Philadelphia Eagles: Stock Watch versus the New England Patriots
Stock down: Nick Mullens
If Nick Mullens is still a member of the Philadelphia Eagles when the team trims their roster down from 85 to 80 by 4 pm on August 24th, it’ll be incredible.
After turning in an ugly two-interception performance in the Birds’ preseason debut, Mullens looked about as gunshy in the pocket as a duck on Carson Wentz’s property – too soon? – and took a particularly brutal coverage sack because he was too afraid to throw it up out of the fear that it would come down in the hands of a New England Patriot.
Once a quarterback starts to get afraid of throwing the ball, you know you are in one serious mess.
Despite playing for a full half, Mullens finished out the game going 5-10 for 27 yards and an interception, good for a QBR of 16.7 on a scale of 0-100. He was also sacked three times – four if you count his ugly showing on 4th-and-11 at the 3:34 mark of the fourth quarter that was negated by a defensive holding – and just generally looked like the sort of player who probably isn’t worthy of a practice squad spot, let alone a spot on the 53 man roster.
Stock up: Free agent quarterbacks
In a game where Nick Mullens turned in an absolute dud, and Joe Flacco didn’t exactly look like the second coming of, well, of Joe Flacco circa 2012, many a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles was crying out to Nick Sirianni, to Howie Roseman, to anyone for someone, anyone to get under center and complete a few consecutive passes.
Some wanted Greg Ward to breakout the single-digit number and revert to his ball-slingin’ Houston Cougars glory days, while others opined for Josh Rosen – whoever could that have been? – to finally play for his childhood favorite team.
Will we see either of those situations actually come to fruition? Well, I’d certainly put more stock into the latter than the former, but ultimately, I’d say there’s a darn good chance that someone new will be a member of the Eagles’ quarterbacks room before the week is through, even if they didn’t have the ingenuity to put a hot tub in their UCLA dorm room.
*sigh* I wonder if Howie Roseman still has Jamie Newman‘s number?