Philly well-aware of No. 87
eAgleS NOteBOOK
PHILADELPHIA — Safety Malcolm Jenkins never has faced Rob Gronkowski but has seen enough of him to know the Eagles secondary has its work cut out in Super Bowl LII, assuming the Patriots tight end is medically cleared to play.
“He’s the top tight end in this league for a reason.” said Jenkins, the leader of a defense that has allowed just 17 points this postseason. “He does a great job creating contact and using his body.
“He’s able to (catch) contested throws and separate from defenders. And obviously, he has a quarterback like Tom Brady who can put it in a spot where only he can get it. But I’m looking forward to the matchup.”
Gronkowski is on the Pats injury report with a concussion. He would not have participated if the team practiced yesterday.
Eagles tight end Zach Ertz believes Gronkowski has raised the bar for every player at the position.
“The guy’s a physical specimen,” said the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Ertz, Philadelphia’s leading receiver with 74 catches, 824 yards and eight touchdowns in the regular season. “He’s a freak. He’s a beast after the catch. He’s able to use his body even when he’s not open to get open with the frame he has. He’s definitely been the premier tight end in this league for a long time (and) I think he’d still be producing those numbers without Tom Brady.”
The Eagles know the Patriots are much more than Brady and Gronkowski, especially with their ability to adjust on the fly. That’s why LeGarrette Blount and Chris Long, both former Pats, won’t be able to help the Eagles by giving away Bill Belichick’s secrets.
“The Patriots do so many things,” Jenkins said. “You might have a tip, but they do a good job adjusting. Whatever you have, they’ll have an adjustment because they’re so wellcoached and well-prepared. But we adjust well, too.
Cox has experience
Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox said the Eagles learned a valuable lesson from the last time they played the Patriots, just as Jacksonville did in the AFC title game: Don’t take your foot off the pedal.
“You’ve got to play 60 minutes against them,” Cox said recalling the Eagles’ 3528 upset in Foxboro in 2015. “You can’t just play three quarters. We went down there and they almost came back and won the game.”
The fewer of those 60 minutes Brady has the ball, the better for the Eagles.
“What makes him so unique is he gets rid of the ball fast and is not going to take many hits,” Cox said. “He knows what he’s doing when the ball is snapped. It’s going to come down to guys getting after him and making him uncomfortable.”
As for having any kind of book on Brady, Jenkins said forget about it.
“Brady is one of those quarterbacks you’ve got to continually adjust to,” said Jenkins, who was sidelined by an injury his rookie season (2009) in New Orleans when the Saints won it all. “He’ll go back at halftime and adjust or do it middrive, mid-quarter.
“So everything my book on him might say three drives in, you have to throw it out.”
Uncharted waters
Unlike the Patriots, playing in a Super Bowl is new territory for all but a handful of Eagles, who say they’ll lean on advice from teammates who’ve been there like Long, Blount and former Ravens Torrey Smith and Corey Graham.
“I’ll reach out to them to find out what’s the environment like,” said quarterback Nick Foles, who started watching Brady as a teenager in Austin, Texas. “That way you get a head start. But you don’t want too many voices going through your brain.”
The Eagles want to avoid the potential pitfalls.
“Those guys have been in games like that, while a lot of us have never been in that situation,” Cox said. “I want to ask those guys what it’s like and how they kept the focus because we all know the distractions.”
Whether it works once they get to Minneapolis might be a different story.