When Jaelan Phillips was announced as a starter in the Philadelphia Eagles' Week 10 showdown with the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football, fans eagerly keyed in on No. 50 to see how he would perform in his midnight green debut.
Standing 6-foot-5, 263 pounds, Phillips was hard to miss lining up on the edge over Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker, and almost immediately, his impressive play matched his imposing looks, finishing out the game with six tackles, a tackle for loss, two QB hits, and a fumble recovery over 53 defensive snaps.
Now granted, part of why Phillips played so much in his debut was out of necessity, with the Vic Fangio favorite playing more defensive snaps than every defensive lineman not named Jalen Carter because the Eagles just activated Nolan Smith off of IR and brought Brandon Graham out of retirement. But his on-field efforts certainly justified a massive workload even when Smith and Graham are back up to full speed.
Discussing what Philips brought to the table for the Eagles in his debut, Nick Sirianni celebrated his new edge rusher for never taking a snap off, as he was able to make an impact for Philadelphia right away.
“I just think about his week of practice and how he goes about his business,” Sirianni said via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “He runs full volume. He loves working. You can just see it, the way he was running around at practice. His motor is constantly running, just pushing to get better. So obviously it was a really big impact that he made tonight for his first game as an Eagle. Again, I have to look at the tape, but he did a lot of good things that you can see off of.”
With a Sunday Night Football showdown against the Detroit Lions, the Eagles will have to turn to Phillips again to slow down Dan Campbell and company, as Jared Goff isn't the type of quarterback to regularly outrun pressure when it gets into the backfield.
Jaelan Phillips can be an X-factor for the Eagles in Week 11
Over the past five weeks, the Lions have struggled to keep Goff upright, with the team allowing four, one, four, and five sacks before holding the Washington Commanders to zero in Week 10 following the returns of Taylor Decker and Dan Skipper at tackle.
Now granted, in 2024, Goff was one of the better quarterbacks under pressure, ranking fourth in Total EPA/Drop Back when pressured at -0.22 according to NextGenState. But when Goff is being consistently pressured, his margin of error goes down considerably, as he's one of the more statuesque pocket passers in the game today, even if he's good for the occasional run. The Lions are 2-2 in games where Goff was sacked four or more times, and considering two of those losses came to the Packers and Minnesota Vikings, two teams the Eagles have beaten in 2025, the blueprint is there to give the veteran passer a hard time.
The Eagles, to their credit, found plenty of pass-rushing success in Week 10, thanks in no small part to Phillips, with Zach Baun, Jalyx Hunt, and Nakobe Dean each taking down Jordan Love on Monday Night Football, but as a general rule, Vic Fangio's unit really hasn't been that good in 2025, with Moro Ojomo leading a unit that has just 19 combined takedowns on the season. Still, with Phillips, Smith, and BG all in the fold alongside Hunt and Josh Uche, the Eagles' edge rushing unit is slowly coming into form, with the potential to take a team like the Lions by storm, especially if their tackles still aren't 100 percent healthy.
Will the Eagles need more than just a big game out of Phillips to secure the win in Week 11? Oh yeah, as Saquon Barkley will need to keep ripping off big runs, Jalen Hurts will have to keep making good decisions, and Lane Johnson will have to keep making both of their lives easier after seemingly suffering a knee tweak against the Packers. But if the Eagles' pass rush can force Goff to get rid of the ball quickly or risk being taken down, it will make the back seven's job easier and get the ball back into the offense's hands, where Kevin Patulo can control the clock. If the Eagles want to give the City of Brotherly Love another commanding win in front of their loyal fans at Lincoln Financial Field and watching along on NBC around the world, getting a consistent pass rush could set the stage for another statement victory.
