Eagles-Cowboys matchups to watch in Week 1
Eagles-Cowboys matchups to watch in Week 1 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It's going to be a fun Thursday night as the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles kick off the 2025 NFL season against their most-hated rival.
The Cowboys will have to watch the Eagles unveil their Super Bowl LIX banner before the game begins.
The biggest Cowboys news of the last week came on Thursday night, when Jerry Jones traded Micah Parsons out of the division to the Green Bay Packers. So Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata won't have to worry about Parsons on Thursday night.
But here are some other key matchups to watch:
Eagles iOL vs. Kenny Clark, Osa Odighizuwa
The top matchup to watch in this game would have been the Eagles' tackles against Parsons but the strength of the Cowboys' defensive line is now on the interior with Osa Odighizuwa and Kenny Clark, who came from the Packers in the Parsons trade.
Clark is a three-time Pro Bowler who had a career-high 7 1/2 sacks two years ago but had just 1 in 17 games with the Packers in 2024. While he's known for his ability to stop the run, Clark used to be able to get to quarterbacks. But it's Odighizuwa (6-2, 280) who is still an ascending player. He had a career-high 4 1/2 sacks in his fourth NFL season and is a much different body type, who can sometimes give interior offensive linemen headaches.
Keep an eye on the Eagles' guards in this game. Left guard Landon Dickerson is dealing with a back injury after he already had knee surgery last week. Dickerson's status for this game is in question. And the Eagles have a new right guard this season in Tyler Steen, who takes over for Mekhi Becton. Steen was the right guard to start training camp last year but lost that job to Becton, who left this offseason in free agency. Steen, 25, took every first-team right guard snap during the summer.
Saquon Barkley vs. Cowboys run defense
The addition of Clark should help the Cowboys' run defense in 2025 after they finished 29th in the NFL against the run last year. Had Mazi Smith, a 2023 first-round pick, become the run-stuffer the Cowboys expected, then they probably wouldn't need the addition of Clark. The Cowboys last year gave up 137.1 yards per game and 4.8 yards per attempt, which ranked 30th in the NFL. The Cowboys gave up 1.81 yards before contact per run, which ranked 28th in the league.
So by every metric, they stunk against the run.
And the Eagles were one of the best running teams in football last season. This year, they bring back Jalen Hurts, 4 of 5 offensive linemen and reigning Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley. While Barkley didn't run wild in the first meeting between these teams last year - 14 carries for 66 yards - he had a huge game against the Cowboys in Week 17 and surpassed the 2,000-yard mark for the season in that one. In that late December game, Barkley had 31 carries for 167 yards.
In total, Barkley had 482 touches last season between the regular season and postseason. But based on what we saw this training camp, the Eagles don't plan on slowing down his usage in 2025.
Eagles WRs vs. Cowboys CBs
The Eagles go into most games feeling like they're going to have an advantage with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith against the opposing cornerbacks and that could be the case in this game. The Cowboys' top cornerbacks are Trevon Diggs, (the recently paid) DaRon Bland and Kaiir Elam. Diggs in their top corner but he had knee surgery in January and his availability is in question for the opener. The Cowboys are also lacking depth at the position because their top backups Shavon Revel (NFI), Caelen Carson (IR) and Josh Butler (PUP) will all miss this game.
In 2025, the Eagles went to a run-heavy offense because it's what they needed. They had Saquon Barkley and they found the best way to attack was to let him run behind the best offensive line in football. It worked. But it also took some selflessness from the Eagles' two super talented receivers. In the Super Bowl, when the Chiefs actually did a good job bottling up Barkley, the passing offense came alive. So we know that it can.
While both Brown (hamstring) and Smith (groin) missed some practices this summer with injuries, they are going to play in the opener. And it was a strong summer for Jahan Dotson, who could be a bigger part of the Eagles' offense after a full offseason with the team and with Jalen Hurts.
