recovery from a patellar tendon injury helped ignite an Eagles defense that was a bit unsteady in the early portion of the season.
Dean has impacted the run defense and has been an effective blitzer. But the Eagles may temporarily be without the fourth-year linebacker after he left Saturday’s road win over the Washington Commanders with a hamstring injury.
Dean is “doing better than I think they thought he would,” Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said Tuesday. But Fangio called Dean “iffy” for this week.
Sure enough, not long after Fangio sat for his weekly news conference, Dean entered the indoor practice bubble at the NovaCare Complex on Tuesday afternoon in a sweatshirt and with no helmet.
“The good news is I don’t think it’s too serious, and I don’t think we’re done seeing him for this season,” Fangio said of Dean.
Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell stops Minnesota Vikings tight end T.J. Hockenson on Oct. 19.
If Dean misses Sunday’s game at Buffalo, the Eagles will turn to rookie Jihaad Campbell.
Campbell, the Eagles’ first-round pick, started and had a big role in his first seven NFL games with Dean still recovering from his knee injury. But his playing time drastically decreased when Dean returned and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. Campbell played 11 defensive snaps in Week 12, zero in Week 13, nine in Week 14, and six in Week 15 before being forced back onto the field Saturday and playing 36 when Dean went down.
Fangio said Campbell’s development at inside linebacker was stunted a bit when the Eagles were forced to use him as an outside linebacker and edge rusher when they “ran out of guys” earlier this season.
“It’ll be good to get him back there and focused on that,” Fangio said.
What happens to Brandon Graham with Jalen Carter back?
One key player out, another one in.
Jalen Carter returned to the practice field Tuesday for the first time since he underwent a medical procedure on both of his shoulders following the Eagles’ Nov. 28 game against the Chicago Bears.
Fangio said the Eagles are “hopeful” that Carter will make his return to game action Sunday.
Brandon Graham and Jalen Carter during a 2024 game.
The Eagles have played well without Carter. Jordan Davis’ emergence as a force on the defensive line is a big reason the front hasn’t missed a beat, as is Moro Ojomo’s presence. But Byron Young and, notably, Brandon Graham also have provided a spark.
Graham has three sacks in 16 snaps over the last two weeks. The Eagles have been playing him exclusively as an interior lineman with Carter out.
Will that change?
“We’ll see,” Fangio said. “It’s kind of fluid with a guy who has not played in a month.”
Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis stops Commanders running back Chris Rodriguez on Saturday.
Fangio has an idea: a Pro Bowl committee.
“Get a couple retired coaches, a couple retired personnel guys, a couple retired players that will take pride in it, and they name it,” he said. “Everybody and their mother’s got a vote.”
‘Full steam ahead’ with starters
Carter’s return to the practice field and his potential return to game action are an indication that the Eagles at least will treat Sunday like a normal game and not worry about resting starters.
The No. 2 seed in the NFC remains up for grabs.
“We’re going full steam ahead,” Fangio said when asked how he was approaching this week with the starters.
Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay reiterated what Nick Sirianni said Monday about the team’s confidence in kicker Jake Elliott, who missed two field goals Saturday — and had a third miss negated by a penalty — and whose make percentage is down to a career-low 70.8%.
Clay said he thought Elliott’s starting line on his kicks might be part of the issue. Elliott has missed five field goals and an extra point over the last five games.
“I’m not a kicker,” Clay said. “But you’re not in the NFL for nine years if you don’t know how to self-correct.
“It’s going to come down to a point where we’re going to have to call on him, and he’s shown that he can do it.”
The thoughts and feelings facing Kevin Willard this week hadn’t crossed his mind until Sunday, he said.
Villanova, with no classes to rush home for, spent the night in Milwaukee on Friday after finishing its nonconference schedule with an overtime victory over Wisconsin. The Wildcats traveled home Saturday with their 9-2 record and their ascending metrics tucked away with the cargo.
It’s time for Big East play, Willard’s first conference campaign since taking over at Villanova after three years coaching Maryland. Up first: Seton Hall on the road and a return to a place Willard spent 12 years from 2010 to 2022. Credit to the conference schedulers, who probably couldn’t have predicted it would be the 9-2 Wildcats against the 11-1 Pirates. They nailed it nonetheless.
On Sunday, though, Willard and his wife, Julie, started reminiscing. Willard didn’t play Seton Hall in any of his three seasons at Maryland, although he did coach a game at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Seton Hall’s home court, last season, coincidentally a Maryland victory over Villanova.
Tuesday will be much different. The Willards have numerous family photos that document memories around the Seton Hall program. There are pictures of their children, Colin and Chase, running around on basketball courts at the Prudential Center and on road trips. Willard said he has about 80 people attending Tuesday’s game, a mix of family and friends.
It’s a community he remains connected to. Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway was one of his assistants for eight years and the guy he wanted to succeed him. He still goes on golf trips with Seton Hill alums and stays in touch with former players, like Sandro Mamukelashvili, a Raptors forward who was in Milwaukee on Thursday night playing against the Bucks.
Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard talking with guard Myles Powell in November 2019.
Willard said he imagines he’ll be emotional seeing former staff members and fans Tuesday night.
“There’s a little bit more to this one,” he said Monday. “I love Seton Hall. I raised my kids in Jersey, my kids grew up there, my wife and I spent 12 great years at Seton Hall and in the community. It’s a great fan base, it’s a great alumni base.
“It’s probably going to be a little bit harder for me going back than I think it is.”
That being said …
“It’s obviously a league game, so it’s not like I’m going to be crying at halfcourt,” he said. “But it’s definitely a place that I hold very dearly and will always be the love of my life to be honest with you.”
That is the balance Willard will need to find Tuesday night. He will surely be cheered, and for good reason. Willard led the Pirates to five NCAA Tournament appearances in his last seven seasons, and a sixth would have happened if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Seton Hall won 20 games just once in the first decade of this century before Willard hit that mark seven times in 12 seasons.
But whatever fanfare Seton Hall has planned for Willard’s return is only a distraction from what is a critical Big East Conference game.
Villanova entered Monday 29th in the NCAA’s NET rankings while Seton Hall was 36th. At the metrics site KenPom, Villanova was 28th and Seton Hall was 43rd. Meanwhile, ESPN’s bracket guru Joe Lunardi on Saturday had Villanova as a No. 10 seed, the 39th-ranked team in his 68-team field, and Seton Hall was a No. 7 seed, the 28th-ranked team.
Kevin Willard coaching Villanova against the Pittsburgh Panthers at Finneran Pavilion on Dec. 13.
