There was a time when virtually every Eagles season was like this.
Prior to 1988, the autumn was generally a depressing time in Philadelphia. There were very few seasons to celebrate. But since Buddy Ryan broke through with the first of his three straight playoff appearances in ‘88, the Eagles have been one of the marquee teams in the NFL. Their .575 winning percentage over the last 39 seasons is 5th-best, with only the Chiefs (.578), Patriots (.596), Packers (.602) and Steelers (.611) better.
Seasons
like what we’re experiencing now have been few and far between over that stretch. After another brutal offensive showing with their fourth quarterback in a 19-11 loss to the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Nick Sirianni’s Birds have lost seven in a row and dropped to 2-7 on the season. This would be just the 10th losing season in the last 39 for the Eagles. They are in last place in a laughingly bad NFC East, having lost to each of their three divisional opponents in three consecutive weeks by a combined score of 84-42.
And while it’s highly unlikely the team will lose their final eight games and finish 2-15 this year, it’s difficult right now to envision how they’re ever going to win again.
When all is said and done, will this be the worst Eagles team of the last 40 years? There are four other squads they’ll have to contend with for that dubious honor. Let’s take a look at how this year’s Eagles, through nine games, compare with the very worst of the last four decades.
There are a few key terms that are helpful to know more about.
Yards +/- quantifies the difference in yards gained and yards allowed and where that team ranks in the NFL. The higher the number, the worse the ranking. Strength of Schedule helps paint a picture of how difficult a schedule the Eagles had to deal with that year. Negative numbers mean an easier schedule. Margin of Victory is the average difference in score per game. SRS is a metric by Pro Football Reference called Simple Rating System that takes into account margin of victory and strength of schedule and provides a number relative to average (0.0), that can be considered a point spread. So, a -6.7 SRS means that team, on average, would have been a 6.7 point underdog. OSRS and DSRS measure offensive and defensive Simple Rating System.
Based on the numbers, the 1998 season is quite clearly the worst team the franchise has fielded in the last 40 years, and it actually isn’t all that close. Ray Rhodes’ final campaign was an utter disaster. Their -183 point differential and -11.4 point margin of victory drove their -12.8 SRS that was far and away the lowest of any of the five teams we’re discussing.
As painful as the 2026 offense has been to watch, Rhodes’ ‘98 team averaged 10.1 points per game against one of the easiest schedules in the NFL that season. Koy Detmer, Bobby Hoying and Rodney Peete “led” an offense that scored 20+ points just ONCE , in a Week 4 24-21 loss to the Chiefs. They didn’t score more than 17 points in any of their final 12 games, and they were shut out three times that season. Somehow Duce Staley ran for 1,065 yards, and Jeff Graham was their top receiver in yards (600). They threw 7 touchdowns as a team and tossed 18 INTs.
Defensively, they had nine interceptions as a defense, with Brian Dawkins, Troy Vincent and Mike Zordich with two each. Hugh Douglas piled up 12.5 sacks, and the legendary Al Wallace was 2nd, with 6. It was a tough watch.
Incredibly, the team made a highlights video for this unit, entitled “A New Beginning.” You’ll notice most titles of highlight videos of terrible teams that resulted in the firing of a head coach have similar themes.
“A New Beginning.” “A New Era Begins.” “Into The Great Wide Open.” “Free Fallin’.” Sorry, those last two were just Tom Petty songs.
And they got 23 whole minutes out of it, although much of the play was in slow motion, which helped take up some time.
The 2012 season was just slightly worse from an SRS perspective (-8.9) compared to this year’s team (-8.8). Their -10.3 point margin of victory was 2nd-worst, with an offense that was slightly more functional than this year’s group, but a worse defense.
This was Andy Reid’s final season and, coming off an 8-8 record the year before, got off to a 3-1 start thanks to several last-second victories. The team then completely fell apart, losing 10 of their last 11 in what was clearly the end of an era. Mike Vick, who led the team on a miraculous run in 2010, couldn’t duplicate that feat and made just 10 starts for the 2012 Birds. Nick Foles, the back-up, made the other six. Outside of the QB, however, there were building blocks on that offense, including LeSean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant and Brent Celek.
The defense started the season with Juan Castillo, the team’s long-time offensive coordinator, leading the defense for a second season, but he was replaced by Todd Bowles midway through the year. The defense gave up 30+ points in 7 of their last 10 games, and at least 25 in 27 or more in 9 of their last 10. This was one of the few cases where the defense was the weaker link.
The team’s season highlight video was titled “A Season of Change.” That’s putting a positive spin on things.
With half a season in the books, the 2026 Eagles’ SRS would put them 3rd on this list of awful teams, but nipping at the ‘12 Eagles’ heels. Just below them is the pandemic Birds of 2020.
The entire country was desperate for live sports during the height of COVID, but fans in Philadelphia quickly reconsidered that desire watching this team play. But with fake, cardboard cutout fans in the stands “watching,” the Eagles in Doug Pederson’s final season in Philadelphia played like fake, cardboard cutouts themselves.
At least the players didn’t have to deal with fans booing inside the stadium. And for 2020, the team didn’t even bother with a full highlights package. Instead, they put together a compilation of the best plays only from their victories. Pretty smart, if you ask me.
The Eagles were three seasons removed from their first Super Bowl title but even fresher off a wild card loss to the Seahawks at home in which Carson Wentz, playing in his first playoff game, was concussed in the first half. He never recovered from his litany of injuries and led an absolutely dreadful offensive effort in which he threw an NFL-leading 15 interceptions with a QB rating of 72.8. He was also sacked a league-high 50 times, with rookie Jalen Hurts eventually taking over for the final four games of the season.
Those Eagles had a point differential of -84. By comparison, this year’s Birds have a point differential of -73. So this year’s team is on pace to blow past that number. That team averaged 20.9 points per game, this year’s Eagles are averaging 16.4. And at least that squad had an interesting young quarterback to get excited about.
Last, the 1999 Eagles. This season launched the Andy Reid era, one of the most successful and exciting runs in franchise history. But it was a slow build under then-QB Doug Pederson, who tried to guide a brand new offensive system while rookie first round pick Donovan McNabb got his feet wet. Once McNabb got comfortable, the team played pretty well over the final three weeks, and it was clear this was an improving roster with competent coaching.
And yet, the ‘99 Eagles finished 30th in the NFL in terms of yardage differential. This year’s Eagles are 31st, 2nd-worst in the league. But I’d say, right now, the ‘26 Eagles are worse than Reid’s first year in Philadelphia.
Honorable mention must be given to the 1994 Eagles, who started 7-2 in Rich Kotite’s final year with the team, only to lose their last seven to finish 7-9, as well as the 2015 7-9 season, Chip Kelly’s final year. The records and overall numbers don’t put them in this same stratosphere, but they were truly terrible, too.
In all but one of these seasons, the head coach was fired at the end of it. Nick Sirianni, despite two Super Bowl appearances, five straight playoff seasons and one championship, is likely to join Rhodes, Andy and Doug in suffering the same fate.
Of course, there are still eight more games left in this lost season. So much can happen, both good and bad. But right now, here are my rankings, from worst-to-“first”:
- 1998: Ray Rhodes’ Disaster
- 2012: Andy’s Goodbye
- 2026: Nick’s Last Gasp?
- 2020: COVID & Doug
- 1999: Andy’s First Season
Do you agree? Will this season surpass 2012 and 1998?
