The Philadelphia Eagles

2015 Review of the Philadelphia Eagles

     As you can assume the Philadelphia Eagles are my favorite sports team and always have been and it frustrates me more than anything when they are successful with as much talent as they have. This year the Philadelphia Eagles are not performing as well as many had assumed after their preseason domination and acquiring of many new talents both offensively and defensively. The Eagles did however lose many players as well through trades and signings with other teams. The Eagles traded running back Lesean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for linebacker Kiko Alonso who missed multiple seasons because of knee injuries and also traded Quarterback Nick Foles to the St. Louis Rams for Quarterback Sam Bradford, who was a Heisman winner and attended the University of Oklahoma and also missed multiple seasons because of the same injuries as Alonso. Philadelphia signed running backs Ryan Matthews from the San Diego Chargers along with Demarco Murray, former running back for the Dallas Cowboys, to assist Darren Sproles as the trio of running threats. The Eagles dominated the preseason by winning their first three games by huge margins and then losing their fourth to the New York Jets. During Bradford's first appearance as an Eagle in the third preseason game, his completion rating was perfect with a 10/10 outing. However, so far the eagles have not performed to their full potential this season, especially after Bradford was injured and the Eagles lost three straight games to rather easy games against the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Detroit Lions. With all of this frustration and poor performing, the Eagles still somehow have a shot at winning the division. Mostly because the NFC East is rather weak this year. 

What I think the Eagles should be doing?

     With Chip Kelley as the head coach for the Eagles, he has yet to figure out to use his threats efficiently. Demarco Murray was the leading rusher in the league with the Cowboys. This is because the Cowboys mostly use a singleback set and Murray had space to build speed and momentum to run between the tackles straight upfield. However, with Kelley's shotgun spread offense, Murray does not have the space or time to build up this speed and momentum. Also, with the Eagles run scheme, runs are designed to go more lateral and around the tackles than straight up the middle and Murray is not fast enough to gain yards this way with his size. That is why Mathews and Sproles are having more successful rushing seasons this year. Kelley needs a way to figure out how to utilize all three running backs efficiently and I think that is to run shotgun with Mathews and Sproles because they are fast enough to run around and get to the outside and with Murray get into a singleback or I formation so he can run the gain yards the best way he can. Running the ball is key in football because while being dominant this leaves opportunity to fool defenses with play action, which brings linebackers and safety forwards to bite on the run and leaves receivers wide open for great yardage. The Eagles defense is performing great this year for the most part but there is just not enough offensive efficiency to assist them and put points on the board.