It may be a little early for such discussions — the teams are barely one-third of the way through their 2025-26 schedules — but it is surely a game that could be a big deal come March. That is not a reality Willard hides from, a departure from his predecessor at Villanova, who treated every game like the “Super Bowl” and didn’t talk to his players about bubbles and rankings and metrics.
“We talk about where we are, where we’re standing,” Willard said. “We talk about our NET numbers. I let them know everything.”
When Bryce Lindsay decided to make a layup rather than run the clock out in the waning seconds of Friday’s win, Willard said the guard told him afterward that he was trying to protect Villanova’s NET ranking.
What’s the benefit of keeping his players aware of it all?
“Because you’re going to go through some parts of the season where you struggle,” Willard said. “Everybody does. If the players understand where you are and what your numbers are and what opportunities you have, it’s much easier to get them out of that struggle because they’re sitting there saying, ‘OK we lost a couple games, it’s over.’
“Nope. I lost a game last year on the road and my NET went up. It’s all about your opportunities … and once you get to conference play, as long as you did what you had to do for the most part in the nonconference, you’ve just got to stay focused and keep guys focused.”
Villanova did what it had to do in the nonconference portion of its schedule. It is, as Willard said, time to focus on the 20-game Big East schedule. But taking his own advice will be harder Tuesday night than the other 19 contests.
To play, or not to play, that is the question that will face Eagles coach Nick Sirianni over the final two weeks of the season.
The No. 2 seed in the NFC is still up for grabs, and will be at the time the Eagles kick off Sunday afternoon in Orchard Park, N.Y., for a marquee matchup with the Buffalo Bills. But the seeding could be decided before the Week 18 finale vs. the Washington Commanders, and we know how the Eagles went about their business last season when they rested almost all of their starters in the season finale.
As it pertains to offensive tackle Lane Johnson and defensive tackle Jalen Carter, though, Sirianni will have to weigh risk vs. reward for two of his best players in the trenches. According to a report from ESPN, both players are in line to be available for Sunday’s game vs. the Bills. Carter has missed the last three games after undergoing procedures to both of his shoulders. Johnson, meanwhile, has been out since the first quarter of Week 11 with a Lisfranc sprain in his left foot.
“Every guy is a little different,” Sirianni said Monday. “Every scenario is a little different.”
Offensive tackle Lane Johnson watching his teammates warm up before the Eagles played the Washington Commanders on Saturday.
Sirianni pointed to last season’s finale vs. the New York Giants. The Eagles rested their starters, but tight end Dallas Goedert had been out for more than a month and the Eagles decided to get him on the field for two series at the beginning of the game and threw six targets his way. “That was good for him,” Sirianni said.
“You do think about your past situations and when you’ve been through those things before,” he said. “But you’re trying to do and make the best decision for each guy and everyone’s just a little bit different.”
Carter and Johnson are certainly different, and the Eagles are likely to weigh getting Carter on the field as a higher priority than Johnson given Carter’s early-season struggles with conditioning.
Still, the Eagles will enter Sunday with plenty to play for. There is a realistic path to the No. 2 seed, a spot that would ensure a second home game with a win in the wild-card round. The simplest math is for the Chicago Bears, the current No. 2 seed, to lose their final two games and the Eagles to win their final two. The Bears play at San Francisco in Week 17 before hosting the Lions, who could be in desperation mode, in Week 18.
What’s the math look like?
According to FTN Fantasy‘s playoff projections, the Eagles are at 10.3% to get the No. 2 seed based on thousands of simulations. They’re at 88.7% to stay in the No. 3 spot and have minuscule chances at the No. 1 seed (0.1%) and No. 4 seed (0.9%).
Time will tell how the Eagles approach the last two weeks of the season.
No competition coming for Jake Elliott
Sirianni reiterated his confidence in Jake Elliott after the kicker missed two field goals and had another miss negated by a penalty during Saturday’s win.
Elliott has missed five field goals over the Eagles’ last five games and also has a missed point-after attempt during that stretch. His 70.8% conversion rate (17-for-24) on field goals this season is the lowest of his nine-year NFL career.
Eagles kicker Jake Elliott reacts after missing a 52-yard field goal attempt during the second quarter Saturday.
Sirianni said the Eagles will not be bringing in outside competition. He pointed to Elliott’s struggles late in the season last year and how he rebounded in the Super Bowl as something to draw confidence from.
“All I’ve ever seen him do was get up out of that and rise from that,” Sirianni said. “I have no doubt in my mind of the competitor he is and how mentally tough he is to be able to rise from this situation as well.”
Report: No suspension for Tyler Steen
According to a report from ESPN, there will be no suspensions following the kerfuffle near the end of the Eagles-Commanders game after the Eagles’ two-point conversion. The league will review the play for fines.
The skirmish happened after the successful try that bumped the Eagles’ lead to 29-10, a decision Sirianni said was analytics-based and not an attempt to run up the score, though it appeared that Commanders coach Dan Quinn was not pleased with the choice.
Eagles offensive tackle Fred Johnson and guard Tyler Steen get into a brawl on the field with the Commanders during the fourth quarter Saturday.
In the middle of it all for the Eagles was right guard Tyler Steen, who was ejected for his role in the scuffle.
Sirianni, as he normally does, declined to go into details about his conversations with Steen.
“But we never want anything like that to take place,” he said. “We want to play fast and physical and we want to be able to do that all within the rules of the game. I understand the game gets chippy at times, but we always want to make sure we’re keeping our cool in those scenarios.”
Eagles fans will be rooting for Philip Rivers and the Colts tonight.
Fans across the Delaware Valley will be rooting for 44-year-old Philip Rivers to lead the Indianapolis Colts to victory tonight against Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers.
Why? A Colts win preserves the Eagles’ slim hopes of ending the season as the NFC’s No. 1 seed and securing a first-round bye.
The Eagles aren’t the only team that has a stake in tonight’s outcome. Here’s a rundown.
If the Colts win:
The Eagles will remain alive in the hunt for the NFC’s No. 1 seed
The Colts will remain alive in the hunt for the AFC South title
If the 49ers win:
The Bills, Jaguars, and Chargers will all clinch playoff berths
The 49ers will still be on track to land the No. 1 seed by winning their final two games against the Bears and Seahawks
If the Colts do win tonight, here’s what needs to happen in Week 17 for the Eagles to enter Week 18 with a shot at landing the No. 1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs:
Eagles win vs. Bills
Bears win vs. 49ers
Panthers win vs. Seahawks
A Los Angeles Rams loss to the Atlanta Falcons would also help the Eagles, but the Birds just need the Rams to lose one of their final two games.
