The Eagles offense is once again struggling to go, but who’s to blame? Last Sunday, the offensive unit looked out of it. Creativity was lacking outside of a couple of Jalen hurts cameos, and Carson Wentz looked just as worrisome as he did in week one.
The good news is that the ground game looked good thanks to the return of Miles Sanders, who for rushed for 95 yards while averaging 4.8 yards per carry. The offensive line held up, aided by the return of Lane Johnson. The line allowed 0 sacks and Lane Johnson allowed 0 pressures in 43 pass-blocking reps.
So what gives?
How could the Eagles have gone from high octane offense in 2017 to nonexistent in 2020? There are several factors to this but there’s only one common denominator. Doug Pederson’s offense struggled last season with no healthy number one receiver. We saw just how great they could be in week 1 of 2019 when DeSean and Carson took the top off of the Washington defense. Unfortunately, that’s the last moment where Eagles fans got a whiff of that high octane offense.
Everyone knew that the team needed to add some speed on the outside to help in case Jackson were to go down again. We also knew that the team needed a new WR coach and Offensive Coordinator but we didn’t know that it would be Lurie pulling the strings.
In a report that recently came out by Jeff McLane, he states that
“The Eagles, led by Lurie, wanted to bring new ideas into the building. They believed that Pederson’s West Coast scheme had become stale, and they wanted to tap into some of the newer offensive innovations, whether it be from the NFL or the college game.”
Taking away the recipe that brought the team’s first Super Bowl title is risky but we should’ve seen this coming. Lurie is the same owner that dubbed Carson Wentz as the franchise QB but had a Nick Foles statue placed in front of the stadium.
Could the extra involvement of Lurie this offseason spell doom for his head coach and franchise QB? The Eagles have taken a step back every year since 2017 and there has been constant controversy since.
Doug Pederson assured reporters that his WR coach and offensive coordinator just 24 hours before their firing. If that didn’t ring the alarm bells, this certainly is.
Carson Wentz is being questioned once again as his play has seemingly looked unfamiliar as of late. To add to the struggle, Wentz is reminded every day that the Eagles could turn to Jalen Hurts as a potential replacement whenever they feel like it and it may not be Dougs decision to do so.
Feels like a movie, doesn’t it?
Doug Pederson needed young and healthy talent to help his offense flourish once again but instead was shown that he’s expendable if worst comes to worst. The unnecessary additions to this offensive staff have seemed to create a complicated offense. Doug has 4-5 voices that influence the weekly gameplan. Wentz’s play is the proof of these complications. Could the drafting of Jalen Hurts evidence that the front office expected this to happen in a move to prepare for the long-term future?
Imagine installing so many new voices around a QB that’s finally finding his footing because you believe that offense is too stale, but knowing that what you did may set back your expectations of the team, so you draft a QB in the second round knowing that this will be the only offense he knows.
Carson Wentz needed a top 5 offense in this draft. He was blessed with the selection of Jalen Reagor but cursed with the selection of Jalen Hurts in the second round. There were options there at positions of need. For instance, they could’ve gone with Van Jefferson out of Florida, who was drafted by the Rams. Jefferson had 4 receptions for 45 yards against the Eagles on Sunday.
They could’ve added help on the defensive line with AJ Espenesa or cornerback help with Kristian Fulton. One way or another, the Eagles showed once again that they may have been trying to act smarter than they really are. The truth of the matter is that Lurie and Howie may have outsmarted themselves instead of the league and now we’re seeing the consequences of it.
Carson Wentz is one of the top QBs in the NFL. Doug Pederson is one of the best creative minds in all of football. To envision how either of them grow when there’s apparent suffocating pressure from above is tricky.
Roles are roles at the end of the day, I always believe that no one in a different position can do your job better than you, especially when you’ve shown that you can do what no one before you ever did.
Pederson and Wentz will have to force all of this to work very soon because, from the looks of it, it seems as though there may be a different agenda already set in place if the head coach and QB duo fail this season.
Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire
