Observations by Bob: The Eagles’ fateful move
Barrett Brooks, Dave Zangaro, and Michael Barkann talk about thec’ influence on the front office’s choice to keep Nick Sirianni aboard.
While we wait for little details like who will be the Eagles’ head coach in 2024, here are some random observations on the team.
1. One of the worst errors in Cowboys history will be replacing the defensive coordinators after the game. Consider this: The Eagles had kept four postseason opponents to 17 points or less going into their game against the Bills; they had defeated the Bucs 25-11, the Rams 23-14, the Dolphins 31-17, and the Chiefs 21-17. All except Tampa were top-10 offensive teams. No other NFL club has held playoff opponents to 17 points or less in four straight wins going into Week 11. There were many positive aspects of the defence, despite its flaws. The Eagles allowed a reasonable 21 points per game, good for 12th place in the NFL in terms of total defence. The defence made the saves they needed late in the game to help the Bills win in a shootout against a very strong opponent. Thus, the 49ers and Cowboys games ultimately led to the replacement of Sean Desai with Matt Patricia. The defence performed a bad job against the 49ers, but the Eagles managed to keep the Cowboys scoreless in the second half. The Eagles’ dismal offence meant that the Cowboys had to rely on several short passes and field goals from 59 and 60 yards to get to 33 points. Changing coordinators after one terrible and one good game seems like a shocking overreaction in hindsight. Although the defence performed well at times throughout the season, the alteration significantly worsened the situation in two ways: 1) To begin with, even with a brilliant new coach, it is almost hard to just switch midstream from one system, philosophy, and vocabulary to another. Particularly on defence where a lot of new players are still figuring out Desai’s approach. It’s difficult, as Haason Reddick said after Arizona’s defeat. It’s very challenging. The sheer fact that Patricia lacked answers made the shift even more difficult to bear. Thus, the men were attempting not only to pick up a new method but one that was dreadfully inefficient. What happens when players who weren’t very gifted to begin with carry around two different sets of terms, ideologies, and methods of playing the game? The outcomes versus the Seahawks, Giants, Cards, and Buccaneers were evident to all of us. Individuals who were unsure about their whereabouts, their tasks, or their competence. Had Desai continued to lead, maybe things might have taken a turn for the worst; nonetheless, the defence was helpless after the shift. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybodyc
2. Over his tenure with the Eagles, Jason Kelce had 381 colleagues.
3. James Bradberry won’t be the last seasoned cornerback to lose it all so quickly. He isn’t the first either. There is a half-step difference between Bradberry, who was an outstanding cornerback the previous season, and Bradberry, who was an unsuccessful one this year. You’re out if you lose even a single step. Although Bradberry was never a particularly quick cornerback, his toughness, intellect, and respectable speed were enough to earn him a spot on the second team of the all-pro team only the previous season. The data confirms what we all observed: Among the 73 cornerbacks with at least 50 targets, Bradberry had the lowest passer rating (50.7) for opposing quarterbacks last season. Bradberry was covering receivers, and QBs were 46-for-98 for 464 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions at that point. Against Bradberry this year, quarterbacks posted the eighth-highest passer rating (118.7) among 75 corners targeted at least 50 times (it’s hard to imagine seven corners were worse). When going after Bradberry, quarterbacks went 64-for-106 for 826 yards, an incredible 12 touchdowns, and one interception. Since Stathead started keeping track of cornerback stats in 2018, those 12 touchdowns are the most that any CB has ever given up. Weeks ago, he ought to have been benched in favour of Kelee Ringo.
