No quarterback in the NFL saw as much of the Philadelphia Eagles defense as Jayden Daniels this season, and the Washington Commanders quarterback has some advice for the Kansas City Chiefs about how to beat the unit in Super Bowl 59.
Daniels faced the Eagles three times during his spectacular rookie campaign, including in the NFC Championship Game. He went 1-2 and experienced mixed fortunes in those contests, but Daniels thinks he knows the keys to unlocking Philadelphia’s defense.
Speaking to Dianna Russini of The Athletic on the “Scoop City” podcast, Daniels explained how “you gotta, however it is, you gotta try to take away the front that the Eagles have. Obviously, you got Jalen Carter. You gotta try to slow him down. I mean, that’s what you do with great players, so try to slow him down and find completions. The Eagles, they pride themselves on negative plays.”
Daniels admitted there isn’t much he can tell Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl winner who’s about to play in the big game for the fifth time. Yet, Daniels urged Mahomes and Co. to “take away the negative plays. I mean, they feed off of that, and just go out there and just be you.”
That’s sound advice when Mahomes being Mahomes has turned the Chiefs into a dynasty. One with a chance to three-peat.
While Daniels won’t have told Mahomes and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid anything they don’t already know about the Eagles, the Commanders’ experiences on the field can provide some invaluable teaching tape.
Jayden Daniels Endured Mixed Fortunes vs. Eagles Defense
Beating the Eagles’ defense is “tough” because, as Daniels explained to NFL Network’s Maurice Jones-Drew, “those guys are playing with swagger, confidence, They’re flying around, making plays on the ball.”
Daniels experienced true highs and lows against the Eagles during the regular season. He threw 25 incompletions and three interceptions, while also taking four sacks, across two games.
Numbers from StatMuse also show Daniels was held to less than seven yards per attempt in both meetings. What’s interesting is how the Eagles went against the grain to keep Daniels frustrated.
Specifically, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio chose not to blitz Daniels in Week 11’s meeting at Lincoln Financial Field. Instead, Philly rushed four and rotated coverages during a 26-18 win.
This approach was different than the blitz-heavy schemes the Pittsburgh Steelers had used to figure Daniels out a week earlier. Fangio tried his own version of a blitzing defense when the Eagles met the Commanders again, this time on the road in Week 16, but Daniels responded with five touchdown passes.
Those scoring strikes prompted a new approach based on two- and four-deep coverage shells with the conference title at stake. Fangio again relied on his front four to generate pressure ahead of a zone-heavy secondary.
It worked beautifully on plays like this one highlighted by Russini’s colleague Ted Nguyen.
The same combination of a four-man rush and changing zones could be a problem for the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
Chiefs Can Learn Lessons from Commanders
Daniels was learning on the fly against the Eagles and veteran play-caller Fangio, but Mahomes knows better. He’s “8-0 against Fangio,” but Mahomes “has only thrown 10 total touchdown passes in those games with no more than 2 touchdowns in any of them,” according to Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis.
Mahomes has responded well to Fangio’s knack for making offenses put long drives together. Not many teams can do it without committing mistakes and experiencing the kind of negative plays Daniels urged the Chiefs to avoid.
As Sharp Football Analysis owner Warren Sharp described, “Vic Fangio’s defense is built on preventing big plays & forcing methodical marches downfield that would frustrate prior versions of KC’s offense not this KC team in 2024, KC is #2 of 192 teams since 2019 in rate of passes thrown at or behind the line of scrimmage (31%).”
Moving the chains in small increments can keep Mahomes out of long-yardage, third-down situations. The type of situations when Fangio likes to play Cover 6, per Hribar, who detailed how “Philadelphia leads the NFL in Cover 6 on passing plays (18.6%) and is fifth in the league in rate of Cover 4 (18.6% of passing plays).”
Hribar also pointed out “Mahomes has 141 dropbacks this season against Cover 4 and Cover 6 looks. On those plays, he is averaging only 6.6 Y/A (32nd).”
Keeping Mahomes out of obvious passing situations will require slowing down the Eagles front four. Specifically, Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jalen Carter.
Fortunately, the Commanders showed one way it’s possible, albeit temporarily. It helps to show Carter different looks, like by using a tight end to wham block, just as Washington did on this play in the NFC Championship Game, per ESPN’s Benjamin Solak.
Daniels and the Commanders came up on the short end of their three-game tussle against the Eagles’ defense, but what they learned could inform the Chiefs and decide this Super Bowl.
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