Has the NFL ever been this aggressive with game-related rules violations? We’re only eight weeks in, and already more than 130 players have been docked for a collective $2,395,066. And this week, the Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. found himself caught in the crossfire.

As per the league’s Gameday Accountability report, Trotter was fined $5,790 for a blindside block on the Giants’ special teams—a third-quarter punt return play that barely registered on the broadcast but certainly did on the league’s radar. This is his third career penalty and the first one this season. While it’s not exactly a big one, it’s another frustration in what’s quietly becoming a disappointing season for the young linebacker.

A year ago, the Eagles’ 2024 fifth-round pick was one of the pleasant surprises on a loaded roster. He carved out a role on special teams, appeared in all 17 regular-season games, started one, and picked up a Super Bowl ring along the way. Not so bad for a rookie learning the speed of the league. Naturally, the expectation this fall was for Trotter to earn more snaps at linebacker. So far? That storyline hasn’t materialized.

Through eight games (zero starts), he’s logged just 11 defensive snaps, merely 2% of the team’s total, compared to 160 snaps on special teams, which makes up 74% of the Eagles’ special teams plays. That’s a great indicator of trust in the kicking game, but it also tells you he hasn’t broken through in the defensive rotation the way many inside the building hoped he might.

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And honestly, that’s not all that shocking given how deep Philadelphia is at linebacker. The Eagles already had one of the better tandems in football with Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell, and Nakobe Dean’s return from a torn patellar tendon only reinforced the position.

Baun, meanwhile, has been an ironman, on the field for 98% of the defensive snaps. He has also been at the center of one of the more controversial plays of the year: that hip-drop tackle on Giants rookie running back Cam Skattebo. Many assumed Baun would show up on the league’s fine list for Week 8.

He didn’t. And that raised more than a few eyebrows.

The NFL did not punish LB Zack Baun…

It’s understandable why the Giants fans were furious. That tackle essentially ended Skattebo’s season. The rookie was carted off midway through the second quarter after a pass play from Jaxson Dart went south. He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he underwent surgery to repair a dislocated right ankle.

It was an awful ending for a player who’d been one of New York’s brighter spots in a rough year. So with the league handing out fines for seemingly every questionable hit, how Baun escaped unscathed is anyone’s guess.

From that Eagles-Giants game, the only fines were for defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches ($23,816 for unnecessary roughness, use of helmet) and, of course, the $5,790 to Trotter. Nothing for Baun.

While Philadelphia fans will be miffed, the latest chatter is that the incident didn’t meet the criteria to be called a hip-drop tackle.

But credit where it’s due: the Eagles organization handled the aftermath with some class. On Monday, team security chief Dom DiSandro, the Philly folk hero, showed up at Penn Presbyterian with pizzas and cheesesteaks for Skattebo and his family. And maybe, just maybe, it made a rough weekend for the rookie feel a little less bitter.

As for the NFL, the league might need to evaluate its punishment policies and figure out a better way to decide what constitutes a punishment and what doesn’t.

Should Baun have been penalized? Let us know in the comments below.