Essentially, the Eagles would need to finish the season with a 12-5 record in a three-way tiebreaker with the Bears and Seahawks to nab the top playoff seed. Unlikely? Yes, but crazier things have happened.
Despite recent struggles, Eagles sticking with Jake Elliott
Jake Elliott has made just 70% of his field goals this season.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said the Eagles will not be bringing in competition for Jake Elliott as the longtime kicker has hit a rough patch late in the season.
Sirianni on Monday reiterated his confidence that Elliott will bounce back.
Elliott’s 70.8% success rate (17-for-24) on field goals is the lowest of his career. He missed a 43-yard field goal and a 52-yard try (as well as a 57-yard kick that was negated by a penalty) during Saturday’s win over Washington.
Elliott has missed five field goal attempts over the last five games. He also has a missed extra point during that stretch.
“I understand it’s a production-based business,” Elliott said Saturday when asked if he was worried the Eagles could bring in a new kicker. “You see it all the time. That’s out of my hands, that’s out of my control, all I can do is kind of put my head down and keep pushing.
“I just got to put the ball through the uprights. That’s my job, man. That’s it. It’s not any deeper than that.”
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are positioned for a long playoff run.
On The Speakeasy podcast, former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy and former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho were asked the question: Are the Eagles the best team in the NFC?
“When did we let it go,” McCoy said. “We were the defending champs last year. We were the NFC champs. See, y’all forget a lot though. I don’t forget. Last year, we won the whole NFC East. Last year we won the whole NFC. Last year we won the whole league, the Super Bowl. Why y’all forgot? Because we had a couple bad games. Because our Super Bowl quarterback had a couple of bad moments. We’re still the Eagles and we still put on a show. And the championship runs through Philly.”
To Acho, Saturday’s game showed the complete package of what the Eagles could be. Jalen Hurts completed 22 of 30 throws for 185 yards with A.J. Brown as his favorite target, and gained 40 rushing yards on seven carries. Meanwhile, Saquon Barkley finished with 132 yards on 21 carries to contribute to the team’s 207 total rushing yards.
“I think the Eagles are who we thought they were supposed to be all season,” Acho said. “Saquon [Barkley] really got active today. And then on top of that, A.J. Brown, he finally got active today. … This was maybe one of two or three complete games the Eagles have played all season. … The Eagles checked every single box you could hope and expect that they check.”
After a three-game skid, the Eagles have managed to bounce back with two consecutive wins over the 2-13 Las Vegas Raiders and the 4-11 Commanders, two teams that have struggled throughout the season.
“These games are momentum,” McCoy said. “It’s not about the opponent. It’s about getting us back in that groove. Getting us back with that motivation. Because when we get to the playoffs, we’re going to be rolling baby. … Résumés matter, playoff experience matters. And the way the offense is kind of clicking, the defense is making plays. I’m ready to roll.”
Nakobe Dean left Saturday’s game with a hamstring injury
During Saturday’s win against the Commanders, Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean left the game with a hamstring injury halfway through the first quarter and didn’t return.
After the game, teammate Jordan Davis told 94.1 WIP’s Devan Kaney Dean’s injury was minor. And on Sunday, while hosting a toy drive in Cherry Hill, Dean confirmed to fans he was doing “just fine” and only tweaked his hamstring, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Ashlyn Sullivan.
Nakobe Dean is here hosting a toy drive in Cherry Hill – he will also be taking students shopping in Philadelphia after this.
Nakobe said he is doing “just fine” and his hamstring injury was just a tweak. pic.twitter.com/PsL7ISA956
Merrill Reese: Commanders are being ‘cranky’ losers
Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner and Eagles running back Saquon Barkley exchange words during Saturday’s game.
Washington Commanders coaches and players were upset following Saturday’s loss to the Eagles, stemming from a two-point try they viewed as the Birds running up the score.
The conversion led to a melee, resulting in three players — including Eagles offensive lineman Tyler Steen — being booted from the game.
“I can only answer for my side, what I would do,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn told reporters following the game. “Hey man, if that’s how they want to get down, then all good. We’ll play them again in two weeks.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters he thought the extra point gave the Eagles a better shot at winning the game, and wasn’t because kicker Jake Elliott missed two field goal attempts.
Regardless, Eagles announcer Merrill Reese didn’t think the Birds were trying to run up the score, pointing in part to the team’s decision to stop throwing the ball and playing their backups on defense.
“If you’re playing at the rate the Commanders are playing, and you’re down to your third quarterback, anything’s going to make you irritable. You’re going to be angry about everything,” Reese said during an interview on 94.1 WIP Monday. “That was not running up the score. They’re just being cranky.”
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley summed up the feelings of both teams to reporters following the game.
“This team don’t like us, and that’s just the truth,” Barkley said. “And we don’t like them, either.”
Guess this is the moment Saquon Barkley was referring to when he said "we got a little fired up on the sideline," that led to the #Eagles RB "running angry" on his 12-yard TD.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell talks with officials after the final playof their loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
It’s easy to criticize the refs, but this weekend NFL officials really gave fans and announcers a few things to complain about.
First up is key late play during the New England Patriots’ win over the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night.
With a little more than three minutes remaining, Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey appeared to outright tackle Patriots wide receiver Kayshon Boutte on a deep pass. Despite an official watching from yards away, no flags were thrown, to the surprise of everyone on NBC’s Sunday Night Football broadcast.
“It’s not really hard — that’s pass interference,” NBC rules analyst and former official Terry McAulay said.
Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth, and Terry McAulay voice their shock about pass interference not being called against the Ravens on a Patriots deep ball. 🏈🦓🎙️ #NFL#SNFpic.twitter.com/CEGfOgTVA5
Earlier on Sunday, during the Carolina Panthers’ win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, officials missed what appeared to be a blatant fourth-down penalty.
With a little under five minutes remaining and the game tied, Panthers defender Princely Umanmielen hit punter Riley Dixon after he kicked the ball, which should have resulted in a penalty and a first down. Instead, officials called holding on the Buccaneers and missed the running-into-the-kicker penalty all together.
“It’s contact to the body. I would have had running into the kicker,” Fox rules analyst and former official Mike Pereria said during the broadcast.
That missed call proved pivotal, as the Panthers marched down the field and kicked what ultimately became the game-winning field goal.
Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira points out that officials in Bucs-Panthers missed a running into the kicker penalty due to their focus on a holding call. pic.twitter.com/pfZJfEG3dL
Then there’s the controversial ending of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Detroit Lions game, where Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown lateraled to quarterback Jared Goff for what would have been the game-winning touchdown.
