February 10, 2024
Kate Frese/For PhillyVoice
Eagles punt returner Britain Covey during the Week 2 matchup against the Vikings at Lincoln Financial Field on September 14, 2023.
This time last year, the Eagles were taking interviews left and right in the buildup to their matchup against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. They were just a few steps shy from being on top of the football world.
A year later, a few of them are back and popping up to chat on radio row, but not in anticipation of playing on the biggest stage of them all, it's to break down what exactly happened in that last month of the season when they crash and burned, and why things can get better for next year.
It's a weird spot to be in, but now that there has been a decent amount of time to reflect, here's what the Eagles are saying about the 2023 campaign that was...
By the end of the season, the Eagles looked mentally spent.
You could see it just from watching on TV, and they felt it on the ground floor trying to stop themselves from spiraling, Covey said.
From the perspective of the returner in his interview with Chat Sports:
"I definitely think we got emotionally tired from trying to figure out what the problem was. We kept trying to pinpoint at this and pinpoint at this. There was some miscommunication, I think, from coaches to players, there was some pointing fingers from player to player, and there was kinda letting outside voices impact our love for the game and just that happiness that we had. All that combined to really just kinda make us spiral.
"But honestly, I think that you're gonna see a team this year that's gonna be like 'I'm not letting that same thing happen' and I'm not saying just on the field performance, but 'I'm not letting that impact me, I'm not letting this impact me.' I think you're gonna see a lot more resilient people, players because of it. I know I will be. I just don't think you can – I know it's so...you want to pinpoint a spot that goes wrong, right? 'Brian Johnson!' It wasn't Brian Johnson. I definitely think we needed some changes, and so we have a new coordinator. I think that's gonna be good for us. 'Nick Sirianni!' It wasn't Nick, it's a combination. But that answer is just not sufficient, you know? It's like 'We should've done this!'
"I just think you need change, you need fresh eyes. But we still got the pieces. We still got the pieces this year, and 58 draft picks, it's crazy. So we're gonna do something. But I definitely think we overcorrected in some areas last year and undercorrected in others." [Chat Sports]
The Eagles have eight picks this April, for the record, but you get his point.
Now that there has been time to calm down and look back, there was a clear falling off point for the Eagles that Lane Johnson had identified – the same one a lot of others have too: That Week 13 drubbing from the 49ers.
Said the Pro Bowl tackle on The Dan Patrick Show:
"I feel like as film piles up, and I feel like really after the 49ers game, where it's kinda them dismantling us, I feel like teams kinda piggybacked off that. So I don't know if it was something we were doing scheme-wise, maybe the teams were on to what we were running, but it was a lot more difficult than what it needed to be because you've seen what the offense has been and then you see that stretch and it's 'What's going on?'"
But now that it's over...
"It is what it is. But when we reflect, a lot of changes are going on in Philly right now, so I'm excited about that and I feel that with the nucleus that we do have, we have a good chance to get back to where they need to be." [Dan Patrick Show]
D'Andre Swift is in a unique situation compared to the rest of the Eagles who popped up on radio row.
After getting traded to his hometown team, he put up his best, and healthiest season, rushing for more than 1,000 yards for the first time in his career while playing in 16 of 17 games, the most he's ever played to dispel a lot of previous injury concerns.
And now he's a free agent caught between an organization that, historically, doesn't sink much money into his position and a market that's continually depreciating running backs.
Those circumstances are what they are and he has to see where that process goes, Swift told PHLY. The Eagles' collapse is in the rearview now too, but he did get asked what he thought of how they could've fixed it, like maybe utilizing him more in the passing game, which was his speciality in Detroit and a part of his game that he showed could be really effective all the way back at camp.
To that point, Swift told the show:
"I'm the type of guy who whatever I'm getting asked to do, I'm gonna make that my thing throughout the whole year. Yes, I could've been used a little bit more in the pass game, but I don't call the plays, so whatever I'm asked to do, I'm gonna try to master that and try to affect the game in that way." [PHLY]
Like with Johnson, DeVonta Smith agreed that the Niners game is where the bleeding started when asked about the season on NBC's Pro Football Talk.
The star wide receiver is still at a bit of a loss for how the Eagles fell apart the way they did. All he knows is that things were working until they weren't, and once they weren't, they just couldn't find a way to fix it.
"It is kinda tough. You think about everything you did in those 12 weeks prior until your downfall, it was just like...It wasn't pretty but we were getting it done, and then it came to a point where we couldn't get it done. So it was 'Were we just getting away with it? Or were we actually just going out there executing the small things that got us to where we were?
...
"I just feel like we couldn't find a way to stop the bleeding. I feel like everybody still had the goal as the goal, everybody was still chasing that goal. But we just couldn't find a way to stop the bleeding." [NBC Sports]
Hopefully, it's a much different story next season.
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