At 2-2, the Philadelphia Eagles are doing well.
Of course, most fans expected them to be much better than very good, as they were widely ranked as one of the best teams in the NFC heading into the season and the clear favorites to winning the NFC East against three teams with legitimate question marks. but at .500, they are still the best team in the division when everything is firing on all cylinders.
The problem ? The Eagles really haven’t been 100% since Week 1, as their best players have been dropping like flies since AJ Brown showed up awkwardly at practice before Week 2, and their depth hasn’t been able to match their copasetic buzz. .
Fortunately, it’s not time to panic yet, because even though the first month of the 2024 NFL season didn’t go 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.
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1. The Eagles have two new coordinators
While many, if not most, Eagles fans expected the team to put things together, right their wrongs from last season and return to their rivalry ways, it’s easy to forget that Philadelphia has changed his offensive and defensive coordinators and is still learning new schemes that may have different verbiage, concepts and responsibilities than they are used to.
Take, for example, Fangio’s defensive plan; Yes, the Eagles have run variations of Fangio’s scheme pretty much exclusively since saying goodbye to Jim Schwartz in 2021, excluding anything Matt Patricia did over the course of last season, but is it exactly the same thing? No, Jonathan Gannon didn’t have rushers like Josh Sweat in coverage – Nolan Smith was lined up at slot receiver in a snap that went viral in Week 4 – and Sean Desi took as much inspiration from Seattle than Fangio during his 2023 mini-run.
While the offensive side of the ball has much more continuity, especially when Nick Sirianni decides to take control of the game plan and call the shots, Kellen Moore has still introduced new concepts into the game plan that Hurts and company must execute, with the Eagles regularly. being called for self-inflicted hits as an illegal man on the field on the RPO.
Granted, some of this may be due to unfortunate timing, mental errors, or errors in decisions by Hurts, who must make decisions quickly on the RPO to avoid such penalties, but as the season progresses, It would make sense that the Eagles’ synergy would also improve, as players and coaches integrate more and move forward together as a more finely tuned unit.
2. The Eagles are a very young team
As crazy as it sounds, the Eagles are not only a team looking to rejuvenate and come together under two new coordinators, but also one of the youngest teams in the NFL era, with the team strength, at least August 28, fourth on the youth scale behind the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams, according to NFL Stats.
Now, this is partly due to the retirements of players like Fletcher Cox and Jason Kelce, who each spent over a decade on the roster, but Howie Roseman has also made an effort to get younger where it counts, in trading Haason Reddick to draft Bryce Huff – who has aged horribly – while also recruiting young stars like Quinyon Mitchell, Johnny Wilson, Jalyx Hunt and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and Trevor Keegan to replace 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 progresses and more young players like Cooper DeJean, Will Shipley and Wilson get bigger roles at their respective positions, perhaps the Eagles will find a few diamonds in the rough who can play a more important role in Philadelphia’s victory. veterans like Avonte Maddox, Kenneth Gainwell and Jahan Dotson, who really haven’t contributed much to the Eagles this season.
At 2-2, the Eagles are still the best team in the NFC East and probably would have been if they had doubled down on veteran players like Reddick, Otepa and Zaccheaus, but taking a step back, Roseman was hoping that he would eventually do it. building something that would be sustainable in the long term and, therefore, would be more successful in the long term than having to plug holes every year with year-old vets.
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Will it work? Only time will tell, but considering how the first month of the 2024 NFL season has gone, it’s safe to say the process is still ongoing.
3. The bye came at the perfect time
Now, normally when a team gets a bye into Week 4, it’s a bad thing because they won’t get a break later in the season when injuries start to pile up and fatigue will start to set in, but frankly, the Eagles I’ve hit that wall before, with three of their top four wide receivers are on IR or the injury report, multiple players suffering concussions and general malaise sitting above 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, making it seem like the team has only done selectively this season , and who knows, maybe fans will be treated to a make-or-break game plan before Week 6, when they face old friend and former middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans and his Houston Texans. Although the Texans have been among the best teams in the AFC South so far this season, frankly, how could they not be, they proved to be anything but unbeatable after facing the Minnesota Vikings in the third week and had a -15 point differential as a result.
If the Eagles can get back on track, recover and finally take things seriously, who knows, maybe they’ll be 3-2 and the NFC East will be talked about again, instead from one of the most infuriating teams in the NFL.
