What Is Wrong With the Eagles?

By Noah Powell

Appalling. Embarrassment. Dumpster-fire. All of these adjectives are fitting ways to describe the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2020 season. After the 2017 Super Bowl, and Doug Pederson’s “We are not done yet. We have more to prove. This is our new norm,” Super Bowl speech, followed up with 2 consecutive playoff seasons in the most unlikely of situations, Philadelphia fans have become accustomed to winning. This season doesn’t seem to fit any mold of what the Eagles had become and fingers are pointed everywhere as to who is to blame.

The man in the spotlight, Carson Wentz. Wentz is going through not only the worst season of his career, but arguably the worst season of any quarterback in the 2020 NFL season.The main question is,  should he be shouldering all of the blame?

The Eagles have finally turned the offense over to Jalen Hurts. (USA TODAY Sports)

Wentz’s abrupt fall from grace is at the level that no NFL player has ever seen before. Before tearing his ACL in the 2017 Super Bowl season, Wentz was the frontrunner for MVP with 3,296 passing yards, 33 touchdowns, and only 7 interceptions. He followed that up the next season with another 11 game 3,000 yard season with 21 touchdowns. Last season he became the first Eagles quarterback to ever throw for 4,000 yards in a season, with 4,039 yards, and the first quarterback ever to throw for 4,000 yards or more with no receiver totaling over 500 yards. So based off of those three years you could say he was pretty good.

In comes 2020, he has just been benched for rookie Jalen Hurts, he leads the league with 15 interceptions and is second in fumbles with 10. He has been struggling to make proper reads, holds the ball too long, and doesn’t have the same amazing accuracy he once had.

Is Carson Wentz broken?

Wentz has been bad, but Head Coach Doug Pederson has not been much better. His season has been plagued with terrible decisions in every facet of the game. He’s unnecessarily gone for 2 in situations that just kicking an extra point would suffice, often failing and putting his team in tough situations to win. He goes for it on fourth down when he should just kick a field goal or punt. Even though injuries have been a major issue with the team, he has not put the proper players on the field. For example, playing an old and washed up Jason Peters over two good rising young players in Nate Herbig, and Jordan Mailata. Worst of all is his decision to take away from Travis Fulgham’s snaps and touches after breaking out and leading the NFL in receiving for an entire month, in favor of an old, unproductive Alshon Jeffery who has posted 2 receptions for 15 yards in 4 games.

While all of that is bad, Pederson’s biggest malpractice may be his lack of putting his team and players in the best situations to succeed. Wentz is at his best when being able to rollout and move outside the pocket, yet last game when Hurts took over he had more designed rollouts than Wentz had in the last 5 games. How can you expect Wentz to succeed?

Miles Sanders is 4th in the league with his yards per carry but has only seen 16 carries in the past two games. In fact, the Eagles lead the league with 5.0 yards per carry but have the fifth fewest attempts in the NFL. It just doesn’t add up.

Howie Roseman, the man who has done his best to hide throughout this monstrosity of a season deserves a ton of blame himself. Howie Roseman has drafted just 4 pro-bowlers since 2012. Sure you can say you can’t always predict booms and busts, but you should at least be responsible to pick the best available. 

Roseman has drafted J.J. Arcega-Whiteside over DK Metcalf. Arcega-Whiteside’s career stats are 12 receptions, 214 yards and 1 touchdown. Metcalf currently leads the NFL in receiving yards with 1,119 yards. 

He has drafted Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson, no offence to Reagor since he hasn’t been nearly used the right way. Reagor has 20 receptions for 256 yards and 1 receiving touchdown. Justin Jefferson is the front runner for Offensive Rookie of the Year, and is 4th in the NFL with 1,039 yards.

He decided to draft Jalen Hurts in the second round of the 2020 draft ultimately creating a QB controversy that did not previously exist, and completely ignored other team needs like linebacker or secondary.

The icing on the cake, Roseman has drafted Jordan Matthews over Davante Adams… Need I say more?

The Eagles organization is currently a disaster on all levels,  but if they act quick enough they can avoid a complete downwards spiral that will leave them at the bottom of the league for years to come.

Looking at the aforementioned issues it should be simple. They must fire Howie Roseman or bring in someone who is a much better evaluator of talent in order to keep an influx of talent in the organization and also help those already on the roster.

Pederson must hire an offensive coordinator who is capable of utilizing the talent on the roster, and put their players in the best place to succeed. (Don’t forget the Eagles won the Super Bowl with Frank Reich calling plays).

Lastly, don’t give up on Wentz. Through poor management the Eagles have broken a once star studded quarterback, but it's not too late to recover. Whether it be the new offensive coordinator or a separate quarterbacks coach, they must find someone capable to reinstall Wentz’s confidence and help fix his current mistakes.

That’s it. The blueprint to saving the Eagles franchise. Feel free to send this over to the Linc to help them get the ball rolling. 

Noah is a sports writer for La Tonique.