FIRST TAKE | Who will impress more tonight: Barkley or Jacobs?- Stephen A. on Eagles vs. Packers

back Showdown tonight between saquin Barkley and Josh Jacobs these two have been some of the best since joining the league but it's Jacobs who narrowly beats out Barkley in rushing ER despite playing one less game in his career however Barkley has also been a receiving threat as well with over 2,000 receiving yards in 12 touchdowns caught ESS tell me this which running back do you think is going to impress the most tonight from Brazil with this new team would you go Jacobs or saquin I'm I'm about Squan I'm about saquan saquan first of all saquan is a big time baller uh for once in his life he's going to be surrounded by a team uh because he's got teammates now uh he didn't have that he was him in the bag of chips in in in in East wford New Jersey we all know that bag bag of chips that's all he had available to him now he's going to have some weapons and so you got AJ Brown you got Devonte Smith you got Dallas Goddard you got an offensive line that's considered one of the top two or three offensive lines in football you got a quarterback like Jaylen Herz you got a new offensive coordinator and Kell Moore I definitely think that the the upside looks really really good for saquan Barkley you can play him on practically every down he's an explosive playmaker okay so you've got that going on and oh by the way we may have lamented the lack of a blocking tight end in Baltimore for derck Henry at this particular moment in time we ain't lamenting the the absence of a of a of a back that can block in Philadelphia because saquon Barkley can do that too and so I look at it from that standpoint along with the fact that he's a weapon that Jaylen Herz can dip and dunk to as opposed to playing herob ball and trying to make big things happen when it's not there there for him because saquon Barkley can break a game open at any given moment I love his prospects I think he's going to show out tonight in the Philadelphia Eagles uniform yeah I have to agree with that Stephen I think when I was looking at this I looked at Josh Jacobs the offense is's going to be with Matt laflor and I thought maybe that could be something then your boy did a little bit of digging on the internet looked up the depth chart of the Packers offensive line no disrespect to the boys out there wasn't very familiar with a lot of those names you go over to the eagle standpoint you're looking at Lon Dickerson Lane Johnson and M be who was a first round pick out of Louisville obviously didn't pan out the Jets but comes over here he now he's playing Right Guard and then Jordan milata who not only is a great left tackle got a hell of a sing voice as well this is the best offensive line that saquon Barkley has had in his career he's shown being extremely Dynamic he's a pass pass catcher out of the gate and he's got amazing Vision I expect him to have a big game uh tonight I think I'm gonna go with Josh Jacobs you know I I did do some searching on the internet I was not familiar with their names or their games either but I do know what else surrounds Jordan Love in This Green Bay Packers offense when you're thinking about Reed Wix Watson Musgrave dobs all of these different pass catches that Jordan love has at his disposal and the way that we watch Matt laflor especially late in the season find ways to use his running game to get on the perimeter of defenses the off tackle runs the down down in the round as we used to call it when I was playing tail back in the T when I was uh in little league right when you think about some of the the tosses that we saw late in the season I believe that Josh Jak sort of downhill back one cut back that's going to benefit from the way that Matt lefl runs offense and then now getting to the playaction pass of the way Jordan love has has kind of sort of ascended in being an outside of the pocket passer right whether it be the half rows of their boots those tied right into Josh Jacobs and disguising the Run game I believe that saquan Barkley is going to have a phenomenal year but I do know if I'm the new defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers that's my focus I'm going to make you beat me with AJ Brown I'm going to make you throw the ball to Devonte Smith more importantly I'm going to make jayen Hertz show me that he's fixed the things that ailed him late last season I don't think that'll be the focal point of the Philadelphia Eagles who have to find a way to cover on the back end um I like using analogies okay so imagine you're a truck driver all right and you've got three flat tires and no power steering and you're still able to hit all of your deliveries okay now imagine if you have four fresh tires and no traffic how you could win and that's exactly what Quan Barkley who of course as stepen a said comes from the Giants still averaged over 70 yards per game despite the fact or 80 yards per game 70 yards per game despite the fact that his offensive line had the worst pass rush win rate you're going to enjoy saying that now that you're in the media by the way Rush win rate you said wait I'm I'm telling you it's very difficult I'm not a pro like you guys it's a brain pretzel that it puts you in even if you look at last year what saquan did against the Packers he ran for 86 yards against them and in fact scrimmage yards as well in his three games against the Packers he's hit at least the tree Mark every single game I do think Josh Jacobs is going to get involved in the pass catching opportunities that will be there for him in a Matt laflor offense but for me here it's going to be all about saquan in particular because I think Jaylen Herz is going to run the ball more today too well listen you're absolutely right and I think it's listen when you think about saquon Barkley and what he brings to the table guys I'm