This past season was a lot more merciful than I thought it would be beforehand. Being three games under .500 was about what my realistic side was saying. I said pre-2021 that six wins was realistic, so I was obviously pleasantly surprised when we finished the year with nine wins. Of course, as anyone who wants to be great knows, there’s still room for improvement in multiple areas. Also, criticism is what makes people great, so I guess what I’m trying to say with this article is you’re welcome @Eagles. I kid, but I’m also serious. Everything I say is tied to my observations from last season.
5. Jalen Reagor
There are extraneous factors that stunted Reagor’s development last year. Two that immediately come to mind are the death of his childhood friend and the rawness of his QB as a passer. Granted, that didn’t stop Devonta Smith from being productive, but I digress. No matter who the QB is or what happened in his life, the NFL is a business that doesn’t stop for anyone. As much as I despise ignoring context, Reagor needs to show the organization why they selected him 21st overall in 2020.
His lack of progression is not lost on the organization, either. Both Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman spoke on Reagor’s lackluster progression thus far. As the season progressed, Reagor moved from the outside to the slot to punt returner, and this is going to sound harsh, but he seemed not to be proficient at any of them. For the sake of Reagor’s career in Philadelphia, he has to hope that the work he seems to be putting in over the offseason bears fruit. Of course, as Ben Simmons has taught us, preseason workouts only so much if an athlete doesn’t show up on game day.
- “We want more production from Jalen Reagor and he has all the talent to do so,” said Sirianni. “So, I like him in that No. 3 spot right now to be able to make plays because he has skill, he has talent. It’s our job as coaches to get that skill and that talent out of him so it produces on the field. And it’s our job as coaches to put him in position to succeed.”
4. Fewer Penalties
I somehow almost forgot that the Eagles were top 10 in penalties. At one point, they were not only leading the league, but they were on pace for the most in NFL history. I said I want the Eagles to help themselves on the penalty front, but they’re already setting themselves back in that regard by bringing back Derek Barnett back. In case you’re unaware, this is the pass rusher that Nick Sirianni lamented for always being the source of an untimely penalty. Fortunately, the Eagles were better about penalties later in the year, as Nick Sirianni revised the playbook to mitigate “illegal man downfield” penalties. With a full year of head coaching experience under his belt and Barnett possibly only being a rotational edge rusher, fingers crossed history does not repeat itself and the field remains relatively free of yellow laundry.
3. Drafting
I haven’t exactly been high on Howie Rosemanm but he’s done well to redeem himself over the past few offseasons. With any luck, he’ll continue that trend with the embarrassment of riches he has in the 2022 draft. Roseman does not have a great resume in the first couple rounds, though he does weirdly well in the third round and beyond most years. I understand how selfish this is, but for the sake of saving myself early heartache, I need more Devonta Smiths and less Sidney Jones. Our fortune in the late rounds have saved us from drafting like the Seahawks or Raiders. For the sake of fairness, let’s observe each first and second rounder since 2016 when Roseman reclaimed the reigns from Chip Kelly.
- 2016: 1st rounder- Carson Wentz
- 2017: 1st rounder- Derek Barnett; 2nd rounder- Sidney Jones
- 2018: 2nd rounder- Dallas Goedert
- 2019: 1st rounder- Andre Dillard; 2nd rounder- Miles Sanders
- 2020: 1st rounder- Jalen Reagor; 2nd rounder- Jalen Hurts
- 2021: 1st rounder- Devonta Smith; 2nd rounder- Landon Dickerson
Jones is the only pre-2018 draft pick that can be scrutinized in my opinion, as he contributed nothing to the Super Bowl run. Wentz had an MVP caliber season and Barnett was a decent rotational edge rusher that recovered the most important fumble in Eagles history. Since 2017, the Eagles have drafted two home runs (Goedert, Smith), one great player with injury issues (Sanders) one good player with injury issues (Dillard), one obvious bust (Reagor), and two players that the jury is still out on (Dickerson, Hurts). I feel this list would look a lot better if injuries didn’t exist, but of all of them, it feels Dickerson is the only injury risk that didn’t backfire yet. With three mid-round picks in the first round, the Eagles have the potential to either set the team up for years or blow one of the best opportunities that the team has had in decades, possibly in the franchise’s history.
2. Defensive Scheme
We all know the story of the 2021 defense: routinely giving up 70% completion percentages, dropping Fletcher Cox into coverage, being incapable of covering the middle of the field because our starting linebackers missed over 15% of their tackles. To Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s credit, at least Davion Taylor and Avonte Maddox took steps forward. With that said, I lost my mind every week watching the defense play bend don’t break defense under Jim Schwartz. Imagine, then how I felt watching Schwartz’s soft zone defense on steroids in 2021. The addition of Kyzir White and Hassan Reddick should help, but Reddick will likely serve more of a pass rusher role, so there’s going to need to be someone who joins White playing the run. Whatever Howie & Co. do, as long as they manage to stop intermediate routes better, I’ll be satisfied.
1. Hurts as A Passer
The current discourse around Jalen Hurts isn’t “is he a franchise QB or not,” it’s “do we give him time to develop or not.” The implication therein is that despite leading the Eagles to the playoffs for the first time since 2019, people are not fully sold on him as a passer. This is fair in my opinion, as the optics of throwing 16 TDs and 9 interceptions is not great. As mentioned before, however, the Eagles had an unsightly amount of penalties early in the year. Such disciplinary issues had an adverse impact on both field position and the number of touchdowns that counted for Philadelphia. If the Eagles were more disciplined in the season, perhaps I would be singing a different tune. In fact, I have no doubt I would, and that, coupled with Hurts’ leadership and rushing statistics, give me optimism that he can be the face of the franchise moving forward. He needs to make decisions quicker and not bail out of the pocket so quickly (something he got better about as the season progressed), but in fairness to Hurts, even Mahomes took a year and a half to learn how to read a defense.
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Dylan Patrowicz is a featured writer at The Birds Blitz. For more from Dylan, check out his archive and read through our Eagles articles for the latest news about the Birds.