On the play, St. Brown was called for pass interference, negating the touchdown. But both head official Carl Cheffers and CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Tony Romo did a poor job explaining why the Lions didn’t get another play
“By rule, that penalty is not enforced and there is no replay. The game is over,” Cheffers said.
absolute chaos at the end of Lions-Steelers. Amon-Ra St. Brown stopped short of the goal line. flips to Jared Goff at the last second. he dives in for a game-winning touchdown… but! flags! offensive pass interference! Steelers win pic.twitter.com/Rg3Zy4SrQU
NFL rules stipulate if the offense commits a foul with no time remaining, “there shall be no extension of the period. If the foul occurs on the last play of the half, a score by the offense is not counted.”
If Goff had run into the end zone with time remaining on the clock, the Lions would have been given another play. Because of the penalty, the Lions weren’t able to review whether Goff crossed the plane of the goal line with one second remaining.
It also wasn’t the only controversial call to end the game. With 22 seconds left, Goff hit St. Brown on a one-yard touchdown pass, which would have won the game. But officials called pass interference on Lions receiver Isaac TeSlaa, negating the go-ahead score.
“The reporting official on that play told me that the offending player picked one of the defenders, creating an opportunity for the offensive player to make the catch,” Cheffers told pool reporter Nolan Bianch following the game.
Philip Rivers and the Colts can help the Eagles tonight.
The Eagles have already clinched the NFC East and will host a wild-card game at the Linc, but the Birds still have an unlikely shot at landing the No. 1 seed.
Here’s how the NFC playoff picture looks after Sunday’s games, with five teams having already clinched a postseason spot:
NFC playoff picture
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To land the No. 1 seed, Philly would need to win their final two games against the Buffalo Bills and Washington Commanders and get a lot of help, beginning with tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts.
The Eagles need the Colts and 44-year-old Philip Rivers to win tonight to have any hope of landing the No. 1 seed.
Here’s everything that needs to happen over the final two weeks of the season for the Eagles to end up with the top seed and secure a first-round bye:
Eagles win their final two games against the Buffalo Bills and Washington Commanders
San Francisco 49ers lose to the Indianapolis Colts Monday and the Bears in Week 17
Seattle Seahawks lose their final two games against the Carolina Panthers and 49ers
Chicago Bears win against the 49ers in Week 16 and lose to the Detroit Lions in Week 17
Los Angeles Rams lose one of their final two games against the Atlanta Falcons or Arizona Cardinals
If all that happens, the Eagles would finish the season with a 12-5 record and would win a three-way tiebreaker with the Bears and Seahawks.
The path to the No. 2 seed is more realistic. If the Eagles win out, all they would need is for the Bears to lose their final two games to move up to the No. 2 seed. In that case, they’d host a wild card game against the No. 7 seed, currently the Green Bay Packers.
Josh Allen injured ahead of Sunday’s game against Eagles
Josh Allen injured his ankle but finished Sunday’s game for the Bills.
There’s snow in the forecast Sunday in Buffalo, where the Eagles will take on the Bills with playoff seeding on the line for both teams.
The Bills will officially clinch a playoff spot if the Indianapolis Colts lose tonight to the San Francisco 49ers, and they’ll enter Week 17 still in the hunt for their sixth-straight AFC East title.
Reigning NFL MVP Josh Allen injured his ankle during Sunday’s win against the Cleveland Browns, but X-rays taken at halftime were reportedly negative and he finished the game for the Bills.
Allen didn’t seem too concerned following the game.
“We’re gravy, baby,” Allen told CBS sideline reporter Evan Washburn following the game.
The last time the Eagles faced the Bills was 2023 at the Linc, with the Birds rallying to win in overtime. The celebrations didn’t last long, as the Eagles went on to lose five of their final six games and suffer an early playoff exit.
Saquon Barkley rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown Saturday.
Saquon Barkley had rushed for just 52 yards on 14 carries when he came to the sideline late in the third quarter. The Eagles had taken a 14-10 lead after a 17-play, touchdown-scoring drive, but they did so in spite of the struggles in the running game.
It’s been a season-long slog on the ground, but there have been glimpses of hope in recent weeks. And Barkley, who’s had to run into more stacked boxes than ever in his eighth year, felt that he wasn’t taking advantage of opportunities against a weakened Commanders defense.
“We got a little fired up on the sideline, but it was good,” Barkley said. “It’s all out of love, let’s say that. We want to do what’s best for the team when we’re winning games and hold each other accountable. But thank God it happened for me, to be honest, because it put me in my bag, as people would say.”
It was a 12-yard touchdown run off left tackle. The stat sheet account of the play doesn’t do Barkley’s seventh rushing score of the season justice. Jordan Mailata gave perhaps the best description.
“That was an angry run by Say,” the Eagles left tackle said. “Kind of expected that from him by the way he was acting on the sideline. He was just very adamant, being very positive, like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get it.’”
Barkley’s touchdown wasn’t exactly the final nail. But he drove the last spike with a dazzling 48-yard run two drives later. And backup Tank Bigsby buried the Commanders with a 22-yard bolt into the end zone of the Eagles’ eventual 29-18 win at Northwest Stadium on Saturday.
It may be no coincidence that the offensive improvement came after Sirianni asserted more of his authority on that side of the ball three games ago. There were bright moments in the overtime loss to the Chargers, but Hurts had five turnovers.
Actually, there were improvements in run design the week before against the Bears. But the Eagles defense didn’t meet its usual standard and the offense couldn’t compensate. The numbers in the last four games, though, suggest that Barkley and Co. are doing something better.
The Eagles have averaged 4.96 yards per carry over that span. In their first 11 games, they averaged only 3.91 yards.
Former Imhotep Charter star’s catch propels Bears into the playoffs
The Bears’ DJ Moore celebrates after his 46-yard TD catch in overtime beats the Green Bay Packers.
After overcoming a 16-6 deficit late in the fourth quarter Saturday night, the Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers, in overtime, 22-16, thanks to a 46-yard touchdown reception from Philly native DJ Moore.
Three plays after the Bears stopped Green Bay on its drive in overtime, quarterback Caleb Williams found Moore, an Imhotep Charter graduate, off a play-action post route to score the walk-off touchdown, his sixth touchdown reception of the season.
“I just had to run, run like I did in practice and connect like we did at practice,” Moore said of his winning reception. ”It was really a practice rep but we did it in a game. Like I said, it was just amazing that we did it against the Packers.”
The victory moved Chicago to the NFC’s No. 2 seed and put the Bears in the driver’s seat to win the NFC North for the first time since 2018. The Bears haven’t made the playoffs since 2020.