4. One might argue that the hiring of offensive and defensive coordinators by the Eagles is more significant than the selection of a head coach. Why? Consider the year 2022. Under head coach Nick Sirianni, the Eagles were the greatest team in the NFL, and coordinators Shane Steichen and Jonathan Gannon’s outstanding work was a major factor in their 14-3 record and Super Bowl appearance. You witnessed what happened when their less successful instructors took their place. With two excellent coordinators, Sirianni was able to lead a team to a Super Bowl despite his talents and faults. The magic vanished along with them. When Mike Groh succeeded Frank Reich following his departure in 2017, we saw something like to what happened with Doug Pederson. Since a head coach is only as good as his coordinators, it goes without saying that this year’s new coordinators severely hurt both sides of the ball, despite the head coach being the same. The lesson is that, with the proper coordinators in place, Sirianni can lead the Eagles to greatness. But with Matt Patricia and Brian Johnson as their coordinators, they are not going to be a top team under any head coach. I continue to believe that Johnson has been held accountable for several incidents that were not his fault. Although he was the incorrect offensive coordinator, he wasn’t a bad offensive coordinator.)
.. Michael Clay was the lone coach I want to fire a year ago. One of the few that I want to preserve now is him.
6. I’ve identified eight players that should not be near the NovaCare Complex in 2024: James Bradberry, Nicholas Morrow, Kevin Byard, Zach Cunningham, Justin Evans, Shaq Leonard, Bradley Roby, and Mario Goodrich. These players are defensive backs or linebackers who started at least one game this season. These eight players have played a total of 4,107 snaps and started 58 games together this season. When you account for players who have already left the team—Terell Edmunds, Kentavius Street, Derek Barnett, Justin Evans, and Christian Ellis—you add nine more starts and 798 more snaps, bringing the total number of defensive players the Eagles have lost or are unable to replace to 67 starts and 4,905 snaps. It equates to almost 300 snaps per game. Not only the defensive coaching staff was involved. This season, the Eagles featured some very awful players. The whole group must go.
A cornerback for the Eagles hasn’t had more than four interceptions in a season in ten years. That person was Brandon Boykin, who in 2013 had six.
8. This year, Jalen Hurts moved from having six interceptions to fifteen. He is just the third quarterback in NFL history to have at least fifteen interceptions in one year and at least six the following (first year minimum of 450 pass attempts). In 2002 and 2003, Brad Johnson accomplished this feat by tossing six passes on 451 attempts in 2002 and 21 passes on 570 tries in 2003. And in 2008—six interceptions in 506 attempts—and 2009—fifteen interceptions in 507 attempts—Jason Campbell of Washington accomplished the feat.
Even with how excellent D’Andre Swift was this season, I believe he could be much better with the correct offence. The offensive coordinators didn’t appear to know how to utilise Swift effectively or couldn’t really put together an offence that would have let him play to his full potential. He had a few great games, but his use was fairly uncreative, which contributed to a dip in productivity in the latter part of the season. He averaged 18 touches per game during the Eagles’ 10-1 record in Buffalo’s first 11 games. He also ranked third in the league with 88 scrimmage yards per game. He averaged 14 ½ touches per game and 58 scrimmage yards per game over the past six games, ranking him 30th among RBs. He was simply a different person. Swift is too gifted to fail in that manner.
10A. In their first 15 games, the Eagles missed 60 tackles; in their final three games, they missed only 31. Against the Cards, Giants, and Bucs, they missed almost one-third of their tackle opportunities.
10B. The Eagles missed 63 tackles in 13 games under Sean Desai (4.8 per game) and 38 in five games under Matt Patricia (7.6 per game) between the two defensive coordinators. There was not a single Eagles player in the top 50 in terms of missed tackles.
10C. Reed Blankenship (11), Zach Cunningham (9), James Bradberry (8), Darius Slay (8), Nicholas Morrow (6), Bradley Roby (6), Haason Reddick (5), Kevin Byard (4), Eli Ricks (4), Josh Sweat (4) are the Eagles’ missed tackle leaders.
10D. Derek Barnett (40.0%), Mario Goodrich (28.6%), Kentavius Street (20%), Roby (19.4%), Ricks (16.7%), Patrick Johnson (12.5%), Bradberry (12.3%), Shaquille Leonard (11.5%), Reddick (11.4%), Slay (11.3%), Blankenship (8.9%), and Cunningham (8.7%) had the highest percentage of attempted tackles.
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