Reasons for optimism and concern as Eagles begin playoff run

Reasons for optimism and concern as Eagles begin playoff run originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles had a great regular season in 2024. They won 14 games and even set a franchise record by winning 10 straight coming off the bye.

But, ultimately, they’ll be judged for what they do in the playoffs.

After locking up the No. 2 seed, the Eagles rested in Week 18 and ended up drawing the No. 7-seeded Green Bay Packers in the wild card round. They’ll host the Packers at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Before the playoffs start, here are five reasons for optimism and five reasons for concern as the Eagles get ready for what Philadelphia hopes will be a long postseason run:

Reasons for optimism

1. Crazy talented on offense

The Eagles’ offense doesn’t really have any weaknesses. They have an offensive line with three Pro Bowlers and one first-team alternate, a 2,000-yard rusher, one of the best pairs of receivers in the NFL and a quarterback who has been able to efficiently distribute the ball without turning it over. The Eagles’ offense already had a ton of talent before this season and then they added Saquon Barkley to the mix. When Barkley arrived in Philly, one of the first thoughts he expressed came from looking around the offensive huddle at all of the accumulated talent. There’s no doubt that general Howie Roseman has done an excellent job of bringing star players to this offense.

This has to be the most talented offense the Eagles have had … maybe ever? You can certainly make a case for the 2022 offense that got the Eagles to the Super Bowl. That offense had Jason Kelce at center. But it’s worth noting that this offense has Saquon Barkley. And Kelce’s replacement, Cam Jurgens, was just named to the Pro Bowl.

At times over the last few years, the Eagles’ offense has probably been a little too reliant on that star power. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t worked. Throw the ball to A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert or hand the ball off to Barkley and good things are generally going to happen.

2. Confident in defense and Vic Fangio

The Eagles’ defense in Washington a few weeks ago gave up three fourth-quarter touchdowns in a rare loss. Other than that, Vic Fangio’s defense has been incredible since the Eagles’ early Week 5 bye. By the end of the season, the Eagles finished the season with the NFL’s No. 1 overall defense and No. 1 pass defense. This defense was in shambles by the end of last season but Fangio has worked wonders. Even though this is a young group, Eagles fans should feel confident in it going into the playoffs. They might not completely shut out every team they face in the playoffs but it’s hard to imagine them getting roasted in the postseason.

The Eagles since the bye week have faced four playoff teams. They held the Commanders to 18 points, the Rams to 20, the Ravens to 19 and the Steelers to 13. The only bad game came in the second matchup against the Commanders. But that poor performance seemed way flukier than all of the success they’ve had throughout the season. Eagles fans should also feel confident in Fangio too. The veteran defensive coordinator has proven his worth all season, not that he really needed to. He’s been doing this a long time and will have his guys ready for their playoff games.

3. All starters likely healthy and rested

A couple years ago, the Eagles went into Super Bowl LVII with 22 of 22 starters healthy. At the time, it seemed like the Eagles would never again have that much injury luck in a season. But as they get ready for the 2024 playoff run, the Eagles are really healthy again. Assuming Jalen Hurts (concussion) is ready for this game, the Eagles will have all 22 starters healthy entering the postseason.

The Eagles have had some injuries this year. They lost Brandon Graham for the season, Britain Covey is on IR and some key players, like Jordan Mailata, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, missed time. But look around the rest of the league; look at Detroit. The Eagles are in a really advantageous position from a health perspective.

It’s hard to really know how much of the Eagles’ health is luck and how much of it is the way they manage players throughout the season in practice and during the week. But both likely play a role.

4. O-line and Saquon Barkley

This one is pretty obvious but Eagles eventually figured out their offensive identity this season — it was being a bully in the run game. They have one of the best offensive lines and one of the best running backs in the NFL. So they leaned into that and were able to dictate the way games were played during that 10-game winning streak.

The Eagles’ offensive line of Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Mekhi Becton and Lane Johnson is the best in the NFL. Three of those five were named to the Pro Bowl and one of them was a first-alternate. And they’re blocking for a guy who will likely be named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year after rushing for over 2,000 yards in 16 games.

The unique thing about the Eagles’ run game is just how many explosive plays they get from it. Because of this, the Eagles never really have to abandon the run. Barkley this season led the NFL in most explosive metrics among running backs:

10+ yard runs: 1st (46)

20+ yard runs: 2nd (17)

50+ yard runs: 1st (6)

15+ mph runs: 2nd (73)

20+ mph runs: 1st (11)

5. Home until at least NFC Championship Game

Obviously, the Eagles’ path in 2022 was easier because they got the No. 1 seed in the NFC. And if you have to win one fewer game to the Super Bowl, it’s a huge advantage. But getting the No. 2 seed was great too. Not only did the Eagles get to create a bit of a bye week in Week 18 but they’ll host at least the first two games during this playoff run. And there’s a chance the NFC Championship Game could be in Philly too. The Lions are a really good team but have injuries and aren’t unbeatable.

