August 28, 2024
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown did not take a single preseason snap.
Don’t overreact to the preseason.
It’s a mantra we tell ourselves every year, before we go out and overreact to the NFL preseason. It’s gotten so bad that now anything even remotely close to a valid criticism is met with, “it’s preseason – don’t overreact.”
Here’s a proper reaction based on the Philadelphia Eagles preseason – this team was done no favors. Specifically by their head coach – who we believe is still in control of everything going on with the roster. The Eagles' offensive starters played a grand total of zero snaps through three games of the preseason, but don’t worry – Sirianni is confident in other things to help them start off right.
Those “other things” are intra-squad scrimmages and a joint practice with the New England Patriots. It's a total farce and slap in the face of the fans if this team comes out sluggish or ill-prepared. We know they have a new coordinator on both sides of the ball and lost some key players like Jason Kelce. Yet Sirianni was perfectly fine with what appeared to be minimal work outside of practices and joint work with the Patriots, a team with a 4.5 projected win total.
Even Patrick Mahomes played in the preseason.
The biggest variable outside of their control, is the game in Brazil. Due to the extreme dangers of just walking around the city as a celebrity, players on both the Eagles and Green Bay Packers will be basically relegated to room service. Nobody is leaving their hotels outside of game day. We saw London as a beast to overcome for the first couple of years, then with Germany and Mexico City, it will be the same with Brazil.
I bring this up first because it’s the reason why you play guys in this particular preseason. Some things are difficult to prepare for, so the team needed to be extra sharp in areas they can prepare. Does it honestly look to you like this team took the extra steps to be prepared for the regular season?
That’s another part of it. The team played like a bad college team for the last half of the 2023 season. They quit. So the answer to how they finished last year was to barely do anything this year, especially with their starting offense. It gave Jalen Hurts zero looks in game on what his new offensive line looks like. It gave the guys around him no opportunity to work on the motion elements added to the offense in real-game situations.
Even if Kellen Moore copies everything Shane Steichen did two years ago, there’s still a new voice and new terminology, not to mention new players on the field. Yet we were told this offense, new coordinator and returning guys who quit – didn’t need anything in the preseason. The message was rather clear, this team is ready to go.
They better be.
Starting 0-2, a team has less than a 10% chance of making the playoffs. Not everyone is the 2007 Giants, starting winless after two then winning the Super Bowl – the last team to do that. While we see outliers, it’s rarely more than one team in a year. The Eagles have put themselves in a realistic position where they can lose their first game in Brazil, and come home to lose again. The narrative will be strong with Kirk Cousins playing in prime time, no doubt, loud enough to mask the glaring holes the Eagles would have in Brazil.
Starting 0-2 on the season could be a direct result of taking the preseason lightly and should be the final indictment of Nick Sirianni. It could be his undoing. Maybe it’s not his fault. Maybe this was such a calculated move it took the likes of Howie Roseman stepping in, maybe Jeff Lurie sat down at the table too. I don’t care if Big Dom made the call – Sirianni is the one in line to take the hit. That’s how the Eagles set this up moving forward.
Therefore, who else do we have to blame if this backfires? Vic Fangio? Come on. We know what’s going on here. The team tried to outsmart the league and wound up with nothing but spite. The Eagles need to come out strong in Brazil and even bigger at home when they host the Falcons on a Monday Night. Ahead of a necessary bounce-back season with Super Bowl expectations, the Birds are in a tough spot.
Eytan Shander is a long time radio and TV personality in Philadelphia. In addition to his weekly column, you can currently listen and watch him on Fox29’s Good Day and other sports shows. He’s giving betting advice on OddsShopper. A lifetime Eagles fan, Eytan lives just outside the city with his wife.
Follow Eytan on Twitter: @shandershow
