This Eagles team doesn’t make any sense and only became more confusing after watching the rest of the games on Sunday. What is there to make of a team that is 4-2 but looks like it completely forgets how to play football at times? The QB and wide receivers seem to actively hate each other, the bully offensive line is playing on its heels, and they all happen to be defending Super Bowl champions. The only thing I can think of is the phrase popularized by Pat Riley: The Disease of More.
Riley philosophized that his Los Angeles Lakers of the 80s eventually fell apart because his players and coaches always wanted more for themselves. Wanting to get better as a team is one thing, but the Disease of More is about putting yourself before the team because YOU have succeeded. After all, with the success comes the spoils, right? YOU deserve more. With every commercial break, it’s hard not to see this with the Eagles.
As I’m watching football on Sunday, who do I see in the Little Ceaser’s commercial? Saquon Barkley. Who is in the Nationwide Insurance ad? Saquon Barkley. What was being advertised during the Thursday game on Prime? Saquon, the documentary. He’s all over the place. He isn’t the only one.
Jalen Hurts is Mr. Jordan Brand right now. Where was Jalen after the loss on Thursday? Behind a cash register at the opening of the World of Flight store in Philly. He’s in a Sprite commercial. He’s in an (awful) NFL commercial. He’s becoming the face of the league.
This is all very familiar to Philly fans following the 2008 World Series. MVP Cole Hamels dominated that post season and everyone knew it, including advertisers. With that great hair, he was a natural pitchman and found himself in New Era and ESPN commercials. The only place we didn’t see him was in the win column. Cole struggled through all of 2009 and famously said he couldn’t wait for the season to be over despite the Phillies going back to the World Series. If 2008 Cole Hamels shows up in 2009, we probably win back-to-back championships. Sound familiar?
Do you know whose face isn’t anywhere to be found other than on the field (and in front of microphones? AJ Brown. DeVonta Smith has even less of a presence. Despite likely opportunities, these two are “keeping the main thing, the main thing.” They are the ones who are getting the attention for being disgruntled though. Whether it is really affecting things or not, they have to see the other two not completely focused on football because they see their faces more on TV than anywhere else. Sure, they are punching the clock, but their time is now seemingly divided.
This isn’t just on the players though. Nick Sirianni received a contract extension in the offseason. Being a Super Bowl winning coach graduates you to another level in the profession. With that comes the clout to name your own offensive coordinator. Hell, that was probably part of his contract negotiations. Instead of looking outside the organization for a new OC, he promoted Passing Game Coordinator and friend Kevin Patullo. Last year, Kellen Moore was hired for that job due to his 5 years of play calling and OC experience plus 6 years as an NFL QB. Patullo has ZERO years of play calling and OC experience and ZERO years of in game play to rely on. I understand everyone has to start somewhere, but that start is not supposed to be behind the wheel of a high-performance machine like the Eagles.
Play calling isn’t unlike driving a car. Sure, you can call a play or drive down the road and be fine, the players and the car do most of the work. Things get more complicated though as you go faster, make turns, and have to adapt in real time. You can read the manual and take all of the tests you want, but that doesn’t mean you can just drive an F1 car. That is what Patullo is being asked to do with this team. He simply does not have the experience to do this job well and it shows on the field. There is no rhythm to the offense at all. He seems to be calling plays like he is playing Madden rather than operating an NFL team.
Again, Patullo has ZERO experience doing this at any level. In some ways, this would be fine if Nick Sirianni were better at this too. He isn’t. Sirianni has experience as an offensive coordinator with the Colts, but he wasn’t calling the plays there either, that was Frank Reich. Now you have two guys with no real experience designing, planning, or calling an offense running the show. Both of them have Super Bowl rings though. How are the players supposed to react when they know the people in charge don’t know what they are doing? It’s not like Hurts and Brown can talk with Patullo about their trouble, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I know I am changing up the analogy here, but that’s like a plane with 2 pilots who have never actually flown before, they’ve only watched other pilots do it. Would you feel safe in that plane?
The Eagles of the last few years have had elder statesmen on both sides of the ball. It was Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Darius Slay on the defense with Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson on the offense. 4 out of those 5 are gone. That means there is no one to keep Jalen Hurts and the receivers together and no one to reel in Jalen Carter and the defense either. These guys are ALL Super Bowl champions. What makes anyone think they have to listen to anyone else in the locker room? Brown, Smith, and Hurts have all been doing this for about the same time. Almost no one on the defense is older than 25. There is no alpha dog on this team, because they all think they are the alpha dog.
Last week we saw the Eagles get their asses kicked by a bad Giants team. That same Giants team lost to the Saints last week. Baker Mayfield looks like the MVP, but his only loss is to the Eagles and this defense. The Chiefs beat the Lions last night, but they were manhandled by the Eagles as well. This team has the talent to win in a league that has no one rising above the rest. If they don’t get it together, they are going to squander a great chance to repeat.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how they fix this. Sometimes a team can come together to understand the common goal of winning a championship, but this team already did that (and they did it pretty easily). It is hard to get motivated to do exactly the same thing again. They are 4-2 because they have an incredible assemblage of talent. They’ve lost their last 2 because there is no leadership. Even if the players somehow get it together, the coaches still don’t have a plan. That’s not going to be enough in the end.
Philly Front Office 
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