Cooper DeJean vs. CeeDee Lamb
The Cowboys' top option in the passing game is still CeeDee Lamb, who has had at least 1,100 yards in each of his last four seasons. In 15 games in 2024, Lamb had 101 catches for 1,194 yards and 6 touchdowns. And he does a lot of his damage in the slot. Here's a look at his snap breakdown from 2024, via PFF:
Wide: 413
Slot: 396
Backfield/inline: 15
While Cooper DeJean is going to play either outside cornerback or safety in the Eagles' base package, he's still expected to play most of his snaps at the nickel corner position, where he was exceptional as a rookie. In a game like this, where the Cowboys might try to get Lamb in the slot to avoid Quinyon Mitchell, that's extremely important. Because Mitchell has been working on flipping side of the field but it's unlikely he'll travel into the slot to face a guy like Lamb. That's why it's such a benefit to have DeJean.
Lamb missed the second meeting between the Eagles and Cowboys last season but in the first game in Week 10 had just 6 catches on 10 targets for 21 yards. (Cooper Rush and Trey Lance were the quarterbacks in that game). Against Mitchell, Lamb had 1 catch on 1 target for 5 yards; against DeJean, he had 2 catches on 3 targets for 1 yard. The Cowboys this offseason also added George Pickens, who gives the Cowboys a better 1-2 punch.
Jalen Carter vs. Tyler Booker
Expectations are sky high for Jalen Carter as he enters his third NFL season - and for good reason. Carter was named a Pro Bowler in Year 2 and is already widely recognized as one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. And there's still room for a big jump in 2025. Last season, Carter ended up seeing a ton of double teams, which is why you can't read too much into his 4 1/2 sacks in 2024. He garnered so much attention it helped Milton Williams to get 1-on-1s and paid over $100 million by the Patriots.
You can probably expect Carter to get double-teamed a ton in this game too. But on the rare occasion he doesn't see a slide, Carter will be 1-on-1 against a rookie in his first NFL game. The Cowboys drafted Tyler Booker with the No. 12 overall pick out of Alabama and since Carter plays most of his snaps at the left DT spot - at least he did in 2024 - that means a fun matchup between a Pro Bowler and a rookie in his professional debut.
The Cowboys might also be weak at the tackle positions with Terence Steele at right tackle and Tyler Guyton at left tackle. Steele has been a full-time starter and is an average tackle. Guyton was a first-round pick last year and started 11 games. He ranked 73rd out of 81 qualified NFL tackles last year, according to ProFootballFocus.
Eagles secondary vs. Dak Prescott
The Cowboys' longtime starting quarterback lasted just eight games last year before landing on IR with a serious hamstring injury that needed surgery. His final game of the 2024 season was the week before the Eagles beat the Cowboys 34-6 at AT&T Stadium in North Texas. In his career against the Eagles, Prescott has a 9-4 career record with 24 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. While turning the football over has been an issue for Prescott, he threw 83 passes in 2023 against the Eagles without one. His last INT against the Eagles came in Week 16 of the 2022 season when Josh Sweat had that incredible pick-6 in an Eagles' loss in Dallas.
But, in general, Prescott does turn the ball over. He led the NFL in interceptions in 2022 with 15. While he bounced back in 2023 with a 36 TD/9 INT season, he wasn't very good before his injury last year. In eight games, the Cowboys had a 3-5 record with Prescott, who had 11 touchdowns to 8 interceptions. His interception rate of 2.8% was the second-highest of his NFL career.
The Eagles this offseason unloaded their interception leader C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who had 12 in two full seasons (2022, 2024) with the Eagles. But there's a chance Reed Blankenship, Quinyon Mitchell or Cooper DeJean or someone else can take advantage of a bad decision on Thursday night.
Eagles kick coverage vs. KaVontae Turpin
The NFL has tweaked kickoff rules again going into the 2025 season. This year, touchbacks will be brought out to the 35-yard line instead of the 30, so there will be some incentive for teams to kick returnable balls.
That might be a problem in Week 1 as the Eagles face Cowboys return man KaVontae Turpin. The 29-year-old led the NFL with a 33.5 average in 2024 and returned one 99 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter against Washington. He's dangerous.
The dangers that Turpin presents to us are highly noted and highly talked about, but it's exciting also to go out there and get these guys going," special teams coordinator Michael Clay said. It's not just the 10 guys covering, but also Jake (Elliott) and Braden (Mann) with their punts and their kickoffs helping us out and looking to flip the field and help out our defense in trying to corral KaVontae and very much all the respect in the world for any NFL player. Then KaVontae, he kind of keeps you up at night a little bit with his explosion as a returner."