Week 1: Washington Commanders @ Philadelphia Eagles Game Recap

 

Eagles score thumbnail (doesn't belong to me)

My personal philosophy when it comes to the first game of the regular season is two fold. Firstly, the primary game of the season is a pace setting effort for the team that is playing in the game. If you win and you win big during the first game of the season it "could" go a long way to how you are going to do during the season. This doesn't mean that if you win the first game 35-0 you are automatically going to the Super Bowl. You could be extremely successful, but then you could completely bomb the rest of the season. Example of such lies with the 2020 Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that destroyed the Colts at home in week 1 and then went on to lose all the rest of the games on their schedule. In the current era of the NFL, I also see week 1 being a preseason game for the starters. In the modern day NFL, a lot of starters never see the field during the preseason because of the risk of getting injured. This makes the first game of the season a "get right" game for a lot of the guys who merely attended practices instead of playing in actual preseason action. Now don't get me wrong, you don't have to win the 1st game of the season, in fact the two teams that went to the Super Bowl in 2025 didn't win the first game of the season, but most times the teams with the most success during the season do win the first game of the season. 

With all of this said, I expected a rough opening performance from the team. Not only did the Eagles not have any starters playing in the preseason, but they also were performing under a new offense, with a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterbacks coach and a new offensive line coach. In my right mind I had them winning this game by around a possession and I didn't expect a perfect game. What I also didn't expect was despite the Eagles and Commanders playing in the game of the week, that didn't mean that they were going to go straight to my game at 1:25 Eastern in my area. No, they instead showed the "completely important" overtime matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints. While this annoyed me, it probably paled in comparison to all of the people that had Sunday Ticket and actually paid money to YouTube TV to NOT play their game. So suffice to say, I missed the first two drives. To add insult to injury, once the Lions and Saints game ended with a "no good" two point conversation, FOX took their sweet time, showing about five super slow commercials, thanks a lot for that!

Eagles fans mad that the Saints @ Lions game went to overtime because they couldn't watch their game

The game started out really slow for the Eagles with the team allowing the Commanders to get to their side of the field and having rookie kicker, Drew Stevens, to kick a 55 yard field goal to put the Commanders up 3 - 0. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts had a horrendous start to the game, going 1 for 3 for 5 yards on the team's first drive and then after going into negative yardage on a 5 yard loss to 1st round rookie, Makai Lemon, Hurts would suffer his first sack of the season by Frankie Luvu. Luckily the Eagles were able to do the work keeping Jayden Daniels and the Commanders offense down that they were able to get onto the board early in the second quarter. This happened after a deep pass to Dontayvion Wicks for 63 total yards and after going backwards because of a holding penalty by Center, Cam Jurgens, Jalen Hurts was able to hook up with his tight end, Dallas Goedert for a 17 yard touchdown to put the Eagles in the lead 7 - 3!

Dontayvion Wicks #13 with a big catch

Dallas Goedert #88 grabs the second quarter touchdown

The next three drives for both teams netted 1 yard, then 4 yards, and then 3 yards, which led to punts. For the Commanders, it had to do with the fact that the Eagles were locking down their receivers and Jayden Daniels just wasn't able to pass the ball to save his own life. He was constantly pressing for an open receiver and most of his incomplete passes were either errant throws or balls purposefully thrown out of bounds. He was not completing a high percentage of his passes and the Commanders offense was faltering because of it. In fact, Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell had allowed a total of 2 receptions on 3 targets for 15 yards and Riq Woolen was targeted 4 times for 0 receptions so the outside cornerbacks were really doing work. 

Riq Woolen #2

Quinyon Mitchell #27

For the Eagles on the other hand, the anchor for their team was former Pro Bowl Offensive Guard, Landon Dickerson. A guy that seemed to be completely injured pretty much all the 2025 season and who was apparently injured during this game too because he was a turn style. He was slow off the snap, he was letting defenders into the backfield to harass Jalen Hurts and even he admitted a day after the game that he was the reason why the offense played poorly. I for one, agree with him, he was very bad. Dickerson played so poorly that the Eagles recognized his injury, which apparently is a bone bruise and placed him on Injured Reserve. Personally, I believe that his decision to play the game was pure selfishness because if you aren't feeling good enough to play, you shouldn't play. It doesn't matter if fans and teammates are needing you to play, if your poor play due to injury, it is hampering your ability to do well and therefore you shouldn't be playing anyways. Needless to say, it was mostly on Landon Dickerson for why Saquon Barkley struggled almost all day while being hit almost the moment he got the ball. 