Moore is the Bears’ leading receiver this year with 664 yards and is tied for the team lead in touchdowns with Rome Odunze.
Now in his eighth season in the NFL after a standout career at Maryland, Moore has scored three of his touchdowns in the last two games. This is his third year in Chicago after getting traded from the Carolina Panthers after the 2022 season and he has led the team in receiving each of the last three years.
LANDOVER, Md. — There is an isolating nature to Jake Elliott’s job.
Hundreds of micro moments impact a given game. There are passes and runs and blocks and tackles and situational coaching decisions. All of those things can work in harmony on a given day and success or failure could still hinge on your swinging foot.
The Eagles won going away, 29-18, over the Washington Commanders on Saturday night and clinched the NFC East title along the way. But inside a happy locker room was a frustrated kicker who missed two field goal attempts, who has missed five over the last five games, who also missed a point-after attempt during that stretch.
It is not the isolating part that is getting to him, Elliott said. In fact, the soon-to-be-31-year-old kicker in his ninth NFL season wishes it were a mental thing at this point.
“It would be easier to fix,” Elliott said.
“It’s just frustrating.”
Saturday’s frustration was amplified by the fact that Elliott struck the ball well during warmups, he said. He hit from 52, 55, 58, and 60 yards during pregame. He entered the game, he said, with a good plan, “and when they don’t go through in the game it’s no one to blame but yourself. That’s where we’re at. I got to figure some stuff out.”
Elliott’s first miss was a 43-yard attempt with the Eagles leading, 7-3, six minutes into the second quarter. He was “a little quick” on his swing and hooked it left. It was just his second miss of the season inside 50 yards.
The next, with the Eagles trailing 10-7, came near halftime. There were two, but only one of them counted. He first missed from 57 yards but Washington was offside, which gave the Eagles a first down. The Eagles could not get any positive yardage on the next play and they sent Elliott back on the field to kick from 52 yards out. Elliott was happier with his kick, but he thought the wind took it late.
Elliott is now 17-for-24 on the season. His success rate of 70.8% is the worst of his career.
Jake Elliott kicks an extra point after a Dallas Goedert touchdown during the third quarter against Washington.
Elliott, a two-time Super Bowl champion, a second-team All-Pro in 2023, and a Pro Bowler in 2021, is under contract through the 2028 season. He came back after the All-Pro selection in 2023 with an inconsistent 2024, when his make percentage dropped from 93.8% to 77.8%. It is not out of the realm of possibility that the Eagles explore other kicking options after the season. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Eagles explore bringing a kicker in for the homestretch here, either.
“I understand it’s a production-based business,” Elliott said when asked if he was worried the Eagles could bring in a new kicker. “You see it all the time. That’s out of my hands, that’s out of my control, all I can do is kind of put my head down and keep pushing.”
Nick Sirianni said he has the “utmost confidence in Jake.”
“I have a ton of confidence in him that he’ll respond and rebound from this because he’s mentally tough and a great kicker,” Sirianni said.
Punter and holder Braden Mann does, too.
Mann said Elliott has consistently carried the right mindset into his job. His next-kick mentality has been a constant.
“He’s got the history,” Mann said. “His confidence is through the roof. Everyone here, all of our confidence is high for him. He’s just a consistent guy. He doesn’t get too high or too low in big moments, and he’s come through in big moments a lot in the past. It’s easy to rely on a guy like that who really wants the big moment.”
Jake Elliott reacts after his missed 52-yarder.
Elliott hit a similar rough patch late in the season last year. He missed four field goals over the final five games of the regular season, then missed an extra point in a wild-card round win over Green Bay. Then, in the snow, he missed two extra points but was 3-for-3 on field goals in a divisional-round victory over the Rams. He then missed from 54 yards in the NFC title game but made seven point-after tries.
It was a bumpy ride that ended with perfection in the Super Bowl: 4-for-4 on field goals, including two makes from 48 and another from 50, and 4-for-4 on extra points.
Will he lean on that experience?
“It’s all the same thing,” Elliott said. “It’s dealing with success, it’s dealing with failure. It’s all the same. I feel proud that I’ve handled all that kind of the exact same over the years. I’ve had a long career and have learned a lot throughout that on both sides of it.”
Elliott wasn’t interested in getting overly philosophical about the mental part of the game, the isolation of being a kicker, and what happens next.
“I just got to put the ball through the uprights,” he said. “That’s my job, man. That’s it. It’s not any deeper than that.”
That was one of the overarching storylines entering this season after Barkley, in his first year with the Eagles, became the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
No one has ever done it twice, so repeating always was going to be a stretch. But who could have seen this coming? It’s Week 15, and Barkley still is 60 yards shy of reaching 1,000 on the season. The Eagles have three games remaining, and, assuming Barkley stays healthy, he will reach the 1,000-yard mark Saturday against the Washington Commanders or next week in Buffalo. It would be the first time he’s recorded consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since his first two seasons in the NFL.
Barkley certainly didn’t see this coming. The way he trains and the way he works, he said, and how much time and money he has put into his body, a mostly healthy season in which he plays in every game should yield better results than this. He’s at 3.9 yards per carry, tied for the second-lowest output of his career for a season in which he’s played more than two games.
“Sometimes that’s how the game goes,” Barkley said Thursday after the Eagles wrapped their final practice of the week before playing at Washington on Saturday. “My mindset is, I still can have the impact on the season I want to. That’s finishing up the season strong and then going to the playoffs. That’s when it really matters the most. All of that is still in front of me, and I’m excited for the opportunity.”
The running game not being anywhere close to what it was in 2024 has been one of the big issues plaguing an offense that has failed to consistently sustain drives and score points. There are a variety of factors at play. Teams have zeroed in on stopping the Eagles run game. The Eagles offensive line has been banged up and also hasn’t performed to its usual level. The passing game hasn’t been consistent enough to force opponents to adjust.
Saquon Barkley is stopped by Raiders defensive end Charles Snowden during the first half in Week 15.
But Barkley also shoulders some of the struggles. In a clip on this week’s episode of Hard Knocks, Barkley is seen talking with Nick Sirianni about his role in helping the offense stay ahead of the sticks.
Barkley has been tackled for a loss on 15.83% of his rushes, according to SumerSports. That’s the third-highest rate in the NFL for running backs with at least 100 carries. Last year, Barkley ranked 24th at 9.57%. That’s on the blocking, of course, but Barkley said he shares some of it, too. It was a knock on him coming out of college, he said, that he tried to score a touchdown every time he touched the ball.
