It's the first Wentz Day of the 2019 regular season. The quarterback will meet with reporters later this morning at 11:50 a.m. before the team's practice ahead of Sunday's opener against Washington. In the meantime, get caught up on all of the latest Eagles news in our Morning Roundup presented by Microsoft.
1. Fletcher Cox gets his due
NFL Network's Cynthia Frelund crafted a stat called win share that "measures the contribution of each player, position group, and side of the ball for every snap in an NFL season." It's essentially football's version of wins above replacement in baseball or plus-minus in basketball.
In projecting the 2019 results, Frelund ranked defensive tackle Fletcher Cox as the third-most valuable player on defense behind only Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and Bears edge rusher Khalil Mack.
"Next Gen Stats attributes 60 pressures to Cox when he was lined up as an interior defender (second-most among all interior defenders, behind only Aaron Donald's 65)," Frelund wrote. "My computer vision shows Cox also ranked second in disruptions as an interior defender last season."
2. Doug Pederson focused on a fast start
The head coach talks to the media at 10:30 this morning, which we will carry live, but he explained to Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro how the team worked on starting fast in 2019.
Two seasons ago, the Eagles were among the best teams in the NFL with 106 points in the first quarter. Last year, that number dipped to 41 points, among the worst first-quarter performances in the league.
That has to change, Pederson said.
"It does and it's something we've worked on all summer," he said. "It really helps our team when we start fast and get out there into a rhythm quickly. That goes for every team."
3. What's the most memorable season opener in recent Eagles history?
Tuesday marked the anniversary of the Pickle Juice Game, where Duce Staley rushed for a career-high 201 yards in a 41-14 rout of the Dallas Cowboys.
Tommy Lawlor looked back at the past 30 years of season openers, including how last year's was unlike any in Eagles history:
The Eagles were defending Super Bowl Champs, so they got the honor of playing on Thursday night and hanging the Super Bowl banner at Lincoln Financial Field. That was definitely a party atmosphere.
The game was a tense, hard-fought affair. The Eagles were down 6-3 in the third quarter and the offense just couldn't get going. Pederson dialed up a trick play and had Agholor throw a pass to Nick Foles. It wasn't exactly the Philly Special, but it gave the Eagles 15 yards and a huge emotional boost. They scored a pair of touchdowns after that and won the game 18-12.
