A Lot Went Wrong

I looked back at a post from last June and I said the Eagles could go anywhere from 12-4 to 6-10, depending on health and player development. Oops. I didn’t see 4-11-1 as an option. The problem is that I’m not good at predicting disasters. Put simply, a lot went wrong last year. It really is crazy to think about.

INJURIES

There is no reason to say a lot about this, but the Eagles were second (I think) in games lost to injury. The OL set an NFL record for different starting lineups in a season. Teams can overcome injuries, but last year was an extreme situation and just overwhelmed a team that was already struggling.

REGRESSION

We love to talk about players getting better. We rarely anticipate players getting worse, but that is what happened last year. Sure, seeing Jason Peters struggle could be expected due to his age. That I get. Carson Wentz going from one of the better QBs in the league to the worst wasn’t something I could have ever imagined. It takes years for a player to decline. It takes something crazy for a player to fall apart. I just didn’t see anything that led me to believe that would happen to him. It sure did, though.

I was hopeful that Nate Gerry would have his best season. Instead, he was awful, especially in coverage.

Zach Ertz was one of the best TEs heading into the season. He was a mediocre player last year. And that might be generous. His contract situation brought out the worst in him and Ertz looked nothing like the guy we’d loved since 2013.

Matt Pryor had a huge opportunity. All the OL injuries gave him plenty of chances to play. Instead of building on what he did in 2019, Pryor proved he’s not meant to be a starter or key backup.

Miles Sanders had a strong year as a runner, but he was a mess in the passing game. He struggled as a blocker and receiver. That’s a major problem in this era where the passing game rules.

Jake Elliott was fantastic a couple of years back. He missed some key kicks in 2020, when the team needed every point it could get. Ugh.

TREADING WATER

Avonte Maddox has looked really good at times. 2020 wasn’t one of them. I think he was out of position at outside corner, but the bottom line is that his team needed him to make some plays and he didn’t. Maddox broke up 3 passes and had one TFL in 10 games.

The Eagles could have used a breakout season from Derek Barnett. Instead, they got 5.5 sacks. Barnett wasn’t bad by any stretch. But he didn’t have any FFs or FRs. He wasn’t an impact player. When you take a guy 14th overall, you hope for more than solid.

NOTHING

LB Jatavis Brown quit before the season got here. How many people even remember him?

Will Parks did nothing and got cut.

JJAW was just as bad in Year 2 as he was as a rookie.

Marquise Goodwin opted out due to Covid. He had legit reasons to do that so I’m not judging him at all. From a purely football perspective, the Eagles got nothing out of him.

Did you know Corey Clement played in 15 games last year? He did almost nothing on offense. I don’t remember him as a standout on STs.

3rd round pick Davion Taylor barely played. We knew he was a project, but I figured the coaches would find some role for him. That assumes the coaches wanted him, which is a fair question.

DE Shareef Miller was a 4th round pick in 2019 and did so little that he didn’t even make the team last year.

None of these guys was going to be an impact player, but the 2020 Eagles were so weak that anything could have helped. Depth. Good on STs. Anything. These guys did very little.

STRUGGLING

We hoped Jalen Reagor would be an impact rookie. He wasn’t. He showed explosive ability, but he got hurt and struggled to play consistently well.

Javon Hargrave was hurt early and slow to do much when he returned. Hargrave played much better in the second half of the season. That gives us hope for 2021.

Nickell Robey-Coleman struggled early and got better down the stretch. He wasn’t hurt. Just didn’t play well. It was nice of him to show up when the season was already lost.

*****

It really is amazing that so little when right last year. Beyond all the player issuses, there were other problems. The team was poorly run (Alshon not going on PUP, Casey Toohill getting cut). The team was poorly coached. I hope we can all agree on that point without a lot of discussion.

What a disaster.

The 2021 Eagles can be better simply by having better health and truly working together and being on the same page.

Having some players actually play well wouldn’t hurt either.

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