By Michael Donovan
If you’re looking for a game-changing match-up in tonight Eagles-Dallas scrum, you could do a lot worse than:
CeeDee Lamb vs. CB Darius Slay
Lamb and Amari Cooper have both seen a high volume of targets from Dak Prescott through the first two weeks of the season.
Both have commanded 20-plus targets, but Lamb has been more efficient from a yards-per-route-run perspective (2.5) despite dropping two passes.
Here’s how PFF looks at it:
PFF’s WR/CB matchup chart projects Lamb to see Slay at left cornerback for the majority of his snaps against an Eagles defense that has run significantly less man coverage this season. Their 5% Cover 1 rate entering Week 3 ranks last in the league.
Slay has had success in that new scheme, allowing just 36 passing yards into his coverage on 11 targets thus far.
Jalen Hurts’ starting job entering the year was far from secure, but he’s done himself nothing but favors with his play through Week 2. Only Tom Brady has a higher PFF grade (93.0) than Hurts (87.5) among quarterbacks entering Week 3.
The two big areas where he’s shown improvement over 2020 are accuracy and care with the football. Hurts’ accurate pass rate, based on PFF’s ball-charting data, is 71% this season after being just 50% in 2020. And his turnover-worthy play rate has dropped from 4.6% in 2020 to 1.4% through the first two weeks of this season.
That kind of play makes Philly a threat in what appears to once again be an open race in the NFC East.
