The Eagles are under .500 for the first time in forever, the coach has regressed, everyone is hurt, and somehow the offense looks even worse than last year. Still, I’m going to try to be optimistic here even if every part of my being screams for Howie Roseman to burn this bitch to the ground. Here’s my best shot at hope.
London
The Jaguars are a good team. They play offense and defense at elite levels and are going to win their division at the very least this year. Still, it took some monumental stupidity and offensive ineptitude for them to win. If it were any other team in London, you could chalk the uncharacteristic performance to jet lag or inexperience internationally, but this was the Jags. London is a home game for them having played 15 games in England over their last dozen games. The Eagles played them legitimately tough.
Injuries
The Eagles were down to their 4th string running back and center, 3rd string guard, and were without their top two pass rushers by halftime. Jeremiah Trotter was going to make his first start of the season but was ejected on the opening kickoff.
This team is a shell of itself on both sides of the ball but no where is the situation more dire than the offensive line. Three positions were starting novices and the one’s who have been there haven’t exactly been pitching shutouts. The entire offense is predicated on having time to develop and there’s been none of it. Whether Sean Mannion is a bad coordinator or simply unprepared for the losses is still an active question through 5 games. What we do know is that Drew Kendall is an upgrade over Cam Jurgens and Willie Lampkin is an upgrade over Landon Dickerson. Hopefully, the unit gels over the next few weeks.
Last season the offense was ugly but it still moved. Now it looks a little prettier but it’s moving even less. We also had AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith to move the chains when necessary. Now there’s no safety blanket. Because of that, it might not be worse, but it’s definitely much less talented. Obviously, Brown isn’t coming through that door, but Smith will hopefully be back soon. On a team already lacking high end WR talent, his loss is much bigger than anyone is giving credit to.
Schedule
Road Bears, short week Rams, and London Jaguars stinks. Being 2-3 after that stretch wasn’t desirable but it wasn’t impossible either. Things do lighten up considerably from here. Next week is the Panthers at home ( though inexplicably no post-London bye week) followed by the Cowboys, Commanders, and Giants before our bye week. After that, it’s Steelers, Cowboys, Cardinals and Colts. That’s only 1 likely playoff team over the next two months. 6-2 over that stretch isn’t crazy. Of course, losing over that stretch means the season is over before things get hard again.
Coaching
There’s a world where this very same Eagles team, with all its problems, is 4-1 right now. Would that make you happier? Is the team any more of a contender if the Jags miss from 57 yards and Cam Jurgens doesn’t run into Jalen Hurts on the goal line against the Rams? Both would just hide the real problems this team has under the headsets.
When you drop to 2-3, there’s no hiding. Nick Sirianni is showing that even his minimal responsibilities are too much for him. If he keeps botching his weekly preparation and game day responsibilities, his head is going to roll. Wait, why is that optimistic? Because he either needs the fire to his feet to get back to being good cocky Nick or he needs to go. What he’s doing right now isn’t helping anyone.
As for Sean Mannion, I honestly don’t know what he’s doing that he can’t design anything in the second half. Is he being held back by Nick in some way or is he simply completely unable to react to the opponent’s adjustments? The Eagles have one of the worst offensive units in NFL history in the final 30 minutes of games. At the very least, he can’t get much worse.
Howie Roseman
After years of flexing on the rest of the NFL, Howie is on a bit of a down turn. He hasn’t been bad, but his last two years of drafting looks like it will result in basically only Drew Kendall. It’s early, but it’s not good. Today being said, what just happened with Cam Jurgens shows that he’s still Howie.
Getting a 2nd round pick for maybe the worst player on the team is incredible. He got a 1st round pick for AJ Brown without any leverage. He’s still the gold standard in terms of trades. He has a month until the trade deadline. If this team shows promise and rebounds, Howie will know what to do. On the other hand, if everything continues to go wrong, there’s literally no one in the NFL I’d rather have to extract value for our moveable parts in a soft reset.
Jalen Hurts
I’ve heard the argument that Jalen Hurts needs to do more for the Eagles to win. What I’m seeing is a QB constantly on the run with no open targets. My rebuttal would be that he’s been keeping us in games that we have no business being in. He’s been poised and keeping calm despite dealing with injuries to all buy a few starters around him. He’s kept turnovers down, morale up, and the team in position to win every week (even in Chicago, he’s the only reason we scored that TD before the half and the Andy Dalton nonsense was literally the only time he was physically incapable of being on the field). He does all of this despite the vipers constantly eyeing him from the grass. He’s not missing receivers, he’s getting nothing to go on and still surviving.
Yes, I’m a Jalen Hurts Stan, but I also see a guy getting essentially no help from literally anyone, least of all his coaches. I believe that if anyone can keep his head up, keep the team’s head up, and actually rally this thing, it’s him.
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