Philadelphia Eagles: Former Steeler Javon Hargrave is the key to a win on Sunday
By David Esser
Javon Hargrave is the key to a Philadelphia Eagles win on Sunday.
After a slow start to his tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave finally made his presence felt during the team’s Week 4 win over the San Francisco 49ers. He finished the matchup with half a sack, a tackle, and a quarterback hit, and it felt like he was far more disruptive than we had seen him be through his first two games here in 2020.
Heading into a Week 5 showdown against his former team in the Steelers, Hargrave’s experience and knowledge of Pittsburgh’s dominant offensive line could prove extremely useful.
The Eagles currently lead the league in total sacks forced, but the Steelers employ one of the better pass blocking units in all of football. They do an excellent job protecting their quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and it will likely prove to be the Eagles D-Line’s biggest challenge thus far in 2020.
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Howie Roseman paid Hargrave $39 million this past offseason to come in and complete the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line. The team already employed two of the highest paid DTs in all of football in Fletcher Cox and Malik Jackson, so Hargrave’s presence was supposed to really make it impossible for opposing O-Lines to ever get a break.
That strategy didn’t really work out against the LA Rams in Week 2, but it paid off big time against the Bengals and the before mentioned 49ers.
The Eagles racked up eight sacks against Cincy and then an additional five against San Fran. QB hits, hurries, and TFLs were also stacked up left and right. Philly’s pass rush is one of the biggest reasons they haven’t lost over the last two weeks.
When asked about a matchup with his former team, Hargrave cited his desire to hit the Steelers current franchise QB. According to the 27 year old defensive tackle, he was never allowed to “touch” Big Ben during practice.
Javon Hargrave, who began his career with the Steelers, said he's looking forward to being able to finally touch Ben Roethlisberger, which was obviously not allowed in practice in Pittsburgh.
— Dave Zangaro (@DZangaroNBCS) October 8, 2020
Despite a solid performance against the Niners last week, we’ve yet to see a truly “dominant” showing from Hargrave here in 2020. He was paid quite a bit of money to play like one of the best pass rushing DTs in all of football, and lining up alongside Cox and Jackson should only be making his life easier.
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If there was ever a time for Hargrave to announce himself as a prominent member of the Philadelphia Eagles defensive line, it would be this upcoming Sunday against his former team. Not only is he now a full three weeks removed from a lingering injury, but his experience working against the Steelers O-Linemen in past practices gives him a bit of an edge. If Hargrave is successful in knocking Big Ben around a little bit (like he was never allowed to do during practice), it would help the Eagles quite a bit in terms of securing the win over their Pennsylvania counterpart.