When the New Orleans Saints play the Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans will have to go through right tackle Lane Johnson. Johnson has been one of the best at his position for a while now, and through two games he’s the highest-graded right tackle per Pro Football Focus.
Last week’s game with the Dallas Cowboys featured three players ranked within the top-five sack leaders. Similar to that, this game against the Eagles features three players with the highest grade at their position. Erik McCoy and Lucas Patrick are some of the highest-graded players at center and left guard.
Disrupting Jalen Hurts in the pocket won’t be an easy task. Johnson has a pass block grade of 87.3, per PFF.
Carl Granderson and Cameron Jordan will have to win their battles against Johnson as frequently as possible. Granderson has racked up 1.5 sacks so far this season.
Against a quarterback like Hurts, discipline may be even more important than just winning your pass rush set.
Hurts has been sacked three times in the first two games. If the Saints can beat Johnson a few times, they’ll have a better chance of increasing that sack total.