What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 5 vs. the Broncos

The Eagles are 4-0 to start the season. They have won 20 of their last 21 games, including the postseason, since their Week 5 bye last year.

Everything’s fine, right?

When A.J. Brown is posting cryptic messages on X and star players are declining postgame interview requests, there’s reason for concern about the state of the team as they grind out wins. Nonetheless, the Eagles are one of two squads in the NFL with an unbeaten record. After playing four teams they’ve seen regularly over the last couple of seasons, the Eagles are set play an uncommon opponent in the Denver Broncos for the first time since 2021.

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Here’s what we know about the Eagles (and what we don’t) heading into their Week 5 matchup against the Broncos:

Brown had two receptions on nine (nine!) targets for 7 yards on Sunday. It’s evident the Eagles attempted to get Brown involved in the passing game, especially in the second half after he was targeted just three times in the first. Still, Brown expressed his frustration with someone (or someones) internally, according to The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane, with his postgame tweet.

We won’t know the true intention behind Brown’s bat-signal until he decides to speak about it, if at all. Regardless of who was at fault for Brown’s lack of production, that stat line isn’t good enough for an Eagles offense with aspirations of sustained success this season.

On some of those incompletions, it seemed like Jalen Hurts and his three-time Pro Bowl receiver lacked their typical chemistry. Throwing the ball to Brown in single coverage is usually a good bet for Hurts to make. But things weren’t clicking when Hurts tried to hit Brown deep downfield in his one-on-one matchups.

Hurts had three incompletions to Brown — one in the first quarter, two in the third — on vertical routes down the sideline. Both third-quarter passes landed out of bounds, while the other in the first was thrown deeper than Brown appeared to anticipate. While Hurts was nearly flawless in the first half, he struggled in the second, and those two low-percentage throws were not the easy-button plays that were going to pull the offense out of a rut.

Through four games, Brown has just 150 receiving yards and a touchdown on 14 catches. His 37.8 yards per game is a single-season career low (by far — his next lowest average is 76.8 in 2020 with the Tennessee Titans). The Eagles are winning, but it seems as if Brown wants to make more of an impact. He’ll face another challenge next week when he matches up against two-time All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain II, who limited Cincinnati Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase to just one reception for 8 yards when they were matched up against each other on Monday night.

That might not seem all that impressive considering Jake Browning was the quarterback attempting to pass the ball to Chase. But according to Next Gen Stats, Surtain has matched up with Chase on 54 routes in his career, allowing four receptions on nine targets for 35 yards. Can Brown rebound against a difficult, albeit uncommon opponent?

If Bo Nix took a DNA test, would it reveal any relation to Baker Mayfield?

Maybe if Vic Fangio was administering it. The Eagles defensive coordinator called Nix, the Broncos’ 25-year-old quarterback, Mayfield’s “younger brother” on Tuesday due to their similar styles of play.

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“He’s a scrambler, he’s a competitor,” Fangio said of Nix. “He’ll throw the ball in tight places. He runs their offense really well. I think [Broncos head coach] Sean’s [Payton] done a great job bringing him along and they got their quarterback for the future. They looked long and hard for many years and they’ve got one.”

The Eagles have already faced a pair of quarterbacks in Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes who are adept at extending plays, and now they’ll encounter another on Sunday in Nix. Defending those scramble-drill plays on Sunday against the Buccaneers became an issue for Fangio’s defense, both up front and in the secondary.

Early in the second quarter, the four-man rush lost contain of Mayfield three seconds after the ball was snapped. He scrambled to his right with Za’Darius Smith in pursuit, then connected with wide receiver Emeka Egbuka down the sideline for a gain of 18 yards. The receiver had shaken Cooper DeJean in coverage at the last second to make the play.

Late in the third quarter, Mayfield had well over five seconds to throw a scramble-drill pass down the sideline to running back Bucky Irving, who slipped past Jihaad Campbell in coverage. Irving caught Mayfield’s 24-yard catch, then racked up another 48 yards with the ball in his hands on his way to the end zone.

