No other N.F.L. club has experienced a calendar year in 2021 that has been as odd, difficult, and ultimately successful as the Philadelphia Eagles have done.
Former Super Bowl winners Philadelphia Eagles started the 2021 season in disarray and disarray, and they were involved in what seemed to be an intractable quarterback battle. They are concluding the season as tenacious playoff contenders with a promising future ahead of them. The Eagles changed their identities as often as a college student changes his or her major over their tenure.
They began the year with a 20-14 defeat against the Washington Football Team on Jan. 3, and finished the year with a 4-11-1 overall record. Carson Wentz, the team’s hoped-for franchise quarterback, has previously been benched in favour of youngster Jalen Hurts for an extended period of time. At some point during the fourth quarter of that last game, Coach Doug Pederson substituted third-stringer Nate Sudfeld for Hurts in what may have been either a cunning effort to earn a better draught selection or a show of oppositional defiance against the organization’s senior management.
Wentz’s future and the direction of the organisation were obviously at odds with Pederson, General Manager Howie Roseman, and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, according to several sources.
As a result, what happened was something like a mix between a regular business reorganisation and the red wedding from “Game of Thrones.” After firing Pederson one week before the conclusion of the 2020 regular season, Lurie put the Eagles in a bind as they attempted to find a suitable successor. Nick Sirianni, the underappreciated offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts, took over for Pederson two weeks later. Roseman then orchestrated a transaction with the Colts in mid-February, in which Wentz was traded to the Colts in return for draught selections, including what will almost definitely be a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
After being hired at the age of 39, Sirianni babbled during his debut press conference, seeming like a candidate who had accidentally wandered into the wrong job interview. Hurts, a second-round selection in 2020, completed just 52 percent of his passes as a rookie, according to Pro Football Focus. Initially, it looked as though Lurie and Roseman selected a yes-man coach and a backup quarterback in preparation for a long and arduous rebuilding process. When Roseman moved down in the 2021 draught to get yet another first-round selection in the next year’s draught, the image was reinforced. The Eagles’ primary objectives this season seem to be to reduce their salary cap burden and plan for the future, rather than to win games.
Throughout the summer, Eagles veterans complimented Hurts’ leadership and Sirianni’s high-energy approach, but both the quarterback and the coach had some growing pains in the early stages of the season. He is an elusive scrambler and a brave deep passer, but Hurts was hesitant to throw over the middle in his first season. Sirianni’s early game plans were too reliant on screen passes and deception techniques, which was a mistake. Opponents immediately realised what was going on. The Philadelphia Eagles have a 0-5 start to the season, including a humiliating 41-21 defeat to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night.
Hurts’ success on the ground has helped him in establishing himself as a passer, and it has relieved pressure on the defence. After getting off to a shaky start on Sunday, the Eagles cruised to a 34-10 win against the Giants, improving their record to 8-7 overall. According to Football Outsiders, they have a 74.3 percent probability of making the playoffs this season.
Despite their progress, the Eagles have not completely resolved all of their issues. The majority of their victories came against floundering opponents like as the Jets, Lions, and Panthers, among others. Hurts continues to have slumps and turnover sprees, most notably in a three-interception effort against the Giants in Week 12. The Eagles are at their finest when they are pounding away at the line of scrimmage, and Sirianni is still prone to getting carried away with misdirection throwing strategies early in games. The club is still facing probable cap issues in 2022 and depends a touch too heavily on ageing Super Bowl champions from the previous season. If the Eagles manage to make it to the postseason, they will almost certainly be annihilated by one of the N.F.C.’s powerhouses.
When a team is demanding of its coaches, aggressive in the trade market, and proactive in seeking for a quarterback before it confronts a crisis rather than after it encounters a crisis, difficult multiyear rebuilding plans are unnecessary, as the Philadelphia Eagles have shown. Hurts now seems to be a long-term starter, Sirianni is a flexible, player-friendly coach, and the addition of several first-round choices will go a long way toward improving the Eagles’ squad for the next season.
It doesn’t matter what happens to them over the next few weeks. They made the bold changes they believed were necessary, replaced the pressure of trying to repeat success with a more upbeat attitude, dared to try new things and then tried even more new things when the first set of new things didn’t work. They’re concluding the calendar year 2021 with their 2020 difficulties relegated to the past and plenty of reasons to be hopeful about the years 2022 and forward.
