At 2-2, the Philadelphia Eagles are fine.
Sure, most fans expected them to be a whole lot better than just fine, as they were widely ranked as one of the best teams in the NFC heading into the season and the clear favorites to win the NFC East versus three teams with legitimate question marks but at .500, they are still the best team in the division when everything is clicking on all cylinders.
The problem? The Eagles really haven’t been at 100 percent since Week 1, as their top players have been dropping like flies ever since AJ Brown came up awkwardly at practice ahead of Week 2, and their depth hasn’t been able to match their copasetic hum.
Fortunately, it isn’t time to panic just yet, as while the first month of the 2024 NFL season hasn’t quite gone as planned, there’s still plenty of time to get things back on track, as the Eagles have an extra week to figure things out as they take an early vacation in Week 5.
1. The Eagles have two new coordinators
While many, if not most, fans of the Eagles expected the team to immanently put things together, right their wrongs from last season, and return to their contending ways, it’s easy to forget that Philadelphia changed both their offensive and defensive coordinators and are still learning new schemes that might have different verbiage, concepts, and responsibilities than what they are used to.
Take, for example, Fangio’s defensive scheme; yes, the Eagles have been running variations of Fangio’s scheme pretty much exclusively since they said goodbye to Jim Schwartz back in 2021, excluding whatever Matt Patricia was doing down the stretch last season, but is it exactly the same? Nope, Jonathan Gannon didn’t have edge rushers like Josh Sweat dropping into coverage – Nolan Smith was lined up over the slot receiver on one snap that went viral in Week 4 – and Sean Desi took as much inspiration from Seattle as he did Fangio during his mini-run in 2023.
While the offensive side of the ball has much more continuity, especially when Nick Sirianni decides to take control over the game plan and call the shots, Kellen Moore has still introduced new concepts to the gameplan for Hurts and company to execute, with the Eagles routinely getting called for self-inflicted blows like illegal man downfield on the RPO.
Granted, some of this may just be unfortunate timing, mental errors, or lapses in decisions by Hurts, who needs to make decisions quickly on the RPO to avoid such penalties, but as the season goes on, it would only make sense that the Eagles’ synergy would improve too, as the players and coaches will mesh more and move forward together as a more finely tuned unit.
2. The Eagles are a very young team
As crazy as it may sound, the Eagles are not only a team looking to reload and come together under a pair of new coordinators but also one of the youngest teams in the NFL period, with the team’s roster, at least back on August 28th, ranking fourth on the youth scale behind the Green Bay Packers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Los Angeles Rams, according to NFL Stats.
Now, some of this has to do with the retirements of players like Fletcher Cox and Jason Kelce, who had each spent over a decade on the roster, but Howie Roseman also made an effort to get younger where it matters, trading away Haason Reddick to sign Bryce Huff – which has aged horribly – while drafting young stars like Quinyon Mitchell, Johnny Wilson, Jalyx Hunt, and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Trevor Keegan to replace the roles previously held by players like James Bradberry – who is still technically on the roster on IR – Olamide Zaccheaus, Christian Elliss, and Sua Opeta respectively.
As the season goes on and more young players like Cooper DeJean, Will Shipley, and Wilson earn bigger roles at their respective positions moving forward, maybe the Eagles will find a few diamonds in the rough who can play a bigger part in Philadelphia’s winning ways over veterans like Avonte Maddox, Kenneth Gainwell, and Jahan Dotson, who really haven’t contributed much of anything to the Eagles this season.
At 2-2, the Eagles are still the top team in the NFC East and likely would have been if they doubled down on veteran players like Reddick, Otepa, and Zaccheaus, but by taking a small step back, Roseman hoped that he would eventually build something sustainable long-term, and as a result, would have more success long-term than having to plug holes every year with one-year vets.
Will it work? Only time will tell, but considering how the first month of the 2024 NFL season has shaken out, it’s safe to say the process is still very much a work in progress.
3. The bye came at the perfect time
Now normally, when a team draws a Week 4 bye, it’s a bad thing, as they won’t be afforded a break later in the season when the injuries start to pile up and the fatigue begins to set in, but frankly, the Eagles have pretty much hit that wall already, with three of their top four wide receivers either on IR or the injury report, multiple players dealing with concussions, and a general malaise sitting over Lincoln Financial Field.
Give the players a team to get back to full strength, time for Sirianni, Fangio, and Moore to sit down and really talk strategy, which feels like something team has only done selectively this season, and who knows, maybe fans will be afforded a decisive gameplan heading into Week 6, when they take on old friend and one-time middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans and his Houston Texans. While the Texans have been among the better teams in the AFC South so far this season, as frankly, how couldn’t they be, they were proven anything but unbeatable after taking on the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3 and have a point differential of -15 as a result.
If the Eagles can get back on track, recover, and finally take things seriously, who knows, maybe they will be 3-2 and the talk of the NFC East once more, instead of one of the most maddening teams in the NFL.
