There will be Tweaks to Eagles' "System" With Gardner Minshew at Quarterback

There are ways the Eagles could tweak their game plan without Jalen Hurts playing against the Cowboys

PHILADELPHIA – Jalen Hurts has been removed from the Eagles’ offensive system and Gardner Minshew will be plugged in.

Seamless, right?

Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons seems to think so. He inferred last week on Von Miller's podcast that Hurts was a system quarterback and along with that comes the inference that anybody could play it.

Analyst Chris Simms echoed that.

The Eagles shouldn’t skip a beat then when they visit the Cowboys (Saturday, 4:25 p.m./FOX) looking to wrap up a division title and a No. 1 seed in the playoffs, right? That is if you prescribe to Parsons and Simms's fantastical theories. 

There will be tweaks to the system, though.

Minshew can’t do what Hurts does with his legs, and probably can’t do everything that Hurts can do with his arm, either.

To win this game, and render the final two games of the regular season – both at home – meaningless, head coach Nick Sirianni and his staff will need to tailor a game plan to suit Minshew’s strengths and limit his weaknesses.

There is a two-game sample size for doing that last year when Minshew beat the Jets then, with mostly reserves playing because the Eagles had already clinched a playoff spot, lost to the Cowboys in the season finale

Here’s what Saturday’s game plan could look like:

Run Miles Sanders. In last year’s game against the Jets, the running back had a career-high 24 carries with what was then a career-high 120 yards.

“The whole running back room, definitely roles will probably be a little bit bigger, but we’ll see,” said Sanders. “We’ll just take what the defense gives us and play each play one at a time.”

Less RPOs: The Cowboys had trouble handling it in losing round one of this rivalry game earlier in the season. This time, they won’t have to worry much about it. In 22 career 22 starts, Minshew’s best rushing game was 56 yards, but that was as a rookie and it came in his second start.

Not to say there won’t be a few times that Minshew will run the RPO and hand off or try to sweep the corner, but the prudent thing to do is operate the inside zone run with Sanders and let an offensive line with five Pro Bowlers on it do what it does best – run block.

Involve Dallas Goedert. A lot. Like Sanders, the tight end caught what was then a career-high 105 yards to go along with two touchdowns on six catches. Goedert hasn’t played since getting hurt on Nov. 14. He’s fresh, he’s healthy, and he has chemistry with Minshew.

“I got to do routes-on-air with him, I got to do scout team with him a little bit,” said Goedert. “So, I got that early connection with him, and then I’ll probably remind him a couple of times about what happened last year. Hopefully, he feels the same, and that I can get the rock a little bit.”

Before Goedert git hurt, the Eagles were successful in running screens to him. Expect to see some of that.

Quick in-slants to A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith.

Hurts bombed away with deep throw after deep throw vs. Chicago. Minshew doesn’t have the arm strength to do that consistently, so look for plenty of quick throws.

Brown is so dangerous after the catch that he can turn a quick slant into a big gain and Smith has the ability to create separation quickly off the line.

Asked about Brown, Minshew kept it simple - kind of what the offense might look like - with his answer.

“He’s really good,” said the QB about Brown. “He gets open, he catches the ball. When you have those two things going for you, quarterback friendly. All those guys, they all do different things really well. It's’ going to be a fun group to play with.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.