Including the “home game” to start the season in São Paulo, the Eagles were 8-1 at home in 2024. And since the start of the 2022 season, the Eagles have the second best home record (including playoffs) in the NFL behind just the Bills:

Bills: 24-5
Eagles: 23-5
Chiefs: 23-5
49ers: 21-9
Lions: 20-8

Reasons for concern

1. Jalen Hurts might be rusty

While Hurts is still in the NFL’s concussion protocol, he has been progressing and it seems reasonable to expect him to be back on the field for Sunday’s game against the Packers. He just hasn’t played in a while.

Hurts suffered his concussion on Dec. 22 and left the Commanders game after just 12 offensive snaps. That means he has missed the better part of three games with this concussion and might be a little cold entering the playoffs. Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said flatly on Tuesday that he is not concerned about rust with the starting quarterback but it is a fair question to have entering these playoffs.

“No,” Moore said. “I think our guys did an excellent process as far as you let the medical side take care of their business, and we do our side of it as far as anything we can do to help anticipate this.”

2. A tough first-round draw

As far as seven-seeds go, the Packers are a pretty good team. It’s a tough wild card round draw for the Eagles. Since the NFL went to seven playoff teams in each conference in 2020, there hasn’t been one NFC 7-seed with 10 wins and now the Packers come into this game with 11. They are also ranked No. 5 in offense and No. 5 by defense in yards. They’re the only team in the playoffs this season that is top-five in both categories.

The Packers also entered the 2023 playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the NFC and performed well. They went to Dallas and beat the Cowboys 48-32 in the wild card round and then lost narrowly to the 49ers 24-21 in the divisional round.

3. Is the passing offense really fixed?

It was just a month ago when we all had some serious questions about the Eagles’ passing game. They narrowly beat the Panthers 22-16 on Dec. 8 when several key starters on offense were frustrated about the state of the passing game. That was when A.J. Brown’s now-infamous “passing” comment was blown out of proportion and then Brandon Graham the next day went on the radio and created a bleep-storm. That was just a month ago.

The next week, the Eagles came out against the Steelers and the passing offense looked much better. Hurts in that win completed 25 of 32 passes for 290 yards with 2 touchdowns and after he hit Brown for a touchdown, the two did a little dance and celebrated together. That was a great moment and a sign that the passing attack has the ability to be better. But then in the next game Hurts was knocked out after just 12 snaps and we haven’t seen him since. Sure, this passing offense has all the elements to be really good but it’s fair to wonder if everything is really fixed after that performance against the Steelers. It would have been nice to see a couple more games of it working at that level before the playoffs but we didn’t get that chance.

4. Pass rush could be better

The Eagles have a great defense but if there’s one area of potential concern, it’s the pass rush. The Eagles finished with 41 sacks in the regular season, which tied them for 13th in the NFL. There are eight playoff teams that had more in 2024. And their QB pressure rate of 31.1% ranked 28th in the NFL, according to NextGen Stats.

Of course, the Eagles have a very good secondary and those two elements of a defense work together. There were plenty of times this season where the Eagles got coverage sacks and that’s great too. But over the last five weeks of the season, the Eagles had just five sacks. And in the wild card round, they’re about to face a quarterback in Jordan Love, who gets sacked very infrequently. He was brought down just 14 times in 15 games this season.

The last time the Eagles made a deep run in the playoffs, Haason Reddick was a huge part of the pass rush. Reddick was the star of that defense in 2022 and had 3 1/2 sacks in the divisional round and the NFC Championship Game to get the Eagles to Arizona for the Super Bowl before he was shut down on a slippery field. The Eagles don’t have that premier edge rusher anymore. This will need to be a group effort with Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith, Bryce Huff and Jalxy Hunt on the edges and with Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo inside.

5. Special teams

Last season, as the Eagles stumbled their way to a disappointing finish, at least they could rely on their special teams. It was the strength of the three units last year, finishing fifth in the league according to ProFootballFocus. This season has had way more ups and downs and as they prepare to enter the playoffs, Michael Clay’s unit is ranked 17th in the NFL by PFF.

The Eagles have some good players and plays on teams but haven’t been very consistent. Kicker Jake Elliott is having a rough season; he has made just 77.8% of his field goals and is just 1-for-7 from 50+. Kickoffs have also been an issue with Braden Mann so perhaps they go back to Elliott in the playoffs. We’ve also seen some breakdowns in kick coverage and a few too many penalties. There have been some good plays on special teams but some disastrous ones too. They can’t afford to have any disasters in the postseason.

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