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Smallwood: Eagles are the best NFL surprise so far

    by John Smallwood
    Published 
BECAUSE THE EAGLES and the Green Bay Packers are coming off bye weeks, the entire NFL has not played the four games that would mark the quarter point of the 2016 season.
Still, some obervations can be made about which teams and players have started well and which have not.

Best surprise start

The Eagles don’t play their fourth game until Sunday at Detroit, but it’s hard to find more than a handful of eternal optimists who thought this team would be 3-0.
It’s not just that the Birds traded their projected starting quarterback eight days before the first game. It’s that they weren’t predicted to be that good even with Sam Bradford as the quarterback.
For a rookie head coach in Doug Pederson to win his first three games with a rookie quarterback in Carson Wentz (more on him later) running the show is  The only other rookie coach/quarterback tandem to start the season at 3-0 were Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez in 2009.
The Eagles have the stingiest defense in the league as far as yielding points and have not committed a turnover. They lead the league in point differential at plus-65.
Other teams off to surprisingly quick starts are the Oakland Raiders (3-1); the Dallas Cowboys (3-1) with rookie quarterback Dak Prescott filling in for the injured Tony Romo; and the Los Angeles Rams (3-1).

Worst surprise start

Flip a coin between the teams that played in the 2016 NFC Championship Game — the Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals, which are both 1-3.
I’ll pick the Super Bowl runner-up Panthers. Carolina looks in disarray and NFL MVP Cam Newton keeps getting hit like he is a tackling dummy.
After leading the NFL with a point differential of plus-192, the Panthers are a minus-9 despite being fifth in the league in points scored.

Most valuable player

We could make a homer pick and go with Carson Wentz, but that would not be fair to Penn Charter graduate Matt Ryan.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback has been stunning by completing 101 of 140 passes (72.1 percent) for a league-high 1,473 yards with a league-tying 11 touchdowns and just two interceptions. Ryan is averaging 368.3 passing yards a game and has a passer rating of 126.3.

Rookie of the year

Who else but Carson Wentz? Well, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot, who leads the league with 412 rushing yards despite playing with a rookie quarterback, could make a case, but he is not playing at a historic level like Wentz.
Playing the numbers game, Wentz is just the 27th quarterback in NFL history to start a season 3-0 without throwing an interception. He is the first rookie to throw his first 100 passes without an interception.
Wentz has a rating of 103.8 — the highest for any rookie who threw at least 100 passes in his first three games since the NFL/AFL merger.
Most importantly, Wentz, who barely played in the preseason because of injury, and didn’t get the starting job until Bradford was traded, has led the Eagles to an undefeated start.

Coach of the year

Nobody expected the Eagles to be undefeated after three games so rookie head coach Doug Pederson has to be considered.
After getting shut out by San Francisco to open the new era in Los Angeles, Jeff Fisher has the Rams on a three-game winning streak.
However, even though Denver coach Gary Kubiak has a Super Bowl champion defense, the Broncos have gotten to 4-0 with second-year quarterback Trevor Siemian, who had never thrown an NFL pass until the season-opener against Carolina.
Broncos leading rusher C.J. Anderson is ranked 16th with 252 yards and 31st in yards per rush (3.5).
Denver ranks 23rd in passing offense, 14th in rushing offense and 21st in total offense, but Kubiak has still pulled 111 points out of the Broncos, which ranks fourth.

    JS
    John Smallwood
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