Philadelphia Eagles: Make Trevor Siemian win through the air

Mark Ingram is both one of the newest and most tenured players on the New Orleans Saints.

How is that possible? Well, it’s sort of complicated.

The 28th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft out of Alabama, Ingram played the first eight years of his professional career as a member of the Saints – including two Pro Bowl campaigns – before signing with the Baltimore Ravens in free agency in 2019 and the Houston Texans again two years later.

From there, he was traded back to New Orleans after the 2021 iteration of the Houston Texans quickly fell out of playoff contention and is now set to take the field for his fourth game back in a black and gold uniform when the Saints head to the Linc in Week 11, playing for a team that looks markedly different than the one he left a few years back.

Why, you may ask, is this exposition relevant? Well, because if the Philadelphia Eagles are wise, they’ll make sure Mark Ingram has very little impact on their forthcoming game and instead force his backfield partner, Trevor Siemian, to win it through the air.

The Philadelphia Eagles need to make the Saints’ offense one-dimensional.

Trevor Siemian is one of the least likely starting quarterbacks in the NFL today.

A former seventh-round pick out of Northwestern in 2015, Siemian is on his fifth team in as many years and hasn’t been tasked with leading a team for an extended period of time since he appeared in 11 games with 10 starts for the Denver Broncos in 2017.

Do you know what the Broncos’ record was during Seimian’s run back in 2017? That’d be a 5-5 run with a 12:14 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

So, needless to say, after spending most of the 2020 season on the Tennessee Titans’ practice squad, no one is more surprised than Siemian to be back in a starting lineup, a situation spurned on by Drew Brees’ retirement and injuries to both Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill.

But here he is, and over the past two weeks, Siemian has thrown for at least 249 yards and two touchdowns versus the Atlanta Falcons and his former team, the Tennessee Titans.

That’s the bad news for the Philadelphia Eagles. The good news? Both of those performances came in losing efforts.

Now granted, those losses were both close, with the Saints dropping both by a two-point margin, but when Sean Payton needed Siemian to step up, he just wasn’t able to make enough plays to secure the win.

In a game where Terron Armstead, Ryan Ramczyk, and Alvin Kamara are all out, the Eagles need to force the ball in Seimian’s hands as much as possible and collapse the pocket as often as possible.

Because of his limited mobility, Siemian has been sacked six times over the last three games, including a brutal four-sack contest versus Tennessee without his bookend tackles. While the Eagles’ offensive line has really only turned in a marquee effort versus the Detroit Lions, they’ll have plenty of chances to get Josh Sweat, Derek Barnett, and even Milton Williams into the backfield if Jonathan Gannon calls a defensive plan.

*Note to Jonathan Gannon: Blitz!*

In Mark Ingram, the New Orleans Saints have a consistent mover of the ball. He’s averaging four years per carry on 9.7 attempts per game and even recorded a touchdown in Week 10. Trevor Siemian, by contrast, is completing 57.7 percent of his passes and has proven to be an incredibly inconsistent mover of the ball, even if he’s been oddly clutch at the end of games. If the Philadelphia Eagles are wise, they’ll give him a hard time early and often and force the 29-year-old to play catchup for much of the afternoon.