For the Eagles, early validation of a risky offseason
PHILADELPHIA>> The Eagles didn’t just commit to a quarterback in the offseason, they committed to a coach.
They didn’t just commit to a coach, they committed to a defensive coordinator. They didn’t just commit to a coordinator, but a new defensive system.
They didn’t just commit to a streamlined offense, but to Jordan Matthews, Ryan Mathews and Nelson Agholor.
They didn’t just commit to skill players, but to a better, more stable offensive line.
They didn’t just commit to a line, but to a more reasonable, streamlined, professional offensive scheme.
They didn’t just commit to philosophies, but to players, enriching Fletcher Cox, signing new starters, investing as much as $280,000,000 in fresh personnel spending.
They didn’t just commit to some of those things. They committed to them all. And because they did, they were able to roll to a 29-10 victory Sunday over the Cleveland Browns.
As it must, in a way as it should, the prevailing storyline of the 1-0 start to the post-Chip Kelly era will be that Carson Wentz looked prepared and comfortable in his only meaningful game of football above the mid-major college level, not fumbling, not being intercepted, throwing two touchdown passes, one to Agholor that only a gifted quarterback could make, in stride, on time. But the only regular-season game ever coached by Doug Pederson above the high school level had substantially more depth than simply as the first Wentz exit poll. It was validation, if only for one week, that a franchise-changing, courageous and risky offseason orchestrated by Howie Roseman with nodding from Jeffrey Lurie was a success.
Begin with Pederson, who interviewed for an NFL head coaching job once in his life, a former failed Eagle with a disturbing favorability index. There was the chance – and technically, there still is – that he would have been smothered by the headphones once the games turned real. Instead, he was prepared and so was his team, committing seven penalties, but few of the thoughtless variety. Pederson was not stumped by the clock. He showed confidence in his rookie quarterback and in his defensive coordinator. He chose not to punt on fourth down, up five points in the third quarter, and two plays later the Birds were up by 12. He was 4-0 in the preseason, which had zero relevance. He is 5-0 in the preseason and regular season combined, which is a trend.
“My nerves were a little high,” Pederson acknowledged. “I was a little jittery at going out.” That’s when he walked onto the field before the game and started having some fun with his new quarterback. “I just wanted him to relax and take a look around and see this. This is a great feeling before the football game. So just soak it all in. And then once the ball was teed up and kicked off, it was business as usual.”
Pederson and the Eagles would have been right to be nervous. The front office didn’t need to fire Kelly. It didn’t need to make a noisy, forceful, message-sending move up in the draft to grab the rights to Wentz from Cleveland. The Eagles didn’t have to go another $103,000,000 for Cox, who was already signed. They didn’t have to bump DeMarco Murray out of the way and trust Mathews. But they did. And for one day, it all worked. Wentz proved ready. Mathews scored a touchdown. Cox, as he’d promised on the day he re-signed, didn’t rest, making four tackles, including a sack.
The schedule helped. That was a stumbling, inept, unprepared opponent the Birds played Sunday. And if the afternoon supplied the Eagles with a warning, it came in the creaky quarterbacking of Robert Griffin III, who once was a dominating rookie too, but who always finds fresh ways to regress.
“It was one game,” said Matthews, who collected 114 receiving yards and scored a touchdown. “I have to go back, correct mistakes. We’re not talking about the Super Bowl here.”
Nope. The discussion was not and must not be about championships, not after one game against the Browns. So it isn’t about what is coming. It was about what already happened. And what happened was an aggressive, different kind of an offseason that had a chance to be destructive. It still might, too. Wentz almost certainly will have some surprises. The competi- tion will improve. There will be tough road games, bad calls, injuries, unfortunate game plans.
But for 60 minutes Sunday, there were the Eagles, their rookie quarterback hitting receivers in stride, their defenders hitting Browns hard from their new 4-3 set, their untested head coach ready.
The story for the next week will be about Wentz, who supplied fans with a vision of future greatness. The story for the last week was that a busy front office showed in one offseason how it all could be achieved.