Eagles

Sean Mannion Gives a Disheartening Answer When Asked About the Eagles’ Loathsome Screen Game

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 2nd, 2026 · 10:23 AM EDT

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Reading through the Sean Mannion midweek quote sheet, I got to this exchange below. Every fiber of my being began to pulse with abhorrence, and untethered contempt:

Q. You guys have been pretty consistent targeting WR Makai Lemon on the screen passes, like the swing pass. They’ve been going for negative yards. I guess what are you seeing in terms of what’s going wrong with those? (EJ Smith)

Sean Mannion: Ultimately, we’ve got to be better in the screen game. That starts with me. I think we look at all facets of our offense, and we want to make everything about it as good as it can possibly be. There’s things to clean up there. There’s things that we’re looking at that we can do different schematically to improve in that regard. Certainly, the screen game, we want to get more out of it. We’re working every day to get more out of it. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility to get that going in the right direction. We’re constantly looking at how we can make corrections and evolve and see how we can be the best team that we can be moving forward.

“we want to get more out of it. We’re working every day to get more out of it.”

This is really disappointing. The only thing they should be “working on every day” is removing these screens from the playbook and depositing them into the garbage bin.

Because they stink. Every version of this play is incorrigible.

We mentioned after the Chicago game:

…through three weeks, the Birds have completed 9 of 13 pass attempts thrown behind the line of scrimmage for a total of -8 yards and 0 first downs. Hurts was 5 for 8 against Washington and Tennessee for -15 yards and 4 for 5 against Chicago for seven yards, the only positive gain coming on the play call that took place right before the emergency tush push

And the screen they threw before the touchdown was almost a disaster, because into turned into a pile push and they barely got back to the line of scrimmage in time.

It’s disheartening to hear Mannion say that the Eagles are working on getting more out of this play, because it’s a dud. The Eagles can’t block it. They don’t have receivers and tight ends who can block 1v1 in space like this. And the motions are predictable. Whenever Makai Lemon goes in that arcing orbit motion, you know they are throwing that bubble bullshit his way. The only screen that had been effective for the Eagles in this era is that inside tunnel screen to Dallas Goedert, which is a quick hitter involving the tackles. They haven’t used that this season and it may no longer be in the playbook. Same with those short-yardage read-and-pull plays with Goedert that always picked up 2-3 yards at a 90% clip.

The only valid reason for keeping the Lemon screen in the playbook is to FAKE IT and throw a bomb to Tay Wicks. Nobody will see it coming.