just looking at some stat right here miles Sanders last year 51 DeAndre Swift 74 that's many third that's that's the third the amount of third down snaps that they had Barkley was at 134 134 just think about that for a second year and so when I look at it from that perspective because DeAndre Swift my son they ain't scrubs now these brothers could Ball but why would you go out and get a sequan Barkley knowing how much he would cost because you know he's a game breaker you know he can block you know you can rely upon him on third down situations and that's going to help you insulate jayen Herz to some degree because he certainly wasn't insulated last year not only did he was he devoided of those kind of weapons he obviously didn't have the coordinator that he had the year before so all of those things are things to take into consideration as well and that's how I'm looking at it you're jayen Herz he's your safety net when all is said and done you can drop back the pass you can look for the Deep ball you can take care if you could feed AJ Brown you could de feed gard and Devonte Smith but in the end when they put the pressure on you on a rare occasion that that offensive line can't answer the call on a particular play you got to sayquan Barkley to be for opposing defenses to worry about they know it and as a result it's going to prevent them from really going all out at jayen Herz the way they're normally capable of because he didn't have that kind of weapon in the back feel Stephen A tonight do you expect to see the Eagles team that went to the Super Bowl in 2022 or the team that ended the season terribly last year no I don't expect to see the team that ended terribly last year they going to be better than that they lost five of their last six regular season games got blitzed in the playoffs by Baker Mayfield in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers I don't see that happening I see them being closer to what we saw a couple of years ago but here's the biggest reason why serani head coach yeah I mean listen you think he's on the hot seat you're damn right he and he should be and the only reason I say that is because ho Roseman has proven to be exceptional the players on the squad have proven to be exceptional but when their coordinators was going all of a sudden the head coach after starting 10 and one and it was a rough 10 and one start because there a lot of games people said they should have lost but they you went off you went to a 10 and one start and then you went to bed just stunk up the joint I don't think Philadelphia the Philadelphia that I worked in for 17 years okay that I ended up as a columnist for the last seven years for the Philadelphia Inquirer that City that I know oh hell no they ain't looking they looking right at that Coach you you better fix this you better get this right because they they ain't looking at how Roseman they know he does this job I think it's coordinators though right you look at what this team was when they went to the Super Bowl you had Jonathan Ganon who's now the head coach at Arizona you also had Shane styken who I think is an absolute star at the coaching position that was with Justin Herbert as he was making his way in the league Jaylen Herz threw out his MVP candidacy finishing second in in that year and then also you look at what we saw from Garner menu and Anthony Richardson early in Indianapolis so it wasn't so much what Nick serani was able to do as it was what his coordinators were able to do so what is Kell Moore going to be for the Philadelphia Eagles what sort of offense will we see from him because jayen Herz isn't really Dak Jaylen Herz isn't really Justin Herbert he's somewhere sort of in between with a little better style of running with a little more dynamic explosivity in the Run game and probably not as good a passer as either of those dudes so where does Kell Moore fall into play calling into schematics where he gets Jaylen Herz back to his MVP candidacy form I don't know and you have to remember when he was in Dallas and they were the number one scoring defense in the league I mean scoring offense in the league they also had a defense that turned the ball over at the highest clip in the NFL will that be the same thing in Philadelphia where they trying to find their way defensively so I don't just think that this team pops out with the with Vic fangio defensively and Kell Moore offensively as coordinators and is right back to where they were their Super Bowl year I think it this first half of this game is one of the most important games for Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia Eagles fans we can all say we all know that Philadelphia is absolutely psychotic when it comes to their football teams and we know losing five of the last six like stepen said that coach is on the hot sea you bring in an O new OC new DC but you're also losing Jason Kelce who is a massive leadership especially in the middle of that offensive line and Fletcher Cox you those those two guys keep that culture together of hey block out the noise when things aren going very well you have a lot of unique Personalities in that Eagles eagles's locker room when you get down and out in those situations and it doesn't go the way you want it to go you could possibly lose a locker room in September which is a very difficult thing to do you're not going to come back from that wait I got to ask Stephen A what you make of jayen Herz saying that Jason Kelce being under Center and calling out his past protections were actually an impediment to him learning and growing Blasphemous and figuring out that that's what he said and I'm just what he say well well I I I I will say this Taylor may have a point that may be Blasphemous because even if that was the spe spee spee speech for for for for you for for for spee come on foreign speech for for for spee foree