Safety Ed Reynolds hauls in one of his two interceptions during the Eagles 36-10 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

Preseason in the NFL is not unlike the stock exchange.

For a myriad of reasons a company’s stock can rise or fall depending on how the company performs or from circumstances that just happen.

For many of the Eagles players, Sunday’s preseason opener saw some of their stock rise, some saw it fall.

Here is a look at a few players whose performance stood out in one way for the other during the Birds 36-10 win over the Indianapolis Colts at the Linc.

The Eagles as a team: What can you say when your squad dominates the way the Birds did Sunday against a seemingly over-matched Colts team. The final score was 36-10, the Colts passer rating as a team was a measly 33.1 with a total of 150 yards passing and two interceptions.

The Eagles defense forced four fumbles, recovering two.

The Colts defense allowed the Eagles to gain 313 passing yards and a touchdown. The Eagles running game averaged 4.0 yards per carry and scored another two touchdowns.

Special teams was great on coverage and scored a touchdown on a 92-yard punt return by Kenjon Barner. The one big negative was Pro Bowl kicker Cody Parkey missing a 34-yard field goal and hitting the new long distance extra point wide right.
Stock rose.

Safety Ed Reynolds: The 2014 fifth round draft pick out of Stamford sat on the Eagles practice after getting off to a slow start do to injuries and adjusting to the NFL.

Against the Colts, Reynolds showed why head coach Chip Kelly drafted him, coming up with two interceptions, one setting up a 40-yard Parkey field goal.

With the losses of Brandon Boykin through trade and rookie JaCorey Shepard through injury, the Eagles can use any good news in the secondary and Reynolds provided that Sunday.

“I’m not trying to play outside of myself, just play within the scheme,” Reynolds said at his locker after the game. “Take our technique that we’ve been practicing the last few weeks in training camp and applying it when you get to be under the lights.”
Stock is rising.

Quarterback Mark Sanchez: The veteran signal caller got the start because Kelly decided to keep Sam Bradford on the sideline for one more week.

Sanchez was just 2 of 7 for 52 yards, no sacks or interceptions. One of his completions was a 34-yard touchdown pass to rookie wide receiver Nelson Agholor that was more a great finish by Agholor than a great throw.

Sanchez did not look like the leader you want your starting quarterback to be on the field He missed some wide open receivers including a sure touchdown to Jordan Matthews in the first quarter.

The seven-year veteran out of USC was asked to grade his performance.

“I don’t know,” Sanchez said. “We got the win. I thought we took care of the ball okay. There were a couple of throws and stuff that I know some of the guys wanted back and we don’t want to turn the ball over. You’d like to be clean that way, but we’ll let the coaches grade it out. Obviously a win’s big and we’ll just move on from here.”
Stock dropped.

Quarterback Matt Barkley: The third-year signal-caller out of USC may have had his best outing wearing an Eagles uniform.

Barkley was 12 of 20 for 192 yards, led his team to three scoring drives (One TD, two field goals) and threaded the needled on several passes most notably to Jordan Matthews and Mile Austin in the first half.

Eagles QB Matt Barkley gets good protection during the Eagles 36-10 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

For the first time in three season, Barkley played angry and with confidence. Barkley talked about his new look.

“I feel like I have come a long way,” Barkley said. “Right now, where I’m at, I feel great that I can lead this team, score points and move the ball down the field. I feel good about how we moved the ball today, but we definitely left a little meat on the bone. There were a few tough third downs, but I feel like we did okay for the first preseason game.”

Don’t be surprised if teams like the Jets and Bills contact the Birds about his availability after what Barkley did on Sunday.
Stock rose

Wide receiver Riley Cooper: The controversial pass catcher touched the ball once in the first quarter on a running play that went for nine yards…and that was it. Cooper, listed as a starter, was not targeted once and thus did not get listed on the Eagles pass receiving statistical chart.

There were 15 other players targeted for passes listed on the chart.
Stock dropped.

Running back Kenjon Barner: When you score two touchdowns in the first half in any game, even preseason, it’s special.

Barner showed way Kelly traded for his former Oregon standout ball carrier taking a handoff from Barkley at the end of the first quarter and slicing his way nine yards to the end zone.

Eagles running back Kenjon Barner has the end zone in sight on this play. the former Oregon standout scored two touchdowns during the Eagles 36-10 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotography.com

Then with 26 seconds left in the half, Barner took a Pat McAfee 65-yard punt, made a great cut at the start of his run then raced down the sideline 92 yards for a touchdown.

The only Colt to get near him was McAfee, who made a career decision to get out of the way when Barner and a convoy of blockers were in their final run.

Barner credited a veteran teammate for the touchdown.

“I had a long conversation with (Darren) Sproles during pre-game,” Barner said. “He told me McAfee was going to give me plenty of opportunities and he was going to outkick his coverage and sure enough, throughout the game, you see that he was kind of out kicking his coverage and our guys did a great job as gunners. Usually gunners are the first guys down there to make or break a play. So I was able to see they were taking care [of that] once the ball left the punter’s foot. So you catch the ball and do what you can.”
Stock rose.

Tim Tebow and the offensive line: Neither hurt their stock, or did anything to change it one way or another.

The offensive line did not surrender a sack to Sanchez or Barkley, but Tebow was sacked three times. That is not a good stat but any running quarterback is going to get hit a lot.

The Eagles offense produced 440 yards of offense and 29 of the team’s 36 points. None of the guards trying to grab the starting right guard spot did anything to improve their stock and none did anything to hurt it.

Tebow did what he has always done. He teases you with some solid plays then makes bad decisions. He did score on a seven-yard run at the end of the game.

“I think there were things that were decent,” Tebow said in the locker room after the game. “And some things that we have to work on.”
Stock unaffected

Overall grade for the game? A-minus.