January 19, 2024
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Vincent Carchietta/USA Today Sports
Eagles safety Sydney Brown is carted off the field after an injury during the first half against the Giants.
There were a lot of different opinions and mentalities in the Eagles locker room earlier this week as players officially put an end to the 2023 NFL season. But one did sort of echo from player to player.
"We kind of really don't know what went wrong," veteran defensive end Fletcher Cox said.
Was it the head coach's fault? Did general manager Howie Roseman fail to put a winning team together?
What about injuries?
Another common thread as players prepared to take time off and go on vacation was that everyone was feeling the aches from a very long year.
"My body is beat, I can tell you all that for sure," Jordan Davis told reporters Wednesday.
On paper, the 2022 Eagles — a team that was a few plays away from winning the Super Bowl — closely resembled this past year's squad, and the vibes felt similar when the team started off 10-1. But then, of course, they finished the year 1-6 in an epic collapse.
Among other things, it's abundantly clear that there was substantially more injury luck last year.
It's almost impossible to perfectly quantify how hurt Eagles players were this past season. Take Jalen Hurts for example. For all his bumps and bruises, including his knee pain and finger injury, the quarterback only appeared on an injury report once — and it was for an illness. The eye test (and the man himself) implies Hurts was certainly hurt all season.
In all, the Eagles had 37 different players designated as being questionable (a 50% chance of playing) or worse. They had 31 different players miss at least one game, and 13 different players placed on injured reserve at some point.
Here's how that compared to their Super Bowl year:
| Designation | 2022 | 2023 |
| Total IR games | 90 | 100 |
| Non IR games missed | 21 | 43 |
| Questionable/Doubtful | 8 | 16 |
| Key players out at least once | 9 | 17 |
It's a lot easier to win when a team stays healthy. That part is obvious. The NFC Champion squad barely felt an impact from rookies, as the veterans were able to stay on the field. Rookies played much bigger roles a season later.
The trickle-down effect eventually shows up in the standings, and the Eagles clearly did not have the depth to withstand injuries in the secondary and in other areas of the field.
More important is how many starters and key players missed at least one game. For the 2023 Birds, it's a lengthy list:
| Player | Games missed |
| Zech McPhearson | 17 |
| Nakobe Dean | 14 |
| Avonte Maddox | 13 |
| Quez Watkins | 7 |
| Cam Jurgens | 6 |
| Darius Slay | 4 |
| Zach Cunningham | 3 |
| Bradley Roby | 3 |
| Reed Blankenship | 2 |
| Dallas Goedert | 2 |
| James Bradberry | 1 |
| A.J. Brown | 1 |
| Sydney Brown | 1 |
| Jalen Carter | 1 |
| Fletcher Cox | 1 |
| Landon Dickerson | 1 |
| DeVonta Smith | 1 |
That's 17 players who started or otherwise would have played a key role that missed at least one game in 2023 (including the Eagles' lone playoff game).
In all, those 17 players missed 78 games. During their Super Bowl run, nine key players missed a total of 31 games (including Hurts, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and Josh Sweat).
It's not at the top of the list — and it's probably not even in the top five — of reasons why the Eagles fell apart this season. But it's definitely a factor worth mentioning and contemplating.
The extreme health and good luck from the 2022 squad were bound to run out. And it did.
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