The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers are two of the NFL’s youngest teams. In fact, they might as well be college programs, according to ESPN analyst Ryan Clark.
“The Philadelphia Eagles are the team that the NIL and transfer portal absolutely gutted,” said Clark, a 13-year NFL veteran and Super Bowl champion, on Thursday’s NFL Live. “They’re just trying to find new pieces and get people where they can place them in. ‘We needed corners, we needed a linebacker.’ So they’re trying to figure this thing out.”
After an epic collapse to close last season, Philadelphia replaced coordinators on each side of the ball, hiring Kellen Moore on offense and Vic Fangio on defense. And among a flurry of personnel moves, the Eagles also brought back safety C.J. Garnder-Johnson, drafted nickelback Quinyon Mitchell in the first round and signed middle linebacker Devin White, who won’t play tonight. When Green Bay has the ball tonight (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock), Clark sees significant Packers advantages.
“The Green Bay Packers are the blueblood college team that only needs to go out and find one spot,” Clark contrasted. “They just needed Josh Jacobs because they already had Romeo Doubs. They already had Christian Watson and Dontayvion Wicks and Jayden Reed and Luke Musgrave. And so they just added one more piece that makes them better.
“So if I was the athletic director of the Philadelphia Eagles, I would’ve been calling the athletic director of the Green Bay Packers and, ‘I don’t want to play y’all. Can y’all please send Morgan State here and I’m going to pay them $2 million so we can play against them.’”
Green Bay gave quarterback Jordan Love a lot more than $2 million this offseason. With Love locked up and locked in, the Packers roll into tonight’s opener after winning seven of their final nine games last year, including a 48-32 triumph at Dallas and a 24-21 Divisional Round loss at San Francisco.
Clark sees that momentum carrying over into Brazil, the NFL’s first-ever game in South America.
“That’s how bad the matchup can be when you’re talking about a secondary that’s trying to get used to playing with one another, and the Green Bay Packers, who finished the season on a high, ascending as their young quarterback got better, working with many of his younger players on that offense. And you expect Devin White to be a player this year and he’s even out for the first game.”