The start of the 2013-2014 NFL season is just hours away, so I felt it was probably a good time to preview the Philadelphia Eagles. It has been an interesting off-season, to say the least, for the Eagles. Long-time head coach Andy Reid was fired in favor of Oregon head coach Chip Kelly, who has never coached an NFL game before. The team made several moves, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The defense was been switched from a wide-9 to a 3-4. There was a great deal of publicity about the team's quarterback competition between veteran Michael Vick and youngster Nick Foles, with rookie Matt Barkley seen as a sleeper. The team suffered some tremendous blows due to injury to their receiving corps - most notably Jeremy Maclin, who will be out for the season. Wideout Riley Cooper was caught saying the "N" word at a Kenny Chesney concert and there was talk about potentially letting him go. Yeah, to say the Philadelphia Eagles had an interesting off-season would be like to say the baseball season is long.
So what can be expected of the Eagles this season, who went a disappointing 4-12 last year? At this point, I think it's difficult to say. Chip Kelly is known to be quite the innovator on offense, but he's never had to face NFL competition before, so it's virtually impossible to say with any amount of certainty whether his schemes will or won't work on this level in the short- or long-term. Surprisingly, there are even more question marks on defense.
Regardless of how effective or ineffective Kelly's offensive gameplans are, he has a lot of speed and talent to work with on that side of the ball. Eagles' quarterbacks were pressured and hit with great frequency last year, largely due to a battered offensive line. When four of five starters on the offensive line are out with injuries, all a coach can do is pat his quarterback on the head and say, "Good luck!" Fortunately for Michael Vick, who looked great in the preseason, has a much healthier line to work with at the start of this season. This will benefit LeSean McCoy in the running game as well. The receiving corps has been shaken by injuries in the preseason, but overall, it's still a capable group, with speedster DeSean Jackson leading the way and being able to stretch the field vertically, Riley Cooper providing a taller target, and Jason Avant being a dependable possession receiver who is unafraid of going across the middle of the field. Brent Celek and Clay Harbor also provide nice depth at the tight end possession, and James Casey is a very versatile and athletic fullback. So, barring significant injuries, this offensive unit should be very capable of consistently putting points up on the board. Will they? That largely depends on turnovers, which the Eagles have been notorious for the past couple of years. Since defenses don't have tape of what all Chip Kelly is going to run on offense yet, I think barring those before-mentioned turnovers, the Eagles offense will have the upper-hand on defenses early in the season. Once teams have tape to work with, though, it's going to be a completely different story, and it will be at that point when we start to learn about the long-term potential of Kelly's system.
While it seems that all the talk this off-season has been on the offense, the real question marks are on the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles are coming off a season where they were ranked 4th from the bottom of the league in scoring defense. With a new coaching staff in place, they decided to switch from a wide-9 to a 3-4. How much has the defense changed in just one year? Only three players starting in week 1 this season started in week 1 last season: LILB DeMeco Ryans, ROLB Trent Cole, and SS Nate Allen. In addition to those three players, the Eagles will start: LDE Cedric Thornton, NT Isaac Sopoaga, RDE Fletcher Cox, LOLB Connor Barwin, RILB Mychal Kendricks, CB Bradley Fletcher, FS Patrick Chung, and CB Cary Williams. Connor Barwin was a key acquisition by the team and that move should pay dividends in the long-run. However, while the offense may have an early-season advantage on opposing defenses due to the new schemes set forth by head coach Chip Kelly, the opposite may be true for the Eagles defense. It would be difficult enough for a set of guys to play cohesively early in the season with a brand new defensive plan, let alone when only three of the eleven starters started for the team a year ago. There are going to be some definite growing pains for this defense, but hopefully by mid-season, they will have the kinks worked out and play more like a veteran unit. A key for this unit, especially early in the season, will be to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. That was a key component of the team which was sorely lacking last year and which seemed to often times get overlooked by analysts. The secondary looked awful on many occasions, yet on many of these big plays, the opposing quarterbacks could have sat down on a blanket and eaten a sandwich before completing the pass, they had so much time to work with. The saying goes that a bad offensive line can make a good quarterback look bad. Well, a bad defensive line can make a decent secondary look bad as well.
Special teams was an area where the Eagles didn't excel last year either - most notably in their kickoff coverage. While the defense was dreadful for most of the season, it didn't help matters any that opponents often times started around their own 40-yard line after solid kickoff returns. Analysts have said that it appears that the team has definitely taken some steps forward in this area. Hopefully, that's the case. Place kicker Alex Henery may have been the lone bright spot for the team on special teams last year. He's been a very solid and dependable kicker since the team drafted him. The return game was very average a year ago, but speed-demon DeSean Jackson will start returning punts again this year. That could be both a good and a bad thing. With Jackson's lightning speed, he can run for a touchdown any time he touches the ball. However, with the receiving corps already banged up with injuries, Jackson will have to be extra cautious when returning punts, so he doesn't join that list of already injured Philly receivers.
