Entering the 2022 NFL season, no team has more “dark-horse Super Bowl contender vibes” than the Philadelphia Eagles.
Head Coach Nick Sirianni exceeded expectations with a surprise run in his debut season in 2021. Reliant on a run-heavy offense anchored by Jalen Hurts, Philly overcame a shaky defense to clinch the final NFC Wild Card spot, making a return to the postseason a few years ahead of schedule.
Of course, losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady, their true arch nemesis (sorry Dallas) is never easy for Eagles fans. But this 31-15 loss in the wild-card round eight months ago left a sour taste in the mouths of many in Philly for a different reason.
Jalen Hurts and the offense had completely unraveled.
The Eagles’ first ten possessions of the game went like this:
Punt
Punt
Punt
Turnover on Downs
Interception
End of Half
Punt
Interception
Punt
Punt
Not until the fourth quarter were the Eagles able to find the endzone. By then, the offseason quarterback carousel had started to take shape in the minds of Birds fans.
Before a blockbuster trade to Denver, reports suggest GM Howie Roseman made an offer to the Seattle Seahawks for QB Russell Wilson, who declined to waive his no-trade clause to head to Philly. In the end, the team chose to stick with the third-year QB and build the rest of the roster around Hurts for the upcoming season.
"Any time you get content, you get your butt kicked,” Sirianni said on the Eagles Insider Podcast. “I don't know that we ever feel that we have a position that is 'good enough.' I feel like we're a better football team, I feel we're a better culture than the team that ended last year.”
Roseman got to work, shuffling around two of his three first-round picks and ending up with wide receiver A.J. Brown (on top of an extra 1st from New Orleans in 2023 and 2nd in 2024). Paired with 2021 first-rounder Devonta Smith (64 rec, 916 yds, 5 TD, 61.5 catch %, per NFL) and Tight End Dallas Goedert (56 rec, 840 yds, 4 TD, 73.7% catch %), Philly boasts a strong 1-2 punch at the wide receiver position.
“They’re as good as any pair that’s in the league right now, and if I look at Eagles history, they’re potentially as good” as any pair, said Eagles radio analyst and former WR Mike Quick to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “When you haven’t done it, you have to say ‘potentially.’ But they bring a tremendous skill set to the game, and they’re different.”
Roseman also brought in WR Zach Pascal, familiar with Sirianni from their days with the Colts. Once the receiving core was in tact, Howie fiinally shipped out the dead weight of TE J.J. Arcega-Whiteside and WR Jalen Reagor, who now joins the Vikings. Roseman did not shy away from admitting fault for drafting Reagor instead of his new teammate, Justin Jefferson.
"I think a lot of the message there is, we just have to take the best players at all times,” Sirianni told Angelo Cataldi of 94.1 WIP. “We don't have to worry so much about fit or what we have on the team. You go back to that moment, we had two tight ends who were really good in the middle of the field, Greg Ward was coming off of a really good year in the slot. We were looking for a specific role as opposed to just grading the players. That's on me, one hundred percent. At the end of the day, I'm responsible for all of that. But I also promise you one thing, if I make a mistake, I'm going to do everything in my power to make it up.”
That mentality went into stabilizing the Eagles’ most effective position group in its offensive line. In the second round, the Eagles targeted Nebraska center Cam Jurgens.
Hand-picked by incumbent C Jason Kelce to succeed the Philly legend upon retirement, the Eagles brass are high on Jurgens as the future anchor of an offensive line that features proven veterans in Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and a solid second-year guard in Landon Dickerson.
"I've seen him be like a sponge around Jason," said Sirianni.
“Cam’s come in and done a really good job,” Jalen Hurts said. “He has so much ability. So much ability. He can run, he’s very smart, and I know he’s early on in it being a rookie, but he’s shown so much.
Where the Eagles stand out, though, is on defense. Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon received plenty of heat for his conservative style of play last season. The Eagles had the second-fewest sacks last season (29), and blitzed on just 16.4% of snaps (per Pro Football Reference), the second-lowest percentage in the league.
Drastic changes defensively were necessary if the Eagles were poised to take the next leap. Roseman inked Camden native, linebacker Haason Reddick. He transitioned to outside linebacker and began putting up double digit sack numbers in Arizona (12.5 in 2020) and Carolina (11 in 2021). Reddick factors in as Philly’s pass-rushing Sam LB.
“The greatest research tool, in my opinion, when we acquired him was his brain,” Gannon told the Inquirer. “We had a good talk, sat down with him, and said, ‘Hey, what are you comfortable with, what are you not, what spots do you want to be in, and what don’t you? Here’s how we see you fitting into the scheme. Here is our vision for you, of how we’re going to deploy you and how we’re going to use you. Are you comfortable with that? Are you not?’ And we’re still figuring that out. …
“Haason is so smart. Just because I want to do something, if he doesn’t want to do it, we’re not going to do it, or if it’s not the best thing for the team, we’re not going to do that.”
The Eagles continued revamping their linebacker corps with another local talent in Emmaus, PA LB Kyzir White, who signed a one-year deal coming off a career-high 144 tackles with the Los Angeles Chargers.
