In 2023 Philadelphia Eagles The season ended on a sour note. But that was last year. What about this year? Why the Eagles could bounce back in 2024?
The Eagles have a great coaching staff.
Philadelphia’s play-calling was a heavy burden last year, with offensive coordinator Brian Johnson out of control and defensive coordinator Sean Desai benched for the season and replaced by Matt Patricia, whose talent should be an improvement over what the Eagles’ coordinator brought to the table last year.
The Eagles have done more than just perform well. They have Vic Fangio on defense and Kellen Moore on offense. He was the best person the team could have hired..
Moore isn’t going to allow a top-tier running back to touch the ball more than twice a game. He understands that the rules allow wide receivers to move from one spot on the field to another before the ball is snapped. With five years of play-calling experience, Moore won’t need the training wheels Johnson needed but lacked.
Just as important, Moore and his assistants, Doug Nussmeyer and Kyle Valero, have fresh voices. The Eagles hired just one offensive coach from outside the organization in 2022 and 2023: Marcus Brady, who previously worked with Nick Sirianni. Moore and his staff are much-needed new perspectives for a stagnant offense.
Meanwhile, the team has adopted a real defense rather than trying to copy Vic Fangio’s. They didn’t just acquire Fangio, they rebuilt the defense around his vision. Fangio is expected to add at least five new starters with free agent acquisitions Bryce Huff, Zack Baun, Devin White, and CJ Gardner-Johnson, and draft picks Quinion Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. The team also signed Jarix Hunt, Reportedly a personal favorite of Fangio.
Weaknesses in 2023 should become strengths in 2024.
The Eagles secondary is talented and deep.
For the first time in what feels like an eternity, the Eagles have real depth in the secondary, with the caveat that most of that depth didn’t play last year: Quinion Mitchell and Cooper DeJean are rookies, Isaiah Rodgers is suspended for all of 2023 and Kiel Lingo has only played in six games on defense.
But the talent is there. The recent handicaps should become strengths. Vic Fangio is used to using young players and rotating the secondary, so everyone should get a chance to contribute. Gardner-Johnson, Dejean and Avante Maddox have position versatility, which should help in case of injuries. Practice squad players were overused in the secondary last season. That shouldn’t be an issue this year.
Philadelphia’s offense is far from a failure.
The 2024 Eagles will go far with their offense. Fortunately, they should be one of the best in the league. Despite everything going wrong last year, the Eagles finished 5th in EPA per play, 6th in success rate, 7th in points, 8th in yards, and 10th in DVOA. The Eagles don’t need to lead the league in points, and only one team has had the top scoring offense in the last decade and won a Super Bowl. All the Eagles need is consistency and dynamics.
The Eagles have a great line without Jason Kelce and have an elite WR duo. With Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts back to health after playing most of the 2023 season with a knee injury, the run game should be dominant again. The pieces for an elite offense are in place and Kellen Moore has shown he can turn a talented offensive line into a product. His offensive lines have finished 1st, 4th and 6th in points, 1st twice in yards and 2nd and 6th in DVOA.
Philadelphia is proud
The final seven games of the 2023 season were one of the most brutal endings in franchise history. There were only two ways for the team to respond to this bitter ending: fight or flight. They chose flight during the season, but things have changed.
The key new additions to both the offensive and defensive coaching staffs are not rookies, but veterans at each position, with players such as CJGJ and Devin White, who were not there during this declining period, bringing some much-needed attitude.
And the coach and quarterback have a track record of rebounding. Coach Nick Sirianni’s first season was a revival of the team after a dismal 2020 season. After some course corrections in the middle of 2021, the team went 7-3 and made the playoffs. This year, the course corrections happened in the offseason.
Then there’s the quarterback. Jalen Hurts has a history of bouncing back from down periods in his career. Don’t bet against him.
