The Eagles have officially been eliminated from the playoff race and could be entering the draft with a top 5 pick depending on how next week turns out. No one expected the season to end this way. Doug Pederson’s offense has been regressing since 2018 no matter the QB under center. The Eagles never successfully invested in weapons for their QB outside of a running back but don’t even know how to use him. The lack of self-awareness has led all of Philadelphia to this very moment.
A moment that should be fully taken advantage of. A moment of clarity per se. The key to self-awareness is that you have to be mentally prepared to understand and accept your flaws. The Eagles haven’t done that in many years with their poor drafting being a prime example. The second key is that you have to formulate a plan to help yourself get out of “quicksand”. Which the Eagles have not. Instead, they embraced the chaos and allowed themselves to believe they weren’t drowning. This is the current state of the Eagles. Let’s name this chapter “Buried beneath the New Norm”.
A regressing Head Coach
Doug won’t come out and say it, he’s too prideful to call it what it is. The former Chiefs offensive coordinator has never found the route to being an excellent coach. Lurie and Roseman tried to help the offense out by hiring Marty Mornhinweg, Rich Scangarello, and several others. This only added weight to the body that was already sinking. Pederson had to deal with the embarrassment of standing up for Groh and Walsh just to have them fired the next day.
The Eagles head coach tried to show his authority but instead was shown that he has no say in what goes on around him. This led to this season.
The Eagles had a sure thing in Carson Wentz but even that fell apart. The offensive line was so inconsistent health-wise and play-wise this season that Carson Wentz was on pace to being placed on a stretcher by week 16.
The QB’s regression was also the product of a poor gameplan week in and week out. Pederson showed a lack of creativity all season long until Jalen Hurts did what the front office told Carson not to do: make plays with your legs.
People around Wentz have treated him as a fragile QB due to their fear that he won’t make it out alive. So instead they tried to transform him into a pocket QB that can never be settled in the pocket due to the inconsistent offensive line.
Pederson never gave Wentz a chance when it came to play-calling. Now whether Wentz was checking out of Doug’s plays or not, we’ll never know, but the disconnect between the two is very obvious and has to be addressed one way or another this offseason.
Continued on the page below.
Photo by Bob Kupbens/Icon Sportswire
