Sub-radar Eagles who will exceed expectations during this playoff push

Eagles defensive end Tarron Jackson

One of those questions that we can’t stop asking is this. What’s going on with Josh Sweat? Sure, we thought this would be a breakout season. It hasn’t been what we thought it would be, but he’s had some moments. We expect those moments to come with more frequency in the home stretch.

Part of the reason we believe that will happen is we believe there’s a possibility that Tarron Jackson will be seen a tad more down the stretch. No one seems to be stating this, but he’s good enough to take some of the pressure off of his teammates when he’s in the defensive line’s rotation.

Throughout the Eagles’ last three games, he’s been teetering around 19 snaps or so. That’s, roughly, been a little over 32 percent of the defense’s total. Now some of the reason for that was, most recently, the Birds played the New York Jets and were blowing them out. It’s deeper than that though.

Jackson is beginning to earn the trust and respect of his teammates and coaches, and they’d be wise to give the snaps that are going to Ryan Kerrigan to Tarron Jackson. Like Williams, what he’s doing isn’t necessarily lighting up the stat sheet. Like Williams, his first career sack came versus the Detroit Lions in Week 8, but here’s a trait that he and Williams both also share.

Howie may have done the Eagles organization by bringing these guys in. They’re young. They’re talented. They may not be ready to take the torch yet, but they’re good role players that figure to make some noise down the stretch in this playoff push. We’re expecting some big plays.