“Which I am, because I have the ability any time I touch the ball, I could take it 90 [yards],” Barkley said. “I could take it however long it needs to go. But there’s a flow to the game, and it’s helpful when you’re able to get positive runs — get those 3s, get those 4s. That sets up stuff later down the road.”
Barkley, in the Hard Knocks clip, told Sirianni that he needs to do his part to turn negative runs into smaller positive gains.
“I have to do my job,” he said Thursday. “The ones that might be a negative-1 or negative-2, if I could make that into [positive] 2 or 3, that’s helpful. It keeps us above the sticks and it makes play calling a lot easier. It makes it a lot easier to be consistent with the play calling and the run game when it’s second-and-6 rather than second-and-9. That’s kind of the mindset, building off that and trusting it and getting the dirty runs. Then, when the opportunity does come, make them pay for it.”
Saquon Barkley runs for a long fourth quarter touchdown in the Week 14 loss to the Chargers.
The running game has shown signs of life in recent weeks. Barkley carried 22 times for 78 yards during Sunday’s blowout win over the Raiders. He had 122 yards on 20 carries a game earlier, including a 52-yard touchdown run the Eagles scored off a toss play out of the Tush Push formation.
The passing game got going Sunday, albeit against a lesser opponent. Jalen Hurts even flashed in the run game, which Barkley said helps open up the offense. The Eagles went under center more than they have all season. There were things to build off of as they head into the final stretch of the season. They’re on the brink of clinching another NFC East title and are gearing up for another playoff run. The protection has improved, and Lane Johnson should be back when the games matter most.
“I think we’re super close and that’s important,” Barkley said. “Everyone gets caught up in how well teams are playing in the first five games or first half of the season. None of that matters. It does matter, because you got to give yourself a chance to compete for the playoffs, but if you look at some of the guys or the teams … they’re falling off. It’s a long season. It’s hard. Everything we want is still right in front of us.”
Last year, Jordan Davis often was not in the room.
Reporters typically are inside the Eagles locker room three days per week for 45 minutes during the regular season, but Davis typically would be anywhere else in the building but at his locker stall. Who could blame him? He was a third-year defensive tackle whose playing time had been cut, who wasn’t in good enough shape.
Vic Fangio’s defense was ascending, but Davis, the 13th overall pick in 2022, mostly was an afterthought. The Eagles had Jalen Carter and Milton Williams leading the way in the interior, a group of edge rushers that got after opposing quarterbacks, revelations at linebacker in Nakobe Dean and Zack Baun, and two rookies in the secondary, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, who made an immediate impact.
Then there was Davis, who basically was just one of the guys, a rotational defensive tackle who wasn’t overly interested in talking about the ups and downs and all that comes with not living up to your perceived potential.
This year? It’s hard to miss Davis. He is often the loudest voice in the room, bouncing around and joking with his teammates. He holds court in front of cameras at his locker. He is one of the faces and voices of a defense that hasn’t allowed a touchdown in 20 consecutive drives.
Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis (right) walks onto the field before facing the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 10.
“I had to make sure that everything around me was good,” Davis said Wednesday. “Had to make sure my body was right, I was living right, before I could really speak my voice. I’ve been this way since I got here, but now I think everybody is kind of just rallying behind me because they’ve seen the work that’s been put in, they’ve seen the work that’s being put in daily, and they see the consistency.
“It’s one thing to just hear it from a voice. But it’s another thing when he’s really believing, when he’s really living it, and he’s making decisions, making progress in terms of the way he wants to live his life.”
This Davis, the one the public gets to see more, has always been there, Davis said.
“I’ve always been happy-go-lucky, always been jovial,” he said. “It’s just now everyone is seeing it because I’m so confident in the person I am.”
‘He’s able to be himself’
Baun can see the changes in Davis, and he recognizes where it has come from because he saw the same thing with his own path last year. Baun was at a crossroads when the Eagles signed him to a one-year deal. Was he an edge rusher? Was he a linebacker? Would he be a special teamer and backup?
Fangio thought he’d work best as an off-ball linebacker — and was right — but it wasn’t until Baun got into a groove that the then-27-year-old on a young defense felt comfortable being a leader.
“I think it happens to anyone, even not playing a sport,” Baun said. “As soon as you start feeling more confident in yourself — for him, whether it was playing better or losing weight and then playing better — then you start adding stuff to your plate. But you have to take care of yourself and do what you need to do first. Then you can be a leader.”
Zack Baun and Jordan Davis have found their voices as leaders on the Eagles defense.
Defensive tackle Byron Young said he began to notice a change in Davis toward the end of last year when he started to lose weight. Davis struggled for large stretches of the 2024 season. After Week 14, he played more than 18 snaps in a game just once, in Week 18, when the Eagles were playing their backups. Davis’ work on himself had already started, and his confidence, Young said, “was obvious.”
Despite his limited workload, Davis produced. He had three pressures and a sack in the NFC championship game, then another sack in the Super Bowl.
Davis then showed up for training camp with a new body, a new level of confidence, and a bigger voice.
“He always has so much more energy,” Young said. “He’s able to be himself out there because he’s not worried about being tired all the time. He’s been a lot more vocal, a lot more of himself, and that’s something that’s good to see. You want to see guys being confident and being themselves.”
Davis usually is joking around in the locker room, but he knows when to turn it off and get serious, Young said. Other times, he might need a gentle reminder from defensive line coach Clint Hurtt.
Davis’ energy has a domino effect, Young said.
“It feeds into everybody else because everybody else feels how confident he is in himself and how confident he is in everyone else,” Young said. “Then you see how much fun he has when he’s out there playing, it makes everyone have fun. I think it’s something that has helped our defense a lot this year.”
‘Reflection comes at the end’
Rewind to the start of training camp. Williams left in free agency for a big payday, and the Eagles didn’t do much in the way of backfilling. Now imagine Carter missing games in the homestretch of the season. Back then, scary hypothetical. Now, with Carter recovering from procedures on his shoulders, the emergence of Davis and Moro Ojomo has the defensive line barely missing Carter’s presence.
Nolan Smith sacked Kenny Pickett on Sunday, but he was one-on-one partially because of the bodies Davis occupied in the middle of the line. A week earlier vs. the Los Angeles Chargers, Davis tallied a career-high six pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. It was the first game that Davis registered more than four pressures in a game, and he’s already at 23 pressures on the season, eight more than he had in all of 2024.
Jordan Davis returns a field goal block for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Sept. 21.
“I think he’s definitely taken a step,” Baun said. “He’s confident in himself and he knows the plays he can make, what he’s good at, what he’s not good at, and he’s taking advantage.”
Davis took a more intentional approach with him into the 2025 season, he said.
