Welcome to this week’s edition of the NFC East notebook. After a long off-season, week one is finally upon us. Let’s take some news and notes from this last week around the division leading up to this weekend’s regular season action.
Dallas Cowboys
After a late-season ACL tear for Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Gallup, most believed it was almost certain that Gallup would miss some time to start this season. It seems like players are coming back from ACL injuries faster than ever before as Mike McCarthy still has not ruled out the possibility of Gallup coming back for Week 1.
“I thought his workout was excellent really the last two days,” head coach Mike McCarthy said as he spoke to the media. “… He has checked every box the whole way. ... Physically he looks really good. But we don’t have a timeframe (for his return). That will answer itself. But we’ve been very encouraged by the work.”
When asked about playing against Tampa Bay, McCarthy left the door open.
“Well, if he practices today, we’ll talk about it,”
While Jerry Jones previously all but shut the door on Gallup coming back, stating that Gallup would play if Sunday were the Super Bowl, but added, “We want to be conservative with him. … He won’t be out there, more than likely, against Tampa.”
There still seem to be question marks surrounding the wide receivers in Dallas outside of CeeDee Lamb. The Cowboys will welcome Gallup back as soon as possible with open arms.
Speaking of welcoming a player, Dallas has made the Jason Peters signing official. If fans were hoping Peters would just plug right in though, they might have to adjust expectations. Speaking with the media, Peters offered some insight on when he will be ready to make his Cowboy debut.
Jason Peters says he had some options to play elsewhere but wanted to go where we was valued.
— Kyle Youmans (@Kyle_Youmans) September 5, 2022
Said it’ll be a couple weeks until he’s ready, but he’s already passing along knowledge to Tyler Smith and young OL #DallasCowboys #NFL
This will rule him out against the Buccaneers and mean it is highly unlikely that he will play week two against the Bengals. That will leave his target week to most likely be week three against your New York Giants on Monday Night Football as his Cowboy debut.
- See SB Nation’s Blogging The Boys for more about the Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
Jalen Reagor has received a fresh start with the Minnesota Vikings after two tumultuous years with the Philadelphia Eagles. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman opened up on the pick with 94WIP and explained the thought process that went into selecting Reagor over his new teammate Justin Jefferson.
“You go back to that moment and we had two tight ends that were really good in the middle of the field, Greg Ward was coming off a really good year in the slot, and so we were looking for a specific role as opposed to just kind of grading the players. And that’s on me, 100 percent. At the end of the day, I’m responsible for all that. I take responsibility, but I also promise you one thing, if I make a mistake, I’m going to do everything in my power to make it up.”
It’s nice insight from Roseman to open up about the process that went into the selection of Reagor. It also gives a little more insight into what could be read into with draft classes that followed that pick. Roseman seems to have learned to pivot to going off of grades with the selection of Jordan Davis this past spring, even though there were already Javon Hargrave and Fletcher Cox on the roster.
Speaking of Hargrave, there is some speculation that he could be a possible extension candidate for the Eagles. After restructuring multiple players including Lane Johnson, Bleeding Green Nation’s Alexis Chassen thought it was interesting that Javon Hargrave was not one of the players restructured.
“It’s worth noting that Javon Hargrave’s contract remains untouched, which is surprising. His contract seems like an obvious choice to either be restructured or extended assuming they want to keep him in Philadelphia beyond the 2022 season. The Eagles did convert nearly $12 million of his 2021 salary into a signing bonus, but they also added another voidable contract year, so they either don’t see a benefit to another restructure or maybe aren’t planning to keep him around long term.”
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler though, believes Hargrave is still a possible extension candidate.
“The Eagles like to do extensions for key players around the start of the season (Jordan Mailata, Josh Sweat last year), and Hargrave, coming off a Pro Bowl year, seems like a logical candidate.”
Hargrave is coming off a 7.5-sack campaign for the Eagles in his first season with the team after leaving the Pittsburgh Steelers. It will be interesting to see what the team decides to do with one of the more productive members of its defensive front. Hargrave signed a three-year contract with the team which added a void year in 2023, so it will be interesting to see how this story unfolds.
- See SB Nation’s Bleeding Green Nation for more about the Eagles
Washington Commanders
It didn’t take long for Ryan Kerrigan to find something after signing a one-day contract to announce his retirement with the Washington Commanders. It looks like now he will be joining Ron Rivera’s staff as an assistant defensive line coach for the team, a move the head coach called “a no brainer.”
Ron Rivera addressing the media now. He opened up by calling the addition of Ryan Kerrigan to the coaching staff "a no-brainer." He could see how much Kerrigan loved the game, and the players really gravitated towards him
— Zach Selby (@ZachSelbyWC) September 5, 2022
Rivera is looking forward to seeing the influence Kerrigan will have on the younger players like James Smith-Williams and Shaka Toney. They have two qualified former players in Kerrigan and Jeff Zgonina who they can learn from
— Zach Selby (@ZachSelbyWC) September 5, 2022
Kerrigan is the team’s franchise leader in sacks and was a consistent presence coming off the edge for the decade he was there. Rivera is banking on the veteran leadership Kerrigan provided while with the team as a player to translate over and help motivate and young and talented defensive line.
Speaking of the defensive line, star edge rusher Chase Young was in the news cycle when he reportedly aggravated his knee injury at Von Miller’s pass rush summit. It caused a whirlwind of stories and articles about how the team was upset with Young over going to the camp. It turns out though that none of this was actually true.
This is false. Young was not invited to Von Miller's Pass Rush Summit because they knew he was rehabbing from his knee injury. The only Washington player that attended was Daron Payne.
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) September 7, 2022
I was told Young is still on track with his recovery. https://t.co/SuPJ8t9CRG
Young will still miss the first four weeks of the season since he was placed on the PUP list, though Commanders fans will take that after the news cycle this upcoming week.
- See SB Nation’s Hogs Haven for more about the Commanders
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