So let’s circle back to the youth movement.
The Birds have a couple of exciting young pieces that have tangible excitement surrounding them. They have gotten younger at a lot of key positions and the pieces are starting to fall into place in some regards.
Jalen Mills has fared pretty admirably in his time at safety. Will Parks had a monster game against Dallas. The defensive line has been dominant and the young defensive ends have continued to improve. I actually really like the pairing of TJ Edwards and Duke Riley. TJ was stellar against the Cowboys and Duke has been one of the unsung heroes of the entire season.
The young receiving corps looks like it might actually work. The young group of depth offensive lineman has been impressive given the circumstances. Miles Sanders has looked like one of the best young athletes in the league when he’s healthy.
Yet, the coaching staff has repeatedly moved away from developing these players, these relationships, this team. After finally getting a hang of the safety position, Mills was dumped at corner where he looked awful. Granted he was the only option at times, but the Eagles soon activated other options and still kept bouncing Mills back and forth. Parks just returned from injury to open his inbox to rumors of the Eagles wanting to trade him. (He found out on Instagram of all places). Nate Gerry continues to get playing time, and will likely return to his starting role once he is healthy.
At what point has Gerry played bad enough that we start to see what Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley have to offer? At the very least Alex Singleton’s play should put pressure on Schwartz to question Gerry’s role.
On offense, there seems to be an internal battle concerning just who the playmakers are. Should the team stick to what’s tried and true or give the young additions an opportunity?
By force, Travis Fulgham has made Pederson and Carson look his way. Still, when DeSean Jackson came back from injury, he was seemingly the primary option on every play until he limped off. It will be interesting to see how often Alshon Jeffery is featured when he finally returns.
Again it goes back to the question of what this team actually is: a veteran roster with a heap of injuries that expects to compete, or a young, developing roster that needs to give their up-and-comers some run.
Time and time again, the coaching staff have opted for the former.
Jordan Mailata played admirably at left tackle before Jason Peters returned to stink up the joint. The team threw Mailata to the right side, which he played as well as you could expect. Granted the JP is a legend, he should be afforded a long leash, but there is no world in which letting the future Hall of Famer figure out how much he has left is better than Mailata getting steady playing time at a single position.
The coaching staff has consistently made it difficult for their young guns to develop. Whether cross-training players, moving them in and out of the lineup. The list goes on.
For example, Dallas Goedert made his return to the lineup last week. It was assumed he would be on a snap count and would receive limited looks. The latter was true, but the stellar young TE was on the field for 85% of offensive snaps. He had one catch for 15 yards. There were no TE screens to manufacture touches, no simple completions to allow him to pick up the yards after catch he has become known for. In the early part of his career, Goedert has eaten the Dallas Cowboys for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and he wasn’t even given the opportunity last week.
John Hightower was ripped from the lineup to make way for Jalen Reagor’s reintroduction. That much is par for the course. Reagor was able to show off a bit of what he has to offer, but if this was a window into how he will be used in the offense, it left a little to be desired. The man needs the ball in his hands to make plays. In a game that Carson Wentz struggled to throw the ball downfield, both Goedert and Reagor — two young YAC studs — should have been made available for dump-off and screens: something that Doug Pederson has featured a ton in his offenses.
Now, this was just one game, but it has been a long season of unfulfilled anticipation for the young Eagles players.
The offseason began with a vow to take the pressure off of Wentz by adding playmakers to the roster. Instead, they have mounted pressure onto their QB. There is the inescapable shadow that injuries have cast on the roster. In such chaos, whatever consistency there is must be held at a premium.
Carson is at the center of what has been pegged as a perennial playoff roster surrounded by a very young offense peppered with aging veterans that just don’t have that much in the tank — save for Jason Kelce.
The Eagles could easily shift to a moniker of a young developing team. Such a move could come with further, more difficult decisions. Perhaps they let Lane Johnson, who just can’t seem to overcome his injury sit the rest of this year to recover. Maybe we see more of Jalen Hurts and less of Vinny Curry.
Continued on the page below.
Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire
