What to make of this Eagles team? Sorting fact from fiction on Cowboys week.

Note: this article is in two parts; due to an unusually busy schedule and the nonstop breaking news regarding Jalen Hurts, I haven't been able to sit down and write for a little while.

PART ONE: this was written AFTER the Jaguars game but BEFORE the news broke regarding Jalen's condition.

You all know enough about the bad stuff (offense is terrible, just the third three game losing streak* of the Sirianni era, etc). I'm going to go through some of these negative talking points and see what the truth is and if we have reason for any hope at all:

*obviously now the first four game losing streak of the Sirianni era.

THE SEASON IS LOST!!! Not even close; have you seen just how bad the NFC East is? Seven wins might just win the division. I know there's a school of thought that says something like "It doesn't matter if they win the division, they will just get smoked in the first round of the playoffs!"; while I understand that concern, let me offer a rebuttal in two parts: first, there's no guarantee that they actually do get bounced that early (they'll almost certainly be a better roster in January, even if no trades are made to supplement the roster, if for no other reason than they'll be healthier than they are right now). Second, the amount of young players that would be getting their first taste of stretch run and playoff football would be larger than normal, giving them invaluable experience that will expedite the coming reload (more on this in a bit).

This is a historically bad offense! I guess it depends on what is meant by "historically bad", but as rough as things have been so far, this isn't even the worst offense in the NFL this year. There are teams lower than the Eagles in yards per game, yards per play, EPA, points per game, offensive DVOA and OSRS*. Granted, there aren't MANY teams below them in these categories, but the fact that the Birds aren't last in any of these measures means we should probably tap the breaks on the "worst of all time" level of hyperbole, at least until we see some of the injury stuff level off.

*again, this was written over a week ago. Rankings may have shifted a little. The point will still stand.

The Cam Jurgens trade shows that the Eagles are giving up! Not even close; first, the return (a 5th in 2027 and a 2nd in 2028) for a banged up player at a nonpremium position was high enough that it's possible the Eagles take the deal even if they were undefeated. Second, here's a snapshot of how PFF graded Jurgens right before the trade:

At that point, Cam rated 73rd out of 74 qualifying guards. Not much lost there.

Nick Sirianni cost us two games in a row! This set of criticisms focuses on one decision in each of the Rams and Jaguars games: the decision to forgo the field goal on 4th and goal from the LA 2 yard line, and the decision to kick off and allow a return with 8 seconds to go against Jacksonville. Let's talk about each:

• Fans seemingly wanted Nick to take the points on third down, which I believe would have been the wrong decision for two reasons: first, there's no reason to think that the Eagles would not have scored on that play. Philly faced that exact scenario (fourth and goal, two yards out) and ran a scrimmage play three previous times in the Sirianni-Hurts era; they scored all three previous times. More broadly, a touchdown in that scenario effectively ends the game, and failure pins the Rams on their own 2. I didn't like the play call (and the bad execution on third down was the only reason they were in that situation in the first place), but there's no way I can criticize Nick for that decision. It ended up not mattering anyway; even with a made FG in that moment, the Birds just lose 24-23 instead of 24-20.

• Starting with 2024 (when the dynamic kickoff stuff began), and going into that fateful final kickoff against the Jaguars, Jake Elliott kicked off 112 times. The longest return in any of those nine dozen plays? A whopping 38 yards. Had that been the result, Jacksonville's potential game winning FG would have been an NFL record 72 yards instead of the 57 yarder it was. Cam Little may well have the strongest leg in NFL history, but asking him to do something that's literally never been done (even in the preseason) is a stretch at best. Had Elliott crushed the ball through the end zone the way everyone seems to think he should have, that sets up the Jaguars at their own 35 with those 8 seconds to play. While I could not find any instances of a team starting with such little time left and so deep in their own territory actually scoring, it doesn't take much imagination to see the Jaguars hitting a quick pass to the sideline for about 15 yards to give Little a shot. At least, Sirianni certainly thought the chances of that happening were at least equal to Abdullah getting enough yardage to get them into FG range on a return, something that had never happened before either. You can defend either option but let's be frank; had the Eagles' special teams unit just done a reasonable facsimile of their job on kick coverage, we aren't having this conversation.

PART TWO: this was written AFTER the Panthers game, and the news that Jalen would likely be lost for the season.

First off, I want to discuss just how absurd the idea is that the Eagles screwed Hurts in some significant way. Let's review:

• No one realized that Hurts had a blood clot until he was already in London. He was diagnosed by British doctors and cleared to play by them. They also cleared him for the return flight.

