Philadelphia Eagles
2019 Record: (9-7) 1st NFC East
2019 Season Recap:
Offense
Points: 24.1 (12th)
Yards: 360.8 (14th)
Pass Yards: 239.6 (11th)
Rush Yards: 121.2 (11th)
Defense
Points: 22.1 (15th)
Yards: 331.7 (10th)
Pass Yards: 241.6 (19th)
Rush Yards: 90.1 (3rd)
Going back to review what transpired in
the NFC East and what lead the Eagles to win the division with a mere nine
victories – mediocrity could be the appropriate word used. Overall for the
Eagles, many positives did line their 2019 season but was again filled with
loads of injuries to top players on this roster. As the year tapered off,
Carson Wentz was forced to play with a number of lesser known pass catchers and
running backs to help lift them to the post season. Players like Greg Ward and
Boston Scott made names for themselves in relief while showing they could be
statistical earners in the process.
With all that turnover and trips to the
medical room, this Eagles roster was clearly unable to sustain any type of
power while losing a home playoff game to the Seattle Seahawks. With Wentz also
unable to preform in that wildcard match-up, Josh McCown tried his best and
truly left it all on the field.
The interesting aspect to the Eagles
2019 campaign should be seen in how well they were able to preform in the stat
sheet on both offense and defense. Amidst all the lost time to injury,
Philadelphia managed to secure mid level, to top 10 rankings in most categories
– very impressive. For this reason, we can easily provide a sound vote of
confidence that Coach Doug Pederson is something of a magician to expel the
most from the players he had at any given time.
And while the season didn’t end they way
the Eagles had hoped, no one can argue the depth that was prevalent on this
club. Retooling both sides of the ball should be the primary objective and we
could witness a vast amount of change come for the 2020 season.
2020 Offseason WorkBook:
The Offense
As we begin with most of our off-season
evaluations, starting with the quarterback position and Carson Wentz is
appropriate. For the most part, none of us can argue the talent Wentz possesses
but rather some inconsistency in his decision making leaves us wanting more at
times. While that could be seen as a foolish comment given the career high
passing yards (4039) and second best touchdown output (27) we’ve seen, missed
passes are littered on his 2019 tape. For the record, we are supporters of
Wentz and truly believe that with a healthy core, taking this team back to the
super bowl isn’t far-fetched.
The other issue which has plagued Wentz
over his NFL tenure has been injuries suffered himself. While he has missed
eight contests in his four regular seasons, not being able to participate in
the post season has been the largest issue. Either way, the Eagles are
committed to Wentz for the long haul but will again be searching for a reliable
backup.
Moving forward to review the running
back room the Eagles currently employ, they traded for Jordan Howard and
drafted Miles Sanders in hopes to provide more spark to the run attack. While
we felt Howard was going to be a sound fit in this offense, nothing overly
dominating came to pass. As the year wore on, Sanders took the lead role and
didn’t give it back. Granted, Howard did miss time to injury as well, which
promoted playing time to Boston Scott - who appeared to be a Darren Sproles
like clone. For the purposes of the 2020 season, we can’t envision any
situation where Howard is resigned (free agent) leaving the possibility for
Philly to again draft another back. Even though it may appear odd to use
another pick in consecutive years at the position, we wouldn’t rule it out.
Looking toward the wide receiver room and
the great chatter through the news wire, Alshon Jeffery appears to be on the
outs in Philly. Many reports have suggested he has become a locker room problem
and would accept parting ways. The issue at hand rests with Jeffery’s contract
as an outright release could cripple the Eagles cap space in dead funds.
Nevertheless, we won’t be shocked to see him wearing different colors next
season.
In terms of moving ahead with the
current pass catchers, Desean Jackson lost his season to a core muscle injury
and should be ready for the start of training camp. Jackson should revert back
to being the top receiver on this club in 2020. With Nelson Agholor also
looking to be on his way out, JJ Arcega-Whiteside and Greg Ward make up the
remainder of this corps. Without question, Philadelphia will be in the market
to add talent to this position in hopes to get better in the process. We
wouldn’t discount the notion that searching for a weapon in free agency is on
the table – the predictable area to add would be in the draft.
Even as we dissect the wide receivers on
this team, the Eagles hold two great players at the tight end position. If by
some measure they can’t manage to find a talent they covet at wide receiver,
more reliance on Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert should be the end result.
The Defense
Much like the offense for the Eagles,
the defense also dealt with its fair share of injuries, but still were
something of a force. The weakness once again came from the secondary where
stopping big plays was a concern. There were times this unit appeared to have
that shut down prowess, but overall, fixing the back-end will be a high priority
come this off-season.
