The Eagles in disarray
So, howya doin’? Remember me? I’m not sure I do.
I have managed to get 13 games into the Eagles’ 2023 season without writing a darned word about anything. I had a nice little podcast that filled my need to pontificate quite nicely, but then THAT went away, and, well, desperate times call for desperate measures. It was this or Onlyfans.
I am happy to make my musings here free of charge for the reader; I don’t need your money, and seeing as how I’m not actually down at NovaCare working the locker room these days, I’m not sure my thoughts are worth all that much.
I’m launching this endeavor at the exact moment the Eagles seem to have decided to Hindenburg their season, going from 10-1 to 10-3 with losses of 42-19 to the 49ers and 33-13 to Dallas. Hope that’s not an omen for my undertaking. The timing does remind me of when I contracted to write a coffee-table Eagles history book, which came out just as the Andy Reid era went bad. That was just great for book sales. I still have a few boxes of those, if you’d like one. Or several.
Anyhow, the 2023 Eagles. As the week continues, you are bound to hear dozens of explanations for the collapse. Many of them might be valid, to one extent or another. I’m not going to wade too deep on whether Julio Jones should get more targets or Rashaad Penny is the magical cure for all ills.
To me, the problems this season start with offseason assumptions management made about the defense, which has been one of the worst in the league against the pass all season, and now is leaking oil against the run as well. The offense seems to be feeling the pressure, working with a defense that gives up touchdown after touchdown after touchdown, while the offense sits and waits. Not much room for error for Jalen Hurts and friends, who have nonetheless persisted in making plenty of errors anyway.
The assumption was that the Eagles would play with a lead a lot, as they did last season, that the pass-rushers could then sack and pillage one-dimensional opponents. Instead, double-digit halftime deficits week after week. You can only MacGyver your way to victory so many times.
It’s easy to say Sean Desai’s replacement of Jonathan Gannon is the problem, except, against good offenses/QBs, Gannon’s unit looked very similar to this. We all knew the 2023 defense had to replace five starters, after free agency took Javon Hargrave, T.J. Edwards, Kyzir White, Marcus Epps and C.J. Gardner-Johnson.
Yes, Jalen Carter has been terrific, but taking away Hargrave and adding Carter didn’t make the unit better, it just made up for a loss. I think management’s most grievous error was thinking Nakobe Dean would be a foundational piece at linebacker. Dean has spent most of the season on IR and hasn’t been a difference-maker when healthy. Take away that one key piece and the linebacking unit isn’t close to competent.
I think the Eagles thought they could get away with being a little less talented at safety, because they had Darius Slay and James Bradberry back at corner, and that ferocious pass rush with the 70 sacks last year, and so on. Instead, the weak linebacking dominoed into the average-at-best safety talent, which I think also has affected the play of the corners. The middle of the field really misses injured nickel corner Avonte Maddox. Bradley Roby at nickel and Kevin Byard at safety came in with reputations that far outstrip their contributions thus far.
Desai hasn’t found a way to work around his talent’s limitations. Maybe there isn’t a way, but there’s no evidence that he’s really tried. Disguise coverages? Tricky blitz packages? We see none of that.
It doesn’t take a lot of games like these last two losses to affect confidence and locker room cohesion. At some point, you get “well, I’m doing MY job, but THOSE GUYS OVER THERE … “ Then it’s really off to the races. The Eagles really, really need to win this week. Yes, they’ll still be 10-4 if they lose, but that will be a Potemkin Village of a record.
That’s all for now. You can rest assured I will have more thoughts soon.