Like every year anymore it seems, the NFC East appears to be wide open. Philly led the way three seasons ago. The Giants won the Super Bowl two years ago. Washington was the surprise coming out of the East last year. Dallas typically plays at least .500 ball. Heading into the season this year, the four teams appear to have more questions than answers and depending on injuries, turnovers, and a couple of lucky bounces, the Eagles could find themselves at either 6-10 or 10-6 and in the playoffs. A lot of it will depend on the health of the offensive line, how well defenses adjust to the new-look offense, and how well the defense comes together as a unit. It's an exciting time in Philadelphia. Whether that excitement is genuine or of the nervous variety is yet to be seen, but we'll start to garner a sense of which way that excitement leans this coming Monday when the Eagles head to Washington to square off against Robert Griffin III and the Redskins.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/depth/_/name/phi/philadelphia-eagles
http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/phi/philadelphia-eagles
So what can be expected of the Eagles this season, who went a disappointing 4-12 last year? At this point, I think it's difficult to say. Chip Kelly is known to be quite the innovator on offense, but he's never had to face NFL competition before, so it's virtually impossible to say with any amount of certainty whether his schemes will or won't work on this level in the short- or long-term. Surprisingly, there are even more question marks on defense.
Regardless of how effective or ineffective Kelly's offensive gameplans are, he has a lot of speed and talent to work with on that side of the ball. Eagles' quarterbacks were pressured and hit with great frequency last year, largely due to a battered offensive line. When four of five starters on the offensive line are out with injuries, all a coach can do is pat his quarterback on the head and say, "Good luck!" Fortunately for Michael Vick, who looked great in the preseason, has a much healthier line to work with at the start of this season. This will benefit LeSean McCoy in the running game as well. The receiving corps has been shaken by injuries in the preseason, but overall, it's still a capable group, with speedster DeSean Jackson leading the way and being able to stretch the field vertically, Riley Cooper providing a taller target, and Jason Avant being a dependable possession receiver who is unafraid of going across the middle of the field. Brent Celek and Clay Harbor also provide nice depth at the tight end possession, and James Casey is a very versatile and athletic fullback. So, barring significant injuries, this offensive unit should be very capable of consistently putting points up on the board. Will they? That largely depends on turnovers, which the Eagles have been notorious for the past couple of years. Since defenses don't have tape of what all Chip Kelly is going to run on offense yet, I think barring those before-mentioned turnovers, the Eagles offense will have the upper-hand on defenses early in the season. Once teams have tape to work with, though, it's going to be a completely different story, and it will be at that point when we start to learn about the long-term potential of Kelly's system.
While it seems that all the talk this off-season has been on the offense, the real question marks are on the defensive side of the ball. The Eagles are coming off a season where they were ranked 4th from the bottom of the league in scoring defense. With a new coaching staff in place, they decided to switch from a wide-9 to a 3-4. How much has the defense changed in just one year? Only three players starting in week 1 this season started in week 1 last season: LILB DeMeco Ryans, ROLB Trent Cole, and SS Nate Allen. In addition to those three players, the Eagles will start: LDE Cedric Thornton, NT Isaac Sopoaga, RDE Fletcher Cox, LOLB Connor Barwin, RILB Mychal Kendricks, CB Bradley Fletcher, FS Patrick Chung, and CB Cary Williams. Connor Barwin was a key acquisition by the team and that move should pay dividends in the long-run. However, while the offense may have an early-season advantage on opposing defenses due to the new schemes set forth by head coach Chip Kelly, the opposite may be true for the Eagles defense. It would be difficult enough for a set of guys to play cohesively early in the season with a brand new defensive plan, let alone when only three of the eleven starters started for the team a year ago. There are going to be some definite growing pains for this defense, but hopefully by mid-season, they will have the kinks worked out and play more like a veteran unit. A key for this unit, especially early in the season, will be to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. That was a key component of the team which was sorely lacking last year and which seemed to often times get overlooked by analysts. The secondary looked awful on many occasions, yet on many of these big plays, the opposing quarterbacks could have sat down on a blanket and eaten a sandwich before completing the pass, they had so much time to work with. The saying goes that a bad offensive line can make a good quarterback look bad. Well, a bad defensive line can make a decent secondary look bad as well.
Special teams was an area where the Eagles didn't excel last year either - most notably in their kickoff coverage. While the defense was dreadful for most of the season, it didn't help matters any that opponents often times started around their own 40-yard line after solid kickoff returns. Analysts have said that it appears that the team has definitely taken some steps forward in this area. Hopefully, that's the case. Place kicker Alex Henery may have been the lone bright spot for the team on special teams last year. He's been a very solid and dependable kicker since the team drafted him. The return game was very average a year ago, but speed-demon DeSean Jackson will start returning punts again this year. That could be both a good and a bad thing. With Jackson's lightning speed, he can run for a touchdown any time he touches the ball. However, with the receiving corps already banged up with injuries, Jackson will have to be extra cautious when returning punts, so he doesn't join that list of already injured Philly receivers.
Like every year anymore it seems, the NFC East appears to be wide open. Philly led the way three seasons ago. The Giants won the Super Bowl two years ago. Washington was the surprise coming out of the East last year. Dallas typically plays at least .500 ball. Heading into the season this year, the four teams appear to have more questions than answers and depending on injuries, turnovers, and a couple of lucky bounces, the Eagles could find themselves at either 6-10 or 10-6 and in the playoffs. A lot of it will depend on the health of the offensive line, how well defenses adjust to the new-look offense, and how well the defense comes together as a unit. It's an exciting time in Philadelphia. Whether that excitement is genuine or of the nervous variety is yet to be seen, but we'll start to garner a sense of which way that excitement leans this coming Monday when the Eagles head to Washington to square off against Robert Griffin III and the Redskins.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/depth/_/name/phi/philadelphia-eagles
http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/phi/philadelphia-eagles
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