Eagles need nothing short of domination from Nolan Smith, Jaelan Phillips, and Jalyx Hunt against vulnerable Justin Herbert

It won’t be Jalen Hurts or Saquon Barkley.

It won’t be Nick Sirianni or Kevin Patullo.

It won’t even be Jordan Davis or Moro Ojomo.

All will have plenty to prove against the Chargers. But none will have more than the guys whose primary responsibility is putting the quarterback on his back. The most important players on the field Monday night will be the Eagles edge rushers.

The pressure is on the pressure.

Or, rather, the pressure-ers.

Jaelan Phillips, Nolan Smith, Jalyx Hunt. These are the names you will need to hear with regularity against the Chargers. We haven’t heard them nearly enough this season.

Through 12 games, the Eagles have gotten just eight sacks combined out of their edge rushers.

True, five of them have come in the last five games, a stretch that has seen Smith return from injured reserve and Phillips arrive via trade from the Dolphins. But it still isn’t enough. Three years ago, Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, and Brandon Graham combined for 38 sacks, an average of more than two per game. That’s the kind of output the Eagles should be expecting on Monday night.

» READ MORE: Eagles vs. Chargers: Predictions, odds, playoff standings, injuries, and what everyone is talking about

Rarely have the Eagles faced an opponent so ripe for the picking. The Chargers have been a mess up front all season. In late August, they lost starting left tackle Rashawn Slater to a season-ending knee injury. A month ago, they lost All-Pro right tackle Joe Alt to a season-ending ankle injury. In the four games since Alt went down, the Chargers have allowed a remarkable 17 sacks. That included three last week against the Raiders, a game that ended with Justin Herbert nursing a broken non-throwing hand.

This should be a get-right game for the Eagles’ most underperforming unit. That’s true regardless of who is under center — or in shotgun, or in the pistol — on the other side of the line of scrimmage. It will be especially true if that player is Herbert, who is reportedly preparing to play despite undergoing surgery to repair a broken bone in his left hand early last week.

The Eagles have already seen firsthand what Herbert can do when given an ample amount of time to throw. The Chargers veteran shredded them during Sirianni’s first season as coach, completing 32 of 38 passes for 356 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-24 win in Week 9. That afternoon was one of the 11 times in Herbert’s career that he was not sacked. The Chargers are 9-2 with a plus-110 point differential in those 11 games.

It goes without saying that none of those games has occurred this season. Herbert has been sacked multiple times in 11 of 12 of his starts in 2025, with three-plus sacks in eight. Heading into Sunday, the Chargers were one of five teams in the NFL to allow five-plus sacks in at least four games. At 8-4, they are the only one of those teams with a winning record. The other four have combined to go 10-38.

» READ MORE: Jeff McLane’s keys to Eagles vs. Chargers in Week 14: What you need to know and a prediction

The Eagles need to take advantage. Whatever the overall numbers say, they have more than enough talent on the edge to be a deciding factor Monday night. We’ve seen flashes of dominance from the group. Apart from maybe the cornerbacks, the Eagles’ edge rushers were the best unit on the field in back-to-back victories over the Packers and Lions. In a 10-7 win over Green Bay in Week 10, the group combined for two sacks, three tackles for losses, and five quarterback hits against Jordan Love. The following week, Phillips and Hunt combined for five hits on Lions quarterback Jared Goff, including Phillips’ first sack in an Eagles uniform. The pressure on Goff was one of the biggest reasons the veteran completed just 14 of 37 passes with an interception.

But those two wins feel like a distant memory, don’t they? For the first time in the Vic Fangio era, the Eagles are coming off back-to-back games of 400-plus yards of total offense allowed. Two weeks ago, Dak Prescott was way too comfortable while completing 23 of 36 passes for 354 yards. Last week, the Bears gashed them for a ridiculous 281 rushing yards, with running backs D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai combining for 255 yards on 40 carries.

The four truest words in the NFL came out of Jordan Davis’ mouth earlier this week.

“It’s a copycat league,” the Eagles defensive tackle said.

With Herbert ailing and the Chargers pass protection in shambles and the Eagles taking the field without All-World defensive tackle Jalen Carter, we should expect to see Greg Roman do as Sean McVay and Ben Johnson did before him.

“We’ve got to play the run well enough to where they just don’t run it a bunch,” Fangio said. “They run it, and like most teams that run it well, they have a good play-action game, and not give up the shots in the play-action passing game, which they do a good job of.”

» READ MORE: The Chargers are ready for Vic Fangio’s defense — and aren’t worried about Justin Herbert’s hand injury

But stopping the run can only carry you so far against a quarterback like Herbert. The Eagles need to put themselves in a position to pummel him as thoroughly as the rules allow. They need Smith to be the guy he was down the stretch last season, when he recorded 10½ sacks in his last 16 games, including four in the playoffs. They need Phillips to be the guy he was against the Packers.

The best offense is a good defense. And the best defense is a great pass rush.