Mindset

You win in the NFL by having a talented team. If you’re short on talent, intangibles can make a big difference. If you’re short on talent and intangibles, you go 4-11-1, like the 2020 Eagles.

With the release of the schedule, a lot of people are now making predictions on the 2021 season. Can this team compete? I’ll cover that in a separate post. For now I want to talk about how much of 2020 carries over to 2021.

It is easy to look at the results from last year and think this team will still be a disaster. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you rarely fix a 4-win team in one offseason. One of the keys here is that the Eagles had one of the oldest rosters last season. This wasn’t a young team on the way up. It was an old team on the way down. That makes fixing it more complicated.

At the same time, the 2020 Eagles had terrible intangibles. That could change drastically this season.

Think about money. Jason Peters was focused on money last year. He refused to move from RG to LT unless he got a raise. I’m not saying he didn’t love his teammates or play hard, but clearly his focus was money. Zach Ertz wanted a new contract. He and Howie Roseman had a pre-game argument at one point. Ertz had the worst season of his NFL career. I don’t think you have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out he was focused on money.

You could write a book on Carson Wentz. His head was full of all kinds of things and his confidence went out the door the minute Jalen Hurts became an Eagle. Wentz was trying to win the Super Bowl on every play. Any time something went wrong (which happened once or twice in case you forgot), he didn’t handle it well.

There were several veterans who knew they were in their final year. DeSean Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, Malik Jackson, Vinny Curry and Nickell Robey-Coleman all knew they would be elsewhere this year. That doesn’t mean they didn’t play hard and give it their all, but it gave them mental/emotional baggage that they carried onto the field. Football isn’t a game where you want to be distracted. You need to be dialed in.

Coaching was a major issue. Coaches were forced on the offensive side of the ball and there were too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. Coaches already on the staff weren’t thrilled about the outsiders joining them and that led to some issues. The group didn’t work well together and they didn’t do a good job of getting the most out of the players.

There were just some odd issues last year. Nate Herbig played well, but got benched for a couple of games. We were told it was performance-based, but it sure didn’t look that way to us on the outside. Felt like he was being punished for something. Will Parks couldn’t get on the field and then got cut. Travis Fulgham was the most productive receiver in the league for a month and then disappeared. I’d love to know the full story behind that.

No one would argue the Eagles had a great roster last year, but I legitimately thought they would win 9 games. Oops. Injuries played a huge part in undoing the team. Several players I had hopes for turned out to be underachievers. And then intangibles showed what a dysfunctional mess this group truly was.

Doug Pederson was at his best when he had the pulse of the locker room and he could push the right buttons to keep his team focused and motivated. Pederson’s message no longer worked last year. Maybe the players sensed his frustration with management and the words just rang hollow. Whatever the reason, coaching didn’t mean much last year.

As we think about 2021, we’ll have to wonder how the roster turnover and coaching changes will affect the intangibles of the new team. I think bringing in focused, hungry draft picks like DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson will be a big help. Those guys already have an NFL mindset. Veterans like Anthony Harris and Eric Wilson could help the defense right away. They know the coaches and system and can help team that to other players.

Nick Sirianni took time and built his own coaching staff. This wasn’t a group of people forced on him. A more cohesive staff should help a lot, if they turn out to be, you know, good coaches. I think the staff has real potential, but the proof will be in the pudding.

We can debate the talent level of this team, but I do think they’ll be much better from an intangibles and mindset perspective. I don’t see nearly as much drama and baggage for the 2021 Eagles.

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I don’t have a lot to say about the Eagles schedule. I don’t get too fired up for that.

Jimmy Bama offered us his game-by-game predictions.

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