The Eagles defense has been on the field a league-high 892 snaps this season. Many of the team's defensive players are on pace for career-high snap counts.
Including penalties, linebacker DeMeco Ryans already has played 927 snaps, which is a 1,236-snap pace. That would be 162 more than he's ever played in a single season (1,074 last season), or the equivalent of two extra games.
Cornerback Cary Williams (913 snaps) is on pace for 1,217 snaps, or 116 more than his career-high. Safety Nate Allen (863) is on pace for 1,151. He's never played more than 871. Linebacker Connor Barwin (898) is on pace for 1,197 snaps, which would be 178 more than his career-high.
Trent Cole already has played 722 snaps, which puts him on a 963-snap pace. The last time the 31-year-old linebacker played anywhere close to that many was in '09 (959 snaps).
The interesting things is, none of these guys are dragging. In fact, most of them never have felt better, never have played better. Clearly, Chip Kelly's emphasis on sports science is not hocus-pocus. It works.
"I feel better than I've ever felt in my career right now," Cole said. "I feel like I'm still in the first game, I really do. Usually you feel sore about now, even though it's Thursday. But I don't feel one ounce of soreness or nothing. This is the way you want to feel going into a game."
This is a guy who never has been a particularly strong finisher. He was an undersized 4-3 end and usually wore down as the season went along. Going into this season, he had 71 career sacks. Just 20 1/2 of them came in the final six games of the season. This season, four of his five sacks have come in Games 11 and 12.
Also -
Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III were the first and second picks in the 2012 draft. Russell Wilson and Nick Foles were the 75th and 88th. Yet, Wilson and Foles have a combined passer rating (115.5) nearly 33 points higher than Griffin and Lucks (82.8). Wilson and Foles have averaged a combined 8.9 yards per attempt and have thrown 41 TD passes and just six interceptions. Griffin and Luck have averaged 6.9 with 30 TDs and 19 picks.