"I can't wait to get it going to really find out what we're all about on defense," White said. "I'm excited. I think we have a lot of good pieces in a great scheme and we're coming together.
Roseman added two more pieces in the draft when he walked away with a couple of Georgia standouts fresh off a National Championship: first-round Defensive Tackle Jordan Davis and ILB Nakobe Dean.
Davis, a potential successor to DT Fletcher Cox, is a 6-foot-6, 340-lb behemoth. His 4.78 40 at the Combine is the fastest time for any player over 330 pounds at the Combine since 2006. Davis made headlines early in camp when he bulldozed Jurgens during one-on-one drills.
"It's hard to stop a big train when it's moving,” said Cox.
Dean, the 2021 Butkus Award winner on one of the greatest CFB defenses in modern history, has the luxury of plugging and playing in year one, spelling guys on third down and gaining valuable reps when injuries arise. Dean will be expected to contribute to a front seven that has the potential to be the best in the league.
"He's very smart, he’s tough, and he's very physical," said Gannon. "Happy with where he’s at."
Their secondary is no slouch, either. A longtime liability, Philly fielded a top-15 secondary in 2021, per Pro Football Focus. Cornerback Darius Slay put together his fourth pro-bowl season, earning a PFF grade of 83.9, fourth-best among NFL corners.
Slay and slot CB Avonte Maddox are joined by former Giants CB James Bradberry, who has at least three interceptions in each of the last three seasons, along with double-digit pass break ups each year since entering the league in 2016.
However, Bradberry is coming off an up-and-down season in the Meadowlands. He surrendered career highs in yards (848) and touchdowns (8), but his missed tackle percentage (21.7%, or slightly more than one missed tackle for every five tackles made) is alarming. Bradberry will get his fair share of targets opposite Slay. He will be counted on to keep big plays from happening on his side of the field.
Absent a top safety heading into final cut day, Roseman made one final big trade, acquiring safety/slot CB C.J. Gardner-Johnson from New Orleans. While not the best safety on the market (PFF graded him outside the top-50 CBs the past two seasons), he is a pest and brings a lot of big-play energy to the secondary. Just ask Javon Wims (whose hand might still be broken from punching C.J. in the helmet in 2020) and Michael Thomas (who swung on his own teammate and got suspended).
"He's a guy that loves ball,” Goedert said. “He's a chippy dude. I think I've had a few conversations with him on the field, but I like playing against people like that. I'm glad he's on our team. He's going to be a good fit for us and I'm excited to watch him be chippy against other teams now."
At the end of the day, this train will only go as far as its conductor.
Hurts put up favorable numbers in 2021, completing 61.3% of his passes for 3,144 yards, 16 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He proved he’s a dual threat at the position as well, leading the league’s No. 1 rushing offense with 784 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns. The Eagles’ ground game led the league with 159.7 yards per game, and finished second in rushing attempts.
But context is key. A number of games where Hurts accumulated strong numbers were against poor defenses or in garbage time. Running back Miles Sanders (12 games, 754 yds, 5.5 YPC) was not heavily utilized early in the season. Sanders also missed five games, forcing Sirianni to plug in Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainwell and Jordan Howard. Decision making was also a problem for Hurts, who was sharply criticized for bailing on plays before they had an opportunity to develop.
Hurts will make his 20th-career regular season start this Sunday when the Eagles travel to Detroit to face the Lions. With a full season and a playoff game under his belt, Hurts knows exactly what he must improve on if Philly is going to reach its Super Bowl goals.
"Just an overall understanding of what I'm supposed to do, doing my job and doing my job at a high level," Hurts said. "Knowing what's right and knowing what's wrong. I've always had a very high standard for myself, so I'm taking that mentality that I've always had and just soaking up everything, growing, chasing growth every day, and I think that's allowed me to grow as a quarterback."
Early returns this summer have been promising. Hurts looks more patient in the pocket. "Just him going through his reads, his progressions, I feel like the ball's got a little more zip on it,” said Goedert in June. “He's getting it out a little bit quicker. You see kind of a 1-2-3 throw. He doesn't have as many hitches. He's seeing the game faster, which is really promising."
"I thought he was great," Sirianni said via after the Eagles final preseason game in Cleveland. "He made plays in the pocket when he needed to make plays in the pocket and when he needed to escape, he escaped. I think it's interesting; I think it's also to be known that leaving the pocket isn't just something that you see when the protection breaks down. I think that people think like, oh, we left the pocket early, and the protection was good. Well, sometimes nobody is open. And sometimes the defense calls a good play and it's not a good look in the coverage.
"So, it's not as easy to say that the protection broke down, so he left, because that's obvious. I think the thing that is not as obvious is, again, what I said, somebody slipped on a route out or the defense played a good coverage and there wasn't anybody open and he's trying to create with a scramble. I thought he did a great job of that. I thought he played a good football game, first drive, and we'll just look to build on that."
And the roster Howie Roseman constructed to elevate his QB? They know the task at hand as well.
“I’m ready to go to war with him,” A.J. Brown told the Inquirer. “This upcoming Sunday, I’m excited for the season. We definitely put in a lot of work this offseason, this camp. We’re in a good place, and we’re ready to go.”
