The Philadelphia Eagles have played five games. These are five thoughts on the team.
1) The Eagles’ vibes are bad but the season is not over.
This Eagles season is off to a dreadful start. The offense feels out of sorts. Lane Johnson retired. Cam Jurgens has been traded. The defense has regressed mightily. The coaching has felt bad to the point of malpractice. The vibes haven’t been bad since, well, since two years ago after a blowout loss to the Buccaneers. Two weeks after getting lit up by Kirk Cousins, the Eagles went to Tampa Bay and got boat raced
in the brutal heat. People (including me!) wanted Nick Sirianni fired and the hope bottomed out on Jalen Hurts. And we all know what happened after that. Now, I would be shocked if the Eagles repeated 2024. The pieces just aren’t there the way they were then. But despite all the things that are bad about this team, and there is plenty to be frustrated about, I don’t want to throw in the towel on this season. Washington is a mess, the bottom is going to come out on Jameis Winston in New York, and the Dallas Cowboys have been the same 9-8 team since the Obama administration. The NFC East is stupid every year and the Eagles can still tighten up the operation and go on a run. 10 games probably wins the East and if you would rather blow it up midseason instead of piss off Cowboys fans with a third straight division title… I don’t know what to tell you.
20 Nick Sirianni is still not the guy.
Just like everyone else, I have gone back and forth on Sirianni basically since he got hired. But I feel confident (for now) that he is just not fit to lead this team. His whole schtick was supposed to be that he’s a culture and preparation guy. But the Eagles have felt unprepared at the beginning of every season he’s been head coach and the culture has officially fallen off a cliff with the Lane Johnson exit.
Every week it feels like the Eagles are battling their own offensive coaching. Big plays seem to happen outside of the offensive structure and when Hurts is calling audibles at the line. That has been a trend for years. Nick’s influence on the offense feels obvious from coordinator to coordinator.
Unless he miraculously runs this team to an NFC title appearance, you gotta move on.
3) The Howie Roseman Conundrum.
Howie Roseman is the best GM in the NFL. I don’t think there’s really any debating that. I think you can say the last two drafts have yet to prove themselves, but those are two question marks on an otherwise exceptional track record, especially since 2021.
However…
If and when the Eagles fire Sirianni, the Eagles have to contend with a dynamic that has followed Howie Roseman around since he became the GM over 15 years ago. Howie doesn’t share power very well, and people get fired when they try to usurp his power. Now, it’s great he believes in his abilities as a GM so much: He is very good at it. However, the Eagles clearly need a head coach who can build a sustainable offensive ecosystem. Having the entire operation being reliant on young offensive coordinators who can be hired away every year is not a great way to move. However, the archetype of the offensive architect head coach typically means a guy who wants a lot of say in roster construction.
When the Eagles initially hired Sirianni, I said that Howie got a guy he could push around and would never push back. I still believe that. He did not play nice with Andy Reid, or Chip Kelly, or Doug Pederson.
Now obviously this worked with Nick over the course of his tenure. There’s no arguing that. But if (when) the Eagles move on to a new head coach, is Howie’s looming presence going to keep certain personalities away from the team?
The youth movement is rarely pretty.
The Eagles were really good for a few years, in large part due to some amazing veteran players on both sides of the ball serving as a great influence to talented youngsters.
Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, and Darius Slay are all gone now.
A new era has to begin.
As I mentioned above, the jury is still out on the last two drafts, but so far it doesn’t look great. However, this year will really show one way or the other if the Eagles have anything in Jihaad Campbell, Makai Lemon, Andrew Mukuba, Markel Bell, Willie Lampkin, Eli Stowers, and Micah Morris. All have flashed some good and might just need more snaps to become more consistent.
But these kinds of transition periods are rarely smooth even for the best teams. We saw it last year with the Chiefs. Ultimately getting these young guys snaps now could be really good for the team in the long term.
5) Howie knows the team is in transition.
Howie is a smart guy. He knows he has to prepare for the next era. Even if the Eagles can make the playoffs this year, Howie is going to be aggressive in the 2027 offseason to reload the roster. The team has seven picks in what should be a very good 2027 draft, and seven picks in the 2028 draft, including two picks in the first round and two in the second.
Howie is smart enough to remember what happened after the 2018 Super Bowl win where bad drafting and roster aging led to the team bottoming out in 2020. I think he’s doing his best to avoid that.
We’ll see how it works out.
