The NFL is back, and Sportsnet is breaking down everything you need to know about each of the 32 teams—including why you should or shouldn’t be rooting for them this season—in the month leading up to kickoff on Thursday, Sept. 8. Today, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Last year’s record: 7-9
Head coach: Doug Pederson
Core players: Sam Bradford (QB), Ryan Mathews (RB), Darren Sproles (RB), Jordan Matthews (WR), Brent Celek (TE), Zach Ertz (TE), Fletcher Cox (DT), Connor Barwin (DE), Mychal Kendricks (LB), Malcolm Jenkins (S)
2016 is about… moving on from Chip Kelly. Hindsight is 20/20, but the nearly three-season Kelly experiment was a disaster in Philadelphia. The Eagles lost three of the team’s best offensive playmakers — DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy and Jeremy Maclin — leaving the current squad with little to work with as it looks to recover from three years owner Jeffrey Lurie would most likely want to forget. Now with a revamped front office, coaching staff and a prospective franchise quarterback, it’s former Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson’s job to get the Eagles back on track.
But they lost… DeMarco Murray, Kiko Alonso, Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond, all players brought in by Kelly and all unmitigated disasters (maybe aside from Thurmond) from a production standpoint. Murray and Maxwell were both signed to big deals, both struggled mightily in their lone season in the City of Brotherly Love and both were traded away in an attempt to reclaim the money wasted by Kelly. Alonso, acquired in what can now undoubtedly by called the lopsided trade of McCoy, was also dealt as part of the Maxwell deal. The Eagles already got more from that trade than they did from Maxwell and Alonso on the field — they were able to turn around Miami’s first-round pick to climb up and select Carson Wentz.
This past off-season was about purging, and the Eagles did just that.
Yeah, but they got… Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and a trio of former Bills defenders. Schwartz is two years removed from moulding the Bills defence into a top-5 unit statistically, a top-two unit by Football Outsiders’ standards and the league-leader in sacks. With a defensive line as talented as the Eagles’, it bodes well for a unit that had been second-rate under Chip Kelly.
Along with Schwartz comes ex-Bills such as Leodis McKelvin, Ron Brooks — both of whom are expected to play big roles on what has been a pedestrian pass defence — and Nigel Bradham, a fifth-year linebacker who had his best season under Schwartz in 2014.
Add underrated safety Rodney McLeod — signed from the Rams — to the mix and you might just say things are looking up defensively in Philadelphia.
The Eagles also brought in stud guard Brandon Brooks from Houston, rounding out an offensive line that could do some damage (even if Lane Johnson misses 10 games…).
Growing from within… Carson Wentz, who the Eagles traded up in the draft to select with the second-overall pick in April with the hope of solidifying the quarterback position for the first time since Donovan McNabb was traded in 2010. A standout Division II signal caller, Wentz is considered to be raw but, according to the experts, possesses the smarts and ability to be an elite passer in the NFL.
Wentz suffered a hairline rib fracture in his first appearance for the Eagles, so another go in the pre-season seems unlikely. But despite what management says, if Philadelphia finds itself a couple games below .500 at the midway point of the season, don’t be surprised if Pederson turns to his top pick sooner rather than later.
Jordan Hicks, a 2015 third-round pick who was much-criticized until he actually took the field and dominated in his rookie year up to the point a torn pectoral ended his season prematurely. Hicks will be looking to pick up where he left off.
Meanwhile, last year’s first-round pick Nelson Agholor will be looking to forget his first season, a campaign in which he had just 23 catches and showed none of the potential of his college career at USC. Same goes for second-round cornerback Eric Rowe, who has reportedly fallen out of favour with coaching staff and has fallen to the bottom of the Eagles depth chart. More trouble left over from Kelly.
Why this team? Philadelphia has a lot of promise and an exciting, young core of players. The potential the team has, especially on defence, could pay dividends right away. But it’s likely this team is two (at best) or three years away from competing in any real way, but that wait could be worth it.
Why not this team? After Chip Kelly rid the Eagles of its explosiveness, the offence now lacks the weapons it needs to compete in the NFC. Unless Sam Bradford turns in his best season as a pro, the Eagles aren’t likely to finish above .500 and then the Wentz era begins.
How much hope? 5/10. A third-place finish in the NFC East seems likely in 2016, but we could see some signs of progress from the core players the Eagles locked up over the off-season.
