September 10, 2024
By the end of the Eagles' 34-29 win over the Packers last Friday down in Brazil, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert had all seen targets and each made some sort of impact on the game.
Obviously, Barkley led the way with his 109 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, and with the receiving touchdown on the beautiful wheel route that finally got the Eagles' offense going.
But then Brown had his big 67-yard touchdown reception coming back from halftime, and Smith and Goedert started really getting involved later into the second half when the Eagles were up but needed to drain some heavy clock – with each making some crucial grabs to keep long drives going.
At the final whistle, the offense's share of the wealth shook out like this:
| Receiving | Rec | Yds | TDs | Tgts |
| A.J. Brown | 5 | 119 | 1 | 10 |
| DeVonta Smith | 7 | 84 | 0 | 8 |
| Dallas Goedert | 4 | 31 | 0 | 5 |
| Saquon Barkley | 2 | 23 | 1 | 2 |
| Grant Calcaterra | 1 | 11 | 0 | 1 |
| Kenny Gainwell | 1 | 10 | 0 | 1 |
| Rushing | Car | Yds | TDs | Lg |
| Saquon Barkley | 24 | 109 | 2 | 34 |
| Jalen Hurts | 13 | 33 | 0 | 8 |
| Kenny Gainwell | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
It was some solid distribution of the ball on the part of Jalen Hurts' reads and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore's playcalling, especially when the past couple of years have seen key names get left out entirely in some early-season games.
The Eagles got the ball to all of their weapons to pull off the win this time around to open up 2024, but head coach Nick Sirianni, who met with the media on Monday after the team got back from Brazil, couldn't promise that it'd be the same for every proceeding week.
They just have too many weapons right now, and inevitably won't ever have enough snaps to go around, along with too many defensive gameplans to brace for.
"It's impossible to be consistent in that," Sirianni said in response to a question about evenly spreading the ball around.
Granted, that might be one of the best problems an offense can have.
"Every game plan runs through those guys, right?" Sirianni continued. "Every game plan in the pass game is going to run through A.J., DeVonta, and Dallas, and the run game plan is going to run through Saquon. But to be consistent with that would mean that teams aren't going to focus their attention to one guy. So the great part about having all these different weapons – and [GM Howie Roseman] and his staff have done just such an unbelievable job of building this roster – but the great part of that is when they take one guy away, they make themselves susceptible to another guy."
So if the Eagles are firing on all cylinders, for opponents, it becomes a matter of pick your poison.
Sirianni cited the late-game four-minute drill as the season's first example of that.
Barkley had already done his damage, and Brown had pulled off that big touchdown catch earlier in the half, which led the Packers to key in on both of those immediate threats.
But that took Green Bay's attention away from Smith, who had his catches earlier in the night already, but went on to get left open enough for two key first-down receptions on the final Eagles drive that killed off 7:25 of clock.
DeVonta Smith. Always reliable.
— NFL (@NFL) September 7, 2024
📺: #GBvsPHI on Peacock pic.twitter.com/iIw8UOZtIh
Basically, the Packers couldn't cover all of them, and the Eagles exploited that straight to the finish line.
"Our personnel gives us the ability to do that," Sirianni said. "We have so many different weapons that you can do that. So it's important that the game plans go through them, but also understanding that when it goes through them, there's going to be different circumstances that take balls away from them.
"That's where it's going to be so important, the selflessness. That's why you get so excited when you see A.J. and DeVonta celebrating with each other after a big play, after a touchdown, or how enthusiastic Dallas and A.J. are when they're getting a block for Saquon during his run, because it truly is who's going to have the hot hand that day? What is the defense focusing on? Where are they giving you these opportunities to go with the football?"
In theory, the Eagles' high-powered offense can revolve around anyone, or everyone, but that is going to come at the cost of days where it just isn't Barkley's when it's Brown's or Smith's when it's Goedert's.
The Eagles struggled with that over the past couple of years and last season especially, though that was arguably a failure of playcalling in 2023 more than anything.
They avoided it in Week 1 but it will come around at some point.
Granted, it is a good problem for an offense to have.
"It's going to take all of them to have the type of season that we want to have and to be consistent," Sirianni said of his star skill players. "It's going to take every one of them to be consistent there and to be able to handle the highs and lows throughout the season of how the ball comes to you."
MORE: Smith in the slot, Hurts' rushing ability, more Eagles thoughts
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