Landon Dickerson #69 was placed on injured reserve Monday with a bone bruise

With all of this said, the Eagles last drive of the half ended in success thanks to a 42 yard Saquon Barkley run to the Commanders 12 and then with a 9 yard to go to get to the end zone, Jalen Hurts would hit Dontaiyvion Wicks on a corner post route, beating Mike Sainristil. While the Eagles would have a fast hitting touchdown drive, the Commanders would end the half with a slow and methodical drive where Jayden Daniels would go "no huddle" to get the ball to the Eagles 32 on 4th and inches. Now they could have made the decision to kick the field goal, but instead they got serious and decided to go for it on a Jacory Croskey-Merritt first down. On 2nd and 10 in the red zone, Jayden Daniels would find an open Antonio Williams to the 1 yard line of the Eagles and then Croskey-Merritt would dive for the end zone to lessen the Eagles lead 14 - 10. 

Saquon Barkley #26 with a 42 yard run

Dontayvion Wicks #13 with a late in the 2nd quarter touchdown

The third quarter would be more of the same for both teams as neither was able to get very many first downs. The Commanders were able to get to the Eagles 36 after a Jayden Daniels connection to Chig Okonkwo and then a Cooper DeJean illegal contact penalty on Terry McLaurin. Unlike the first Drew Stevens field goal attempt, the second one from a bit closer distance would be no good. The only bright spot for the Eagles in the third quarter was a dazzling pass from Jalen Hurts to Devonta Smith along the sideline for a gain of 31 yards. What dashed this play was the fact that on the very next play, the Eagles played fast and loose because they were afraid the Devonta Smith catch might get challenged, which caused the drive to stall out and Hurts threw his worst pass of the game to a wide open Goedert that sailed away from him and was almost intercepted. The only positive aspect of the drive was the 35 yard Jake Elliott field goal that grew the Eagles lead by 7. 

Devonta Smith #6 after his 31 yard catch from Jalen Hurts

The fourth quarter was certainly the best one for the Commanders as they installed two very methodical touchdown drives of 67 and 64 yards that were both capped off by touchdown passes by Jayden Daniels. The first one went to the newly signed Stefon Diggs, who in a very boneheaded fashion collected an unsportsmanlike penalty after hugging the goal post. This put a 15 yard penalty on the extra point and when Drew Stevens attempted the extra point, it was blocked by Jalen Carter, so instead of the game being 17-17, it was 17-16. The other drive was another very tactical and methodical one where the Commanders were able to convert a 4th and 2 down by 8 to Terry McLaurin to get his first catch. The drive was eventually capped off by a Jayden Daniels flat route touchdown to Antonio Williams, who recorded 4 receptions, 64 yards and 1 touchdown. The ball appeared to have touched the turf, but after further review, he didn't use the ground to catch the ball and the play was upheld. 

Stefon Diggs #3 after his catching his first touchdown of the season

Jalen Carter #98 blocking the point after attempt after the Diggs unsportsmanlike conduct penalty

Antonio Williams touchdown that hit the turf

Jayden Daniels #5 throwing touchdown against the Eagles

We will rope back to the two point conversion in a second, but right now I am going to go over the final scoring drive for the Eagles that happened to have the most controversial play of the game. So by this point in the game, the Commanders have been showing to not only be dominating on offense, but also on defense, so the Eagles really needed to do something or they might have had to submit to the loss. The Eagles were kind of in crisis, after a 3 yard loss by Saquon, a 5 yard false start on Mailata and an incomplete pass, the Eagles were staring down a 3rd and 18. This is where Jalen Hurts played hero ball and was able to run to the Commanders 47 and a gain of 22 thanks to man coverage, bad contain and an excellent Makai Lemon block. A few plays later Dallas Goedert would go in motion away from the offensive line, Jordan Mailata would appear to stand up, Hurts would snap the ball, confuse the heck out of the Commanders defenders, who were expecting a flag and didn't get one. Goedert would catch the ball over the middle and run for a 43 yard touchdown with Commanders defenders eating his dust. 

Jalen Hurts #1 about to throw a touchdown to #88 Dallas Goedert

Dallas Goedert #88 running for his 2nd touchdown of the game

Now this was a very controversial play because #98, #52 and #54 thought they rightfully pointed out a false start. However, in the broadcast it is detailed that Goedert was in the backfield, so he is allowed to motion or shift without getting set. As for Mailata, since he never put his hand to the ground he is allowed to get out of his stance to point something out, even when a snap takes place. His upper body is thus allowed to move if it isn't simulating a blocking attempt or as long as he isn't simulating movement backwards. So while I wasn't personally aware of this rule and while I know that officiating explanations on air aren't always correct, I am just going to go with it because people who know more than me are telling me that Mailata didn't actually go against the rules and thus, the touchdown stood. So if you'd like you could crack one of those "see you don't really know ball" quips. 

Okay, back to the touchdown for the Commanders that many Eagles fans thought shouldn't have been. The Commanders decided to go for a 2 point conversion to try to tie the game. For this play they decided to run a shovel pass to Jesse Bates, which was immediately eaten up by Moro Ojomo. The Commanders didn't get the conversion, the score ended up being 24-22, they tried an onside