Roob's Eagles Observations: Eagles won't keep winning if Jalen Hurts isn't elite

Roob's Eagles Observations: Eagles won't keep winning if Jalen Hurts isn't elite originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Jalen Hurts’ curious comments about the Eagles’ lack of an offensive identity, an under-rated area we don’t talk about enough and a 7th-round pick who’s making a Pro Bowl push.

That’s a little dollop of what you’ll find in this week’s Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations.

And since the Eagles face Dallas Sunday and then the Bears the day after Thanksgiving, you’ll get this batch of Obs, you’ll get live post-game Obs Sunday, you’ll get another set of pre-game Obs on Thursday and then you’ll get more live post-game Obs after the Bears game.

FOUR SETS OF OBS IN SIX DAYS.

1. At different times this year, just about everything has been cause for concern. Remember early in the year when the Eagles couldn’t stop the run? Remember when they were getting horrible play from CB2? O-line inconsistency, DeVonta’s lack of involvement early in the year and A.J. Brown.’s lack of involvement all year. Play calling. Penalties. Injuries. Through it all, the one constant was Jalen Hurts, and there were games he wasn’t great but for the most part for the first couple months of the season he was fine and before the bye he had elbowed his way squarely into the MVP conversation. Through Week 9, Hurts had a 114.4 passer rating, 4th-highest in the NFL. He was completing over 70 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns  and one interception. He was even eighth in yards per attempt. That’s changed. The last two weeks Hurts hasn’t been lights out and he hasn’t even been average. He’s been a part of the problem, and both the Packers and Lions games were played in poor conditions, so there’s that, and the Eagles did win both games. But those were defensive wins, and the Eagles scored their fewest points in a two-game stretch since 2019. The bottom line is I don’t know if the Eagles can get Barkley going and I don’t know if the offensive line can play up to last year’s level and I have no idea what’s going to happen with A.J., but I do know that for the Eagles to get where they want to go – another Super Bowl – Hurts has to be more accurate, he has to be smarter in the pocket, he has to take more risks and more than anything he has to find ways to get A.J. Brown the football. His 53.7 completion percentage vs. the Packers and Lions is his worst in a two-game span in four years and his 77.5 passer rating is his worst in two games in two years. Sitting here at 8-2 with seven games left is a good place to be. The Eagles are going to win the NFC East and they have a fair shot at the No. 1 seed. But if they’re going to be the first NFC team in more than 30 years to win consecutive Super Bowls, it’s simple. Jalen Hurts has to be great. And he has been for much of the last few years. But the last couple weeks he hasn’t, and that has to change.

2A. I found Hurts’ comments Wednesday on the lack of an offensive identity pretty interesting and I don’t know about anybody else, but they sure seemed to be like a mild rebuke of play caller Kevin Patullo. Hurts is big on the offense developing an identity and he was indicating that the absence of an identity, something the offense can lean on, is holding the team back: “Just having having alignment and having a vision and then going out there and establishing identity and then committing to it. I think over the course of the year, we’ve gone out there and played different styles of games in almost all the games. And it’s about sitting in something, committing to it, and then going out there and saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and push forward. You watch the course of the season. I watch the course of the season. I don’t think it’s a capability thing. It’s just a matter of having great focus and ultimately pursuing the same thing as an offensive unit.” If it’s not a capability thing, what else is there? Lack of offensive structure. Lack of offensive vision. Lack of elite play calling. Coaching.

2B. Nick Sirianni was surprisingly muted in his praise of Patullo when asked about him on Wednesday by my colleague, Dave Zangaro: “I think he’s done a good job. We’ve found ways to win. We have a lot to improve on, and he’ll tell you he needs to continue to improve. We all need to continue to improve, but I think he’s done a lot of good things, and he’s got to continue getting better.” This part: He’s “GOT” to continue getting better. Or what? Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

3. The Eagles are 40-1 in their last 41 games that they’ve had a positive turnover margin, the only loss coming in Washington late last year, when they committed two turnovers and forced five and lost 36-33, blowing a 14-point lead. The Eagles are also 27-2 in their last 29 games when they don’t commit a turnover, with the losses coming to the 49ers 42-19 during the 2023 late-season collapse and last month against the Broncos. 

