Despite perceived improvement, Eagles still have their skeptics
One was loud, typically obnoxious, likely marinated in alcohol and easily dismissed.
The other was subtle, typically telling, marinated in business wisdom and worthy of deep consideration.
Pick one.
The volley cheers, as they were, concerned the Eagles, whose strong finish last season and a roundly applauded offseason have caused fans to wonder if Jason Kelce would wear that get-up again in February.
The first came the other evening at Citizens Bank Park with the Phillies deep into a pitching demonstration certified as historically inept. That would have been the long-awaited first public spelling of Eagles, complete with one yahoo punctuating the disturbance with a simple-minded, “Wooooooo.”
The other, a little less recent, slid in from Las Vegas, and it should have left any Eagles fan startled. Nick Sirianni’s team — or so decided the wagering forecasters — were about to win eight games, nine at the outside, the over-under plopping in at a dismal 8.5.
So there it was: Proof that rampaging Eagles optimism comes with a high risk.
The know-it-alls were aware that the Eagles won nine games last season. Obviously, they were hip to the Draft Night heroics of Howie Roseman, who flipped couple of early draft choices to Tennessee for A.J. Brown, the level of wide receiver likely to maximize the ability of Jalen Hurts. What? Did it escape Wise Guy Nation that Roseman added Haason Reddick to the pass rush? Wouldn’t it figure that Sirianni would coach better in Year 2 than Year 1? Everyone knows DeVonta Smith is a rising star. Fletcher Cox back. Brandon Graham, too.
So what’s the matter — are the numbers-churners not influenced by those slurred ballpark cheers?
“Howie said this: We are definitely better,” Sirianni said after the draft. “We are better after this weekend than we were at the start of this weekend. That’s what you go into the draft hoping to do.”
One point, ever lost in 21st century draft-mania. That whole propaganda plot is literally engineered for every NFL team to claim improvement. The NFL Draft — the NBA mini-version too — is a sports miracle: There is never a losing team. Still, Roseman — as gifted a sports executive as there has been in Philadelphia in the modern era — did a good job that night, connecting Hurts with Brown, the quarterback’s longtime friend from the college recruiting circuit.
So why has Las Vegas harrumphed? Why are oddsmakers daring fans to bet that the Eagles will even match last season’s record, let alone ring up double figures and plow an easier path to a later playoff round?
The simplest reason is that schedule the Eagles played in 2021 — a bracketologist’s night-terror, with five of the last six games being against the dueling New York disasters and F.T. Washington. Even when the Eagles were struggling early, everyone had that December vacation in sight. Mix in a game against last-place Denver, and of course the Eagles were in business to win six of their last eight. But once they did hit the postseason in Tampa Bay, they were out of place, going scoreless for three quarters before a garbage-time stir brought the final score to 31-15.
Clearly, Sirianni’s results against the NFL cream have the football illuminati west of City Line Ave. concerned. And a leading reason is the continued skepticism about Hurts, whose lack of strike-zone command is not automatically going to be cured by the presence of a one-time Pro Bowl pass-catcher. Complicated decision streamlined, any over-8.5 stab would be a wager that Hurts is about to join the growing crowd of next-gen franchise quarterbacks, that he will be in the Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson conversation. Good luck?
“Jalen is, in my opinion, more comfortable in the offense,” Sirianni assured. “That’s just the part of the process. He knows where the receivers are going to be versus different looks. He knows where to go with the football a little bit quicker. We’ve done our job as coaches, and I don’t want to say we’ve done a good job, but what we’ve done as coaches is figure out what he likes and what he’s good at and all these different things.”
Hurts was a Pro Bowl alternate last season, so to mention him as a developing star is not a ridiculous notion. Maybe this is his year. He works hard, etc. If so, the over-bettors will be collecting by Thanksgiving.
The Eagles will have one more home game than they enjoyed last season. Schedule geeks have declared them to have the second easiest slate in the sport. Sirianni will no longer subjected to rookie jitters. Hurts is about to enter his prime. Roseman did his thing. Brown should help. Yet the people who go sport-fishing for losers doubt that the E-A-G’s can match their 9-8 2021 record.
Think about that before the next loathsome burst of wooooooooo.