“This year,” Davis said, “I was like, ‘All right, I’m the oldest guy in the room. I got to do something different. I want to do something different so I can be different, so I can lead different.’ This was just the year to do it, and hopefully there are many more years to come.”
The Eagles picked up Davis’ fifth-year option in the offseason, keeping him under team control through the 2026 season. Davis has spent the 2025 season making that decision look like the right one, and probably earning himself a lot of money on his next deal in the process.
He’s played in all 14 games and has six pass deflections, 4½ sacks, 59 tackles (seven for loss), and six quarterback hits. He has played 62% of the defensive snaps after only playing 37% last season. All of those numbers are career-highs. Davis has a legitimate Pro Bowl case.
Has he stopped at all to ruminate in all that’s happened over the past year?
“Reflection comes at the end,” Davis said. “For right now, just keep chugging. Keep trucking.”
When the time to reflect comes, you’ll know where to find him. He won’t be hiding.
Despite some turbulence, the Eagles could celebrate a second consecutive NFC East title Saturday when they travel to Landover, Md., to play the first of two games against the Commanders over the final three weeks of the NFL season.
When the NFL schedule came out, the expectation was that these two games between division rivals who met in last season’s NFC championship game would be critical for playoff positioning. Instead, the Eagles are tracking toward becoming the first repeat NFC East champion since 2004 and Washington is desperately trying to get to the finish line of a miserable season.
But the games must go on, and the Commanders would probably like nothing more than to be an annoying speed bump on the Eagles’ road to the playoffs.
Here’s a look at some numbers that could be important Saturday evening at Northwest Stadium:
45.4%
The Eagles, in need of an offensive jolt, emerged from their mini-bye after Week 6 utilizing more under-center sets and found success vs. the Vikings and Giants. But after the bye week, their success rate declined vs. the Packers and Lions. Then, in games vs. the Bears and Chargers, they seemed to get away from having Jalen Hurts take snaps from under center almost entirely.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts throws the football in the first quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
But in their 31-0 victory over the Raiders on Sunday, the Eagles went under center a season-high 30 times in 66 snaps (45.4%). The Eagles ran the ball out of those looks plenty, but they also worked in some play-action. Hurts completed all four of his play-action passes from under center for 66 yards.
Against a weak defense, perhaps Kevin Patullo will continue to take a look at what the Eagles can do from under center compared to their typical shotgun and pistol looks.
Only the Cincinnati Bengals, who give up a whopping 403.8 yards per game, allow more yards on average than the Commanders’ 382.6 yards.
Washington’s defensive corps has been decimated by injuries, and the oldest defense in the NFL has not held up well. Both phases have struggled. The Commanders allow 136.3 rushing yards per game and 246.3 passing yards. The Eagles, even with their Jekyll and Hyde offense, should be able to do whatever they want. Their improved running game should find plenty of holes, which should open up play-action passes against a beat-up secondary.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley hurdles into the end zone for a touchdown in the fourth quarter of the NFC championship against the Commanders in January.
Veteran Von Miller, 36, is still a dangerous pass rusher. He has seven sacks on the season while playing just 38.3% of the snaps. And 35-year-old Bobby Wagner is still an impactful linebacker. But the Commanders don’t have enough playmakers. Cornerback Mike Sainristil had a good rookie season in 2024, but like much of his team, he has taken a step back in 2025. Sainristil has four interceptions, but he’s allowing a passer rating of 109.2 when targeted, according to Next Gen Stats. That’s up from 97.7 last season. Sainristil is allowing a reception on 68.6% of his targets, up from 59.8% last season.
Washington is without cornerback Marshon Lattimore, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury in November.
If all goes as planned, expect more Tanner McKee snaps in the fourth quarter.
329
If there’s one area the Eagles should be concerned about defensively, it’s containing Marcus Mariota. Sure, that’s an easier task than containing Jayden Daniels, but Mariota is a veteran quarterback who knows how to play the position and knows when to tuck it and run.
That’s been a problem for the Eagles, who have given up 329 rushing yards this season to opposing quarterbacks. Only the Giants, at 357, haven given up more rushing yards to opposing QBs.
Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota runs with the ball as Broncos defensive end John Franklin-Myers (98) and linebacker Nik Bonitto attempt a tackle.
Mariota, 32, used his legs and his arm in helping Washington earn its first win since Oct. 5 on Sunday. He rushed 10 times for 43 yards. And with Terry McLaurin back in action, Mariota found some success with the deep ball. He completed 10 of 19 passes overall, but he went 7-for-11 for 181 yards and a touchdown on throws greater than 10 air yards, according to Next Gen Stats.
Washington has done a decent job protecting its quarterbacks. Its pressure rate allowed is just 33%, good for 12th in the NFL. The Eagles have done a much better job getting after quarterbacks since Jaelan Phillips arrived at the trade deadline. They’ll need to home in on stopping Mariota’s scrambles, though, to prevent Washington from extending drives.
82.9%
The playoff picture is starting to take shape for the Eagles.
They could wrap up the division Saturday, and even if they don’t, it’s still unlikely they lose out and Dallas wins out. There’s just a 0.8% chance that happens, according to FTN Fantasy.
The Eagles are also inching closer to being locked into the No. 3 seed in the NFC. They remain two games behind the two NFC West teams (Rams, Seahawks) tied for the No. 1 seed and are a game back of the NFC North-leading Bears, who own the tiebreaker over the Eagles.
According to FTN, the likelihood the Eagles finish the season as the third seed in the NFC is up to 82.9%.
Daniels was shut down for the rest of the season Monday by the 4-10 Commanders. Washington’s season is basically over. A trip to the NFC championship game last season was followed up with a miserable 2025 campaign that featured injuries and a regression to the mean by the oldest team in the NFL.
But Daniels being out doesn’t change what is arguably the biggest challenge facing the Eagles defense on Saturday: the quarterback running game. Sure, Daniels is more fleet of foot than Marcus Mariota, who will continue to start with Daniels done for the season. But Mariota is an effective runner.
The Eagles know that well. Mariota was in the building in 2023 and has been in the league since 2015. The running and scrambling abilities have always been a big part of his game.
That should worry Vic Fangio as the Eagles prepare for a Commanders team that is coming off a 29-21 victory over the Giants on Sunday, Washington’s first victory since Oct. 5. Mariota was just 10-for-19 through the air, but he racked up 211 passing yards because he went 7-for-11 for 181 yards and a touchdown on throws greater than 10 air yards, according to Next Gen Stats. Couple that with his 10-carry, 43-yard performance when carrying the ball and the Eagles have plenty to worry about.