The defensive front on paper still views
as a beast in its on right with Fletcher Cox still being the main anchor piece.
Even though last off-season saw a huge signing in Malik Jackson, he was lost
early to a season ending injury. Being no worse for wear, Derek Barnett,
Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry and Tim Jernigan helped create the third best run
stuffing unit in the NFL. And while the anticipation to see what can be
accomplished when Jackson returns to action, this is by far the greatest
strength on this defense.
As we mentioned, the defensive secondary
looks to be the largest issue on this side of the ball, truly it’s the line
backing core that poses the greater risk. Already cutting bait with Nigel
Bradham (which came as a surprise to us), it was understandable as saving
dollars on the books was the reason for this transaction. Having literally no
viable player (at the position) on the roster to make waves, Philly will
undoubtedly be looking to upgrade this room.
When it comes to the secondary, this group
holds three free agents who all had starting roles on this club. Often injured
Ronald Darby should be hard pressed to see another contract come his way from
the Eagles, while Jalen Mills and Rodney McLeod also could feel the same fate.
Adding salt to an open wound, the Eagles star safety Malcolm Jenkins has
already indicated holding out in hopes to strike a revamped contract. Feeling
he has already outplayed his current contract, this situation could become ugly
as we enter the off-season.
Nevertheless, this Eagles defense still
has many sound pieces to continue being a hard nosed unit placing punishment on
the opposition. However, starting roles will have to be filled while added
sustainable depth as injures have crippled them over the past two seasons.
Team Free Agents / Team Salary Cap
To begin with some positives as of
today, the Eagles hold a healthy 45.5 million on the books with 20 team free
agents to contend with. As we stated, Malcolm Jenkins is the problem player at
this point as the Eagles hold the club option for his contract for the upcoming
season. Clearly Jenkins would like to secure a longer term deal and likely will
hold out until week one of the regular season - still all leverage will be held
with the Eagles front office.
When it comes to players the Eagles will
like to bring back, Tim Jernigan appears to be the only noteworthy player at
this point. Keeping depth on that defensive line is paramount to the scheme of
Jim Schwartz as he requires a solid front four with reserves to promote his
system. With Darby, McLeod, Peters, Agholor, Curry, and Howard all vying for
new deals, the ship may have sailed on every one of these team free agents to
return to the city of brotherly love.
What would a good evaluation be without
exploring options on more players to cut for money saving purposes? However in
the Eagles case, general manager Howie Roseman has done this team a disservice
in how he has structured his contracts. All the top players on this roster hold
massive cap hits while holding equally mammoth dead caps, leaving Philly
hamstrung to make moves in this regard. For example, hearing that they would
like to move on from Alshon Jeffery (via trade or release) the savings aren’t
there to promote this move. Jeffery holds a cap hit of 15.6 million for the
2020 season, while his dead cap would account for a whopping 26.1 million. If
Philadelphia was able to muster a trade, the team would only save 2.55 million
this season while spreading the dead funds over two years.
No matter how you cut it, the books
aren’t polished for this team and finding ways to be competitive in free agency
will be a difficult task. Perhaps we see contract restricting occur on more
than one player to help keep this train moving – time will tell.
The NFL Draft
In terms of what we can expect for the
NFL draft, the Eagles currently hold seven selections with and extra fifth
rounder and no seventh round pick. Hearing that Philly may be in line for
compensatory picks from the NFL once everything is ironed out, we must stay the
course and evaluate on what we know today.
Holding the 21st pick in the
first round, many early mock drafts have the Eagles choosing a wide receiver
with that pick. While this class of pass catchers is plentiful, this could be
the motivation to get Jeffery off the books. Depending on which direction they
plan to move, Tee Higgins makes a great deal of sense at 21 simply because he
would mirror the skill set Jeffery would leave behind (if traded or cut). Could
we see a player like Henry Ruggs be pilfered off the board here? This wouldn’t
be out of the question and would form a speedy one-two punch with Desean
Jackson who is returning from injury.
With seeing the potential to add more
play-makers to the offense, perhaps the smarter choice is to draft a defensive
back as they could be very thin after free agency. Having some funds to spend
on the open market, could we see a Chris Harris find his way to the team
leaving the first round pick go to that wide receiver? All options are open and
on the table, and Philly fans should be licking their chops at the
possibilities.
Either way, this team will need some
level of improvement if they plan to once again sit atop the standings in a
division that will be much improved come the 2020 season.
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