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Paul Turner’s Big Night Helps Eagles Beat the Jets

Adrian Fedkiw|

Paul Turner is a keeper.

Turner caught six passes for 66 yards and ran a punt back 71 yards for a touchdown, as the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New York Jets 14-6 to finish the preseason undefeated on Thursday night.

Turner is currently one of the top five wide receivers on this team, there’s no denying that, but will head coach Doug Pederson and the Eagles brass elect to keep the undrafted Louisiana Tech star on the main roster or pluck another wideout from another team’s trash following the roster cuts on Saturday afternoon?

Here was the beautiful punt return, which was the first of two non-offensive scores on the night.

Turner caught everything thrown his way during the preseason, including these two below. The first was a 20-yard gain on a deep cross, while the other was a deep out to move the chains on a 3rd-and-12.

Defensive end Steven Means made the biggest impression on defense. He has an array of moves as a pass rusher, including a devastating bull rush and a quick, balanced spin move. He gets off the ball really quick and translates speed to power really well.

Dorial Green-Beckham played a couple snaps in the first quarter and hauled in a pair of passes. He galloped for 16 yards on a crossing route and gained 15 on a quick slant after he used his physicality to beat press coverage at the line of scrimmage.

For his standards, Marcus Smith has silently had a solid preseason. A quick swim moved helped him get into the backfield for a tackle for loss here.

Jake Metz, coming from the Arena Football League and ArenaBowl-champion Philadelphia Soul Tuesday, made an impact. He hustled for a tackle on run defense and beat the tackle for a hurry on these two occassions.

Eric Rowe and C.J. Smith appear to be in a battle for potentially the last cornerback spot. Rowe was up and down, but overall had an OK night. He failed to get his head turned around on this pass interference penalty despite decent coverage.

He made up for it a bit later, showing quick recognition and closing speed while playing zone on the pass into the right flat before playing solid coverage as the slot cornerback.

And the other non-offense score came when Bryan Braman’s pressure forced Christian Hackenberg into throwing this 90-yard interception return for touchdown by Ed Reynolds.

The Eagles open up the regular season at home against the Cleveland Browns on September 11th.

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