4. Vic Fangio deserves all the praise in the world. Dude’s a genius. But we don’t talk enough about the defensive position coaches, and he’s got a next-level group that he works with. Linebackers coach Bobby King came in last year with Vic, and he’s been incredible. The way he helped develop Zack Baun, got Nakobe Dean to take a huge step forward last year, took Oren Burks to play at a high level in last year’s postseason and has Jihaad Campbell playing at an all-rookie level. Secondary coach Christian Parker also came in last year and with a rotating cast and a very young group has helped the defensive backfield become one of the NFL’s best. D-line coach Clint Hurtt also came in last year and after helping Milton Williams become incredibly wealthy last year, he’s got all three interior linemen playing at a tremendous level this year. Edge rush coach Jeremiah Washburn goes back to Doug Pederson’s staff and has coached the edges since 2022, and all you have to do to understand his value is look at Josh Sweat’s contract and the way Nolan Smith, Brandon Graham and Jaelan Phillips have played. There’s also corners coach Roy Anderson, safeties coach Joe Kasper, assistant linebackers coach Ronnell Williams and quality control coaches Tyler Yelk and Tyler Scudder. You can see in training camp what an elite teaching staff this is, and when you have the youngest defense in the NFL playing the way this group is, that’s rare and that’s special and it doesn’t happen just with one coordinator, it only happens when an entire staff is this smart, motivated, engaged, creative and have elite leadership and communication skills. These guys all do.

5. Let’s get one thing out of the way first: Jihaad Campbell was playing really well the first couple months of the season. He was active, he was physical, he was playing the run, tackling, covering, making big plays all over the field. Through Week 7, he was averaging 63 defensive snaps per game, most of any rookie in the NFL (just ahead of Andrew Mukuba). That’s 93.4 percent of all Eagles smaps. Then Nakobe Dean came back. And since then Campbell has dropped to 25 snaps per game and 45 percent of the Eagles’ snaps. It had to be tough for Vic Fangio to drop Campbell’s snaps in half, but Dean has been so good since returning after a nine-month layoff that he had no choice. Dean is playing at a Pro Bowl level, and he’s made a remarkable impact on the defense since coming back. The recent additions at edge – the Jaelan Phillips trade, Nolan Smith’s return, B.G. coming out of retirement – have reduced Campbell’s edge reps at the same time that Dean’s presence has cut into his linebacker reps. The impressive thing is that Campbell, even with his playing time cut by 60 percent, has continued to play at a high level when he’s been out there. He hasn’t complained or whined about his playing time, he’s just gone out with a positive attitude and continued to contribute. Do the Eagles need Zack Baun, Campbell and Dean? Can they keep them all under the cap? I don’t see how. The way Howie Roseman allocates money, he never over-pays at one position because that makes it tough keeping talent at other positions. But Baun just signed a three-year, $51 million contract in March and Campbell was just drafted in the first round in April. But Dean, whose contract is up at the end of the year, is just playing too well to not at least try to re-sign him. But is he playing himself out of contract range when there are so many other guys Howie has to sign? Will be interesting to see how Howie handles this. Too many linebackers is not a problem this franchise has had in the past, oh, half century or so. 

6A. Josh Sweat already has 9.0 sacks for the Cards this year, 2nd-most of his career, and I wonder what it’s like for guys who are used to making the playoffs every year and playing in Super Bowls and winning championships to leave for a big contract and play in obscurity for a terrible team that’s going nowhere. The easy answer is, he got a fortune to sign in Arizona, and yeah, the money is great and you take it when you can get it. But NFL players have so much pride, and the money is incredible, but winning always means a ton to these guys and in a lot of cases it means more than money. The Cards have lost seven of their last eight games and are sitting here at 3-7, they haven’t won a playoff game since 2015 and with the Eagles Sweat made the playoffs six of seven years. I remember talking to Lito Sheppard after he retired and after his Eagles days he spent a year each with the Jets, Vikings and Raiders chasing a few extra paychecks, and he said if he had it to do over again he would have just stayed with the Eagles, playing in a world-class city for an elite franchise with a great coaching staff and teammates he was familiar and comfortable with. You would never criticize a player for chasing the largest contract. But when a player takes a little less money to stay in a perfect situation with a chance to win a championship, there’s something truly admirable about that.

