The Eagles have opened the 2026 NFL season at 2-0, but the first two wins have left plenty to clean up. Philadelphia has beaten the Washington Commanders and Tennessee Titans by narrow margins, and those results have not exactly looked like dominant football. The early numbers tell the story: the Eagles are plus-9 in the first half, but minus-3 after halftime.
That matters because the schedule is about to stiffen. In the NFC East, the race already looks like it could come down to Philadelphia and the Dallas Cowboys, which makes every win carry extra weight. The Eagles can’t afford to waste chances if the games start tightening up.
October could be the month that decides how well they handle that stretch, and it’s the month where Jalen Hurts has traditionally played his best football. Philadelphia’s next four games are October 4th against the Los Angeles Rams, October 11th at the Jacksonville Jaguars, October 18th against the Carolina Panthers, and October 26th against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Rams and Jaguars were playoff teams last season. Carolina’s offense has looked quite potent through the first two weeks. And the Dallas game, as most divisional matchups tend to be, figures to be a close one.
Splitting those four would be acceptable, but the Eagles would much rather take three of four, with the Dallas game at home standing out as the one they’d love to grab. Hurts has given them plenty of reason to believe that kind of stretch is in reach.
In October during his NFL career, Hurts has gone 17-8 with 5,122 passing yards, 35 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a 103.5 passer rating. He’s also added 732 rushing yards and 16 rushing touchdowns in that month alone. His passer rating in October is nearly 10 points higher than in any other month, and his 51 total touchdowns in October dwarf what he’s done in the other months.
That kind of production will matter even more now because the Eagles have plenty of moving parts around him. Sean Mannion is in as the offensive coordinator, A.J. Brown is gone, Pro Bowl guard Landon Dickerson is on IR, and Saquon Barkley is not a lock to play this upcoming week and might be in a slow decline.
So if Philadelphia is going to steady itself as the schedule gets harder, the burden falls on Hurts. He’s not a perfect quarterback and has his flaws, but he’s also a winner who has already appeared in two Super Bowls and has finished with a winning record every year he’s been the full-time starter.
The setup is simple enough: tougher opponents are coming, and Hurts usually gets sharper in October. For a team dealing with injuries and offensive uncertainty, that could be exactly the timing Philadelphia needs.
In Other News...
Jalen Hurts' Mom Said What Eagles Fans Already Believe
Jalen Hurts has spent the first two weeks of the season giving Eagles fans plenty of reasons to feel good about the quarterback spot, and his mother just added a little social-media fuel to the conversation. In a TikTok video using a face filter, she jokingly made the case that her son is more clutch than other quarterbacks, a playful bit of family pride that lands especially well when the on-field evidence is already trending in his favor.
Hurts has been effective in late-game, one-score situations, exactly the kind of moments Philadelphia leans on its quarterback to handle. The comparison cases around the league include names like Tyler Shough and Josh Allen, but the bigger point for the Eagles is simpler: Hurts has started this season with the kind of fourth-quarter composure that turns a lighthearted TikTok into a talking point. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles May Have Found A Cheap Answer At WR2
The Eagles did not have to pay a premium to add Dontayvion Wicks, but the early returns have looked anything but ordinary. After coming over from Green Bay in a trade for future draft picks and landing an extension, Wicks has made an immediate case for a bigger role in Philadelphias offense, giving the team a cost-effective option alongside its established passing game.
Through the first two games, Wicks has caught seven passes for 147 yards and a touchdown, production that has already helped him earn Jalen Hurts trust. For a team always balancing star power with roster value, the appeal is obvious: if Wicks keeps this up, Philadelphia may have found a much cheaper answer than most teams get at wide receiver two. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Suddenly Have A Mekhi Becton Decision To Make
The Eagles offensive line depth has gone from a strength to a concern in a hurry, with Landon Dickerson now on injured reserve and the interior of the unit looking shaky in recent games. Cam Jurgens and Drew Kendall have not settled things down, and for a team built around protecting the quarterback and keeping the run game on schedule, that kind of uncertainty is hard to ignore.
Mekhi Becton suddenly sits in the middle of that conversation. He played a useful role for Philadelphia during its 2024 Super Bowl run before leaving for the Los Angeles Chargers, but his season since then has been marked by injuries and uneven play. Even so, the idea of a second chance is hard to dismiss when the Eagles are searching for answers up front and know exactly what Becton looked like when things were working here. [Read more 🡒]