The rookie linebacker took ownership for the touchdown after the game, stating that he needed to do a better job of plastering his man. Still, that’s a difficult assignment for a linebacker to execute for long. Outside linebacker Joshua Uche forced Mayfield off his spot, but again, the quarterback managed to evade the Eagles’ four-man rush and find Irving.

Pressure isn’t enough against quarterbacks like Mayfield and Nix who can extend plays — defenses must find a way to bring them down. The Eagles are going to need more contributions from a depleted edge rusher corps that has just a half sack this season (Smith in Week 2).

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That isn’t going to be an easy task against a Broncos offensive line that has conceded just three sacks this season (tied for the second fewest in the NFL). According to Next Gen Stats, Nix has been pressured on just 21.9% of his drop backs through four games, the third-lowest rate in the league. Even when under duress against the Bengals (on just 15.9% of his drop backs), Nix still completed six of seven passes for 88 yards and a touchdown.

Just two years ago, the Eagles had a revolving door at inside linebacker. When the Eagles faced the Buccaneers in Week 3 of the 2023 season, Zach Cunningham and Nicholas Morrow were the starters with Nakobe Dean out injured. Before the start of the season, though, they had their sights set on Myles Jack, who retired before the cutdown deadline. They acquired Shaquille Leonard midseason from the Indianapolis Colts.

To call the linebacker situation untenable at the time would have been a euphemism.

Sunday’s game was another reminder that the Eagles are in a vastly different place with their linebacker corps. Zack Baun has picked up where he left off following his breakout, All-Pro 2024 campaign, ranking second on the team in tackles (30, including a team-high two for losses).

But Baun’s continued success isn’t so surprising. It’s arguably more noteworthy that through just four games, it seems like Howie Roseman has hit on another first-round pick in Campbell, who caught his first career interception against the Bucs. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound rookie inside linebacker missed part of the offseason program while recovering from shoulder surgery and is already making an impact as a starter.

Aforementioned coverage bust aside, Campbell has impressed with the Eagles, flaunting the size and speed he was touted for throughout the pre-draft process. Next Gen Stats credited him with four “stops,” which are defined as tackles that result in a successful play for the defense. He tied for second on the team in that metric with Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell (Baun led with seven), which is nice company to share.

Campbell flashed his skill set in the run game, especially on a third-quarter stop on running back Rachaad White. That continued growth from Campbell in the run game is going to be important against the Broncos, who finally have a solid duo on the ground in J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey. Dobbins became the team’s first 100-yard rusher since 2023 with his 101-yard performance against the Bengals.

After all, the Eagles’ run defense numbers through four weeks haven’t been impressive. Fangio’s group ranks No. 26 in the NFL in yards per attempt allowed at 4.8.

Through the first four games of the season, the phrase “finding ways to win” has been thrown around by members of the 2025 Eagles. Scarred fans may recall those same words characterized the early going for the 2023 Eagles, a team that started 10-1, then collapsed down the stretch with a 1-6 record, including the playoffs.

To end on an optimistic note, the issues that plagued the current team and the one from two years ago aren’t the same, especially from a defensive standpoint. Two years ago, Sean Desai was removed from his post as defensive coordinator at midseason and was replaced with Matt Patricia. An already-lowly defense didn’t get any better under Patricia. The personnel was lacking, too, with the likes of Morrow, Cunningham, Kevin Byard, Terrell Edmunds, and Bradley Roby playing significant snaps.

» READ MORE: Eagles open as early favorites against Broncos; Super Bowl and NFC East odds improve for Philly

Fangio is not Desai nor Patricia. The 2025 Eagles personnel is a vast improvement over the 2023 corps at most of the starting positions, especially at the second and third levels of the defense.

Yes, there are reasons for concern about the current squad, but they’ve won four straight games against opponents with a combined 9-6-1 record. They just completed what was arguably their most difficult four-game stretch of the season. This next four-game stretch — against an uncommon opponent in the Broncos and two shaky opponents in the New York Giants (twice) and the Minnesota Vikings — could provide a chance for the Eagles to establish their identities on both sides of the ball.