6B. Sweat’s 9.0 sacks are the most by a former Eagle since Chris Clemons, who played for the Eagles in 2008 and 2009, had 11 ½ with the Seahawks in 2012. Two players had 16.0 sacks in a season after leaving the Eagles: Derrick Burgess had 16 for the Raiders in 2005, his first year after leaving the Eagles, and Reggie White had 16 for the Packers in 1998.

6C. How about the most sacks in a season by future Eagles? Here’s what I came up with: Tim Harris (19 ½, Packers, 1989), Robert Quinn (19, Bears, 2013), Quinn (18 ½, Bears, 2021), Keith Millard (18.0, Vikings, 1989), Richard Dent (17 ½, Bears, 1984), Tim Harris (17.0, 49ers, 1992) and Richard Dent (17.0, 1985, Bears).

7. Just a friendly reminder that the Eagles are 51-16 with four playoff trips, two Super Bowl appearances and one championship since Nick Sirianni’s roots underground speech.

 8. Saquon Barkley is on pace for 1,125 rushing yards with a 3.8 average. That would be the most rushing yards on 3.8 yards per carry or worse in 15 years, since Steven Jackson ran for 1,241 yards on a 3.8 average for the Rams in 2010. The last Eagle to rush for 1,000 yards at 3.8 or worse was Duce Staley with 1,029 yards and a 3.8 in 2002. Two other Eagles have rushed for 1,000 yards with a per-carry average under 4.0 – Earnest Jackson in 1985 (1,028, 3.6) and Ricky Watters in 1995 (1,273, 3.8). 

9A. Moro Ojomo’s chances to make the Pro Bowl aren’t huge because he’s a former 7th-round pick, he’s not even a full-time starter, he’s playing in the shadow of Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and he’s not widely known outside Philly. But, man, I’d vote for him. Ojomo is tied for third among NFC interior linemen with 4.0 sacks, Pro Football Focus has him ranked as the 5th-best interior lineman among 105 who’ve played at least 200 snaps, his 35 pressures are 3rd-most in the NFL among defensive tackles and he’s one of only four interior linemen that PFF ranks among the top 20 in both quarterback pressure and run defense. And he’s doing all this for a team that’s 8-2 and currently in the top spot in the NFC playoff rankings and coming off back-to-back national TV masterpieces over NFC North playoff hopefuls. That’s a Pro Bowl resume, right there.

9B. The Eagles drafted a couple 7th-round safeties a few years apart who made Pro Bowls for other teams – 2010 pick Kurt Coleman was a Pro Bowler for the Panthers in 2015 and 2013 pick Jordan Poyer made the Pro Bowl in 2022 for the Bills. But the last player the Eagles drafted in the seventh round or later to make a Pro Bowl as an Eagle was Seth Joyner. He was an 8th-round pick in 1986 and made Pro Bowls in 1991, 1993 and 1994. The last specifically 7th-round pick to make a Pro Bowl was defensive tackle Charlie Johnson in 1981. 

10. That Fred Johnson trade back in August didn’t seem like a huge deal. A 7th-round pick for another backup offensive lineman? But looking back at it, it was a stroke of brilliance to bring Big Fred back for a 7th-round pick after he signed with the Jaguars. The Eagles had veteran tackles Kendall Lamm and Matt Pryor in training camp, but it was pretty before long that neither was good enough to be that valuable swing tackle that Johnson was last year. Now, Fred Johnson is no Lane Johnson, but he showed last year in six starts that he’s a solid, functional player that you can win with. The Eagles will miss Lane, no doubt about it. They’d miss him a lot more if they had to play Lamm or Pryor at right tackle.

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