Good Times, Bad Times

The Eagles had an impressive win on Sunday. Their rookie quarterback played well and several other young players came up big in the upset over the playoff-bound Saints. Life was good.

But this is the 2020 Eagles and that means there is always a black cloud looming. Rodney McLeod tore his ACL. Rookie RT Jack Driscoll suffered a sprained MCL. Both are done for the year. CB Avonte Maddox hurt his knee and will miss multiple weeks, maybe the rest of the year. Darius Slay suffered a concussion. There is no definitive timetable for him.

The OL, which looked good last week, will now have Matt Pryor back at RT. That’s not a good thing, in case you were wondering. We’ll see how Jalen Hurts plays when the line isn’t in top form. I guess that does give us the benefit of seeing him in a tough situation. Will Hurts handle that better than Wentz? Will it cause Hurts to struggle and turn the ball over?

The more we know about Hurts, the better, warts and all. Seeing him play great for a few games would be fun, but the real goal should be to come away with an idea of what kind of a player he really is.

I know the Eagles are still in the playoff hunt, but in my mind everything now is about 2021. Find out as much as you can about the young players so that you have a better idea of what the team really needs in the offseason. It would have been really nice to see three more games of Driscoll at RT.

The secondary injuries are bad for the players involved and for the veterans who want to win games. They might be good for evaluation purposes. We’ll see a lot more of Marcus Epps and K’Vonn Wallace at safety. Maybe Grayland Arnold will get to play some on defense.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens at corner. Jalen Mills moved to CB last week and could play there again. It would be great to see Michael Jacquet get the start, but he’s still dealing with a hamstring injury. We don’t know if he’ll be ready for action this week. Hopefully he will return this year. Jacquet has shown potential.

A rebuilt secondary is going to struggle and make it tough to win games. That’s fine with me, but as I said, I do feel bad for the veteran players. Jason Kelce talked on Wednesday about how important it is even in a down year to focus on winning. He said that teams that have a good culture focus on winning and not the future. You have to play the best players, not just the young guys.

Things get complicated in some situations. The outside world wants Travis Fulgham to play as much as possible. Doug Pederson and the coaches are playing Alshon Jeffery. This makes zero sense to most of us. Maybe Fulgham isn’t practicing the way they want. Maybe he’s sloppy with assignments. All we know is that for a month, he looked like a stud receiver.

Jeffery is a veteran player that the coaches trust. We all know he’s gone a month from now so sticking with him seems nuts. But then you go back to Kelce’s comments. If the coaches genuinely believe he gives them the best chance to win, they have to play him. Of course, the discussion then becomes why the coaches think he’s the better option.

One of the weaknesses most coaches have is trusting what they know. I’m sure some Yankees coach lamented the fact Wally Pipp got hurt and they had to play the Lou Gehrig kid. Coaches fear the unknown. Too many would rather have a flawed veteran they know than the young player they don’t have a feel for. We’ve seen this with the Eagles recycling program (Jason Peters, Darren Sproles, Vinny Curry, etc.).

Coaches and organizations that embrace risk are going to be better off than those who cling to comfort. It is tough to walk away from a player like Peters, but it has to be done. You’re clinging to past glory. That’s not how you win games in the NFL. That doesn’t mean getting rid of every veteran and loading up on youth. You must choose players who continue to perform at a high level and who can help maintain the winning culture.

We don’t know the ins and outs of the Jeffery/Fulgham situation. Maybe Fulgham has some issues that the coaches are trying to deal with and benching him is the right thing to do. This is where you have to trust the coaches. That’s where their track record of embracing veterans becomes problematic. Are they sending a message to a young player they want to develop or simply going with the guy who helped them win a Super Bowl?

We do know a youth movement is coming in the offseason. Due to cap problems, the NovaCare will look more like a day care center than an old folks home in 2021. It will be interesting to see how that goes and how the coaches handle it.

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I’m told DeSean Jackson for the first time is running routes out on the practice field before team practice today

DeSean will not be back next season but he hopes to play again by the end of the season after suffering a fracture and high ankle sprain 7 1/2 weeks ago pic.twitter.com/243ptGkCLE

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) December 17, 2020

It would be fitting for DeSean to have one more big game on his way out. Tease Eagles fans with what might have been.

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Jimmy Bama wrote a good piece on the Eagles options in regard to Carson Wentz.

In my view, the most likely scenario is that Wentz will remain on the team in 2021, and he will have to battle it out with Jalen Hurts for the starting job during training camp.

Jimmy left out one key scenario. Wentz could switch positions. Have him bulk up and replace Jason Kelce. Imagine the trick plays if your center had QB experience. No idea how Jimmy missed that one.

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