• Contrary to what was reported early on, Jalen had plenty of opportunity to sleep. According to The Athletic's reporting, there was a solid eight hour window from when Hurts returned to his hotel from the hospital and when he woke up the next morning. He got further rest at the stadium that day before the game.

• No one knew that the clots had spread until Hurts had returned to the US and undergone further testing. At that point, he was ruled out for the next game.

• It's worth pointing out at this point that the most critical doctor's opinion I have heard so far described the decision to let Jalen fly home as "questionable", but not reckless or dangerous. Most doctors had no problem with it.

• Once it was realized that the clots were in his lungs. Jalen is ruled out for the season due to the prescribed treatment of blood thinners. The Eagles collaborated with Hurts' agent Nicole Lynn on their joint statement about this event, which is notable when the speculation seems to portray the relationship as fractured.

• Narratives that this story represents a further indictment of billionaire behavior are ridiculous; the only billionaire that would have had anything whatsoever to do with the story, Jeffrie Lurie, is a Hurts fan to a fault and personally invested a quarter billion of his own dollars into the guy. He isn't pushing Jalen into a dangerous situation under any circumstances. There are attempts to make this a race-based story, which is foolish under normal circumstances and has no basis in reality here.

• Jeremy Fowler at ESPN reported the following: "Hurts' team considered Eagles GM Howie Roseman, specifically, 'exceptional' throughout the process when it came to Hurts' health, per a source. He was 'extremely hands on' throughout and 'worried about Jalen's health more than anything else,' the source added. That doesn't mean this process was easy for the Eagles, who took public scrutiny early this week. As one source said, the Eagles 'were made to look like they put his life in jeopardy and that's simply not the case.'" John McMullin from SI personally spoke to four different doctors about the situation; none of them had any problem with how this was handled by the Eagles.

Please, let's not make this already unpleasant situation worse than what it is with uninformed speculation.

Now, this situation naturally puts the Eagles' season on life support. Were there enough healthy players on the rest of the roster, perhaps they could coax decent play out of Tanner McKee (or Joe Milton or Cole Payton) and make a run at this awful division. Heck, they still might do that anyway; I think I like the Birds to pull an upset against Dallas on Monday night. If they somehow can manage to go 3-for-3 in this trio of NFC East games, they would be 5-4 and likely on top of the division heading to the bye week. If a three game win streak sounds unreasonable, remember that each of the last four teams the Eagles played (and lost to) were better than the three NFC East teams they are about to play. Philly will almost certainly get more healthy over that stretch as well. Bottom line: the Birds will likely need to grab at least two of these three games to stay afloat; should Philly slink into the bye week at 3-6 (or worse, 2-7), it's hard to see them working their way back into any form of contention.

Even if the Birds back into the playoffs, it's pretty clear that this season represents the start of a reset of the team. Thankfully this is a spot that the team has been in several times recently and has rebounded well each time:

• In the wake of the Chip Kelly implosion, there was (understandably) considerable consternation about the state of the franchise. I wrote in December of 2015: "I do disagree that this team will need years to recover. They will likely need a couple years to work back to serious contention, but there are plenty of young players on this team with real talent to build around (Lane Johnson, Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, Zach Ertz, Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan, Mychal Kendricks, Kiko Alonso, Jordan Hicks, Eric Rowe, etc.). Make a good hire for the head coach and get a solid draft or two and this will be a dangerous team." Of course, just 26 months later, the Birds won their first title.

• After that awful 2020 season (in which an old team was beat six ways from Sunday with injuries and ended up with just four wins), even fewer fans had any hope or patience with the direction of the team. No one will remember it now, but the calls for Howie Roseman's job were LOUD that offseason. Howie went to work, nailed back to back drafts and combined with a series of savvy trades and free agent signings, built the 2022 Eagles, who were a sketchy holding call away from the championship.

• Three years later, the 2023 Eagles had completed one of the most spectacular late season collapses in memory. Some in the Philly beat were ready to write the obituary of the Roseman/Sirianni/Hurts Eagles, but as we all know, a massive bounce-back was just months away. My exact comment at the time was "this existing roster plus a solid draft, Big Free Agent A and Solid Trade Acquisition B should still have a top 10-12 floor leaguewide." What an understatement!

This history will be developed in greater detail down the road, but suffice to say that Philly will not only have a GM that has experience doing these reloads, but will be better situated to restock than in any of the previous windows. I also think that the roster that will be in place in 2027 won't be half bad; if healthier they are still a playoff team with aspirations to become more. Stay tuned.