This isn’t Kenny Pickett, another backup, leading a woeful Raiders offense. The Commanders are where they are in the standings in large part because they are second in yards allowed per game and give up nearly 27 points per game on defense — only six teams allow more points per game.
Eagles quarterbacks Jalen Hurts (1) and Marcus Mariota before a game against the Miami Dolphins at Lincoln Financial Field on Oct. 22, 2023.
Mariota has started seven games for Washington this season as Daniels has dealt with multiple injuries. The Commanders are 2-5 in those games, but Mariota has had some solid individual performances.In his last start before Sunday, a 27-26 overtime loss to a Broncos team that now has 12 wins and sits atop the AFC standings, the 32-year-old went 28-for-50 for 294 yards through the air — with two touchdowns and one interception — and rushed 10 times for 55 yards.
“Marcus obviously had played a lot of football and he’s been in this league for a long time,” Nick Sirianni said Tuesday. “I have so much respect for Marcus — the person, first and foremost, the player, the teammate. Marcus was just a great pro.”
Great pros tend to know how to play their position and when to do certain things. Example A is Justin Herbert, who was under duress for most of the game vs. the Eagles in Week 14 but found a way to move his team down the field by utilizing his legs. Herbert, who rushed 10 times for 66 yards, was just the latest quarterback to hurt the Eagles in the scramble game or with designed runs.
Patrick Mahomes amassed 66 yards on seven carries in Week 2. Jaxson Dart rushed 13 times for 58 yards in Week 6, although the Eagles schemed a way to stop him two weeks later. Other opposing quarterbacks haven’t reached that type of yardage, but some of them have had impactful scrambles. Dak Prescott’s game-tying 8-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter of Week 12 was a scramble. Carson Wentz kept a Minnesota drive alive with a 16-yard scramble on a fourth-quarter third-and-10 near midfield in Week 7.
The Eagles, according to Pro Football Reference, have allowed 329 total rushing yards this season to opposing quarterbacks. Only one team, the Giants, has allowed more (357).
The Eagles are allowing more than 5 yards per carry to quarterbacks. Mariota, meanwhile, is picking up 6.1 yards per carry on his 49 rushes so far in 2025.
His legs will have an impact Saturday one way or another. Either he successfully extends drives and keeps the Commanders in the game, or the Eagles contain him.
A federal judge in New York ruled Monday to dismiss the antitrust suit brought earlier this year by former Villanova basketball player Kris Jenkins against the NCAA and some of its member conferences.
Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said Jenkins’ suit against the NCAA and conferences, including the Big East, which he played in, was brought too late and is barred by the 2017 Alston v. NCAA class action settlement.
“It is undisputed that Jenkins was a member of the Alston class and did not opt out of that litigation,” Cote wrote.
Jenkins did not immediately reply to a request for comment. His attorney, Kevin T. Duffy Jr., said they planned to appeal but declined to comment further.
Jenkins, whose three-point buzzer-beater lifted Villanova to the 2016 national title over North Carolina, filed the lawsuit in April and sought damages for the name, image, and likeness compensation he was unable to receive while at Villanova. In addition to the NCAA, Jenkins sued several conferences: the Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12, and Southeastern.
Villanova coach Jay Wright with Kris Jenkins, who hit the buzzer-beating shot to win the national title in 2016.
The suit argued that the named parties violated “antitrust laws and common law by engaging in an overarching conspiracy” that fixed the amount student-athletes could be paid and cut them out of the market.
Jenkins wanted the money he “would have received” if not for the NCAA and its conferences’ “unlawful restraints on pay-for-play compensation,” a share of television revenue and media broadcast uses of his name, image, and likeness, and money he may have received from other third-party opportunities, according to the initial suit.
“You want your respect as a man, as a human being,” Jenkins told The Inquirer in April. “Obviously all the other stuff that comes with it. More importantly, to just continue to fight for what’s right.”
Monday’s ruling stands to make that more difficult. Judge Cote wrote that because Jenkins was a member of the Alston class action, he was barred by that December 2017 settlement from pursuing legal action.
Alston v. NCAA, which challenged the “interconnected” set of NCAA rules that capped the amount of compensation an athlete could receive for his or her athletic services, went all the way to the Supreme Court. Along with the O’Bannon v. NCAA case, it was among the groundbreaking proceedings that eventually laid the groundwork for the landmark House v. NCAA settlement that forever changed college sports.
Villanova’s Kris Jenkins celebrates his game-winning three-point basket against North Carolina in the national championship game on April 4, 2016.
Jenkins argued that his claims were not barred because he challenged some rules not raised in the Alston case, but his suit relied on “facts that post-date Alston,” Cote wrote, such as when the NCAA in 2021 suspended its bylaw that prohibited athletes from receiving payments for their name, image, and likeness.
“None of these arguments permits Jenkins to escape the effect of the Alston release and judgment,” Cote wrote. “Jenkins was a student-athlete from 2013 to 2017. Therefore, any claims that he may have had are claims that arise from anticompetitive conduct that occurred during that period. The NCAA’s suspension of a Bylaw in 2021 did not alter either the substance of his claims [nor] the breadth of his release of those claims.
“The fact that Jenkins may have identified components of that framework, specifically two NCAA rules, that may not have been the specific focus of the Alston class pleading is immaterial.”
Cote also ruled in favor of the NCAA and the conferences named in the suit when they motioned to dismiss the case based on the grounds of timeliness, saying Jenkins’ suit was barred by a four-year statute of limitations.
The House v. NCAA settlement was at the crux of why Jenkins filed his suit. The settlement left the Big East out of the lion’s share of back payments dating to 2016. Jenkins, whose career at Villanova ended in 2017, would have been in an “additional sports class” that would receive minimum payment compared to football players and men’s and women’s basketball players from the power schools. He decided to opt out of the House class.
It is difficult to quantify exactly how much money Jenkins’ championship-winning shot was worth, although his initial 127-page filing made an effort to. It said Jenkins’ shot, literally nicknamed “The Shot,” and Villanova’s championship victory were the reason behind William B. Finneran’s $22.6 million gift to renovate the now-named Finneran Pavilion and support the men’s basketball program. The filing notes that Villanova received an uptick in applications to the university. The campus footprint has greatly expanded since 2016.
The NCAA and Big East, the suit said, have benefited greatly from the shot and continue to use it in promotional videos.
“Everybody can see the value,” Jenkins, 32, said earlier this year. “Everybody knows the value.”
Jenkins had a brief professional career before a hip injury forced him to stop playing in 2020. He rejoined the Villanova basketball program in a support staff role that year and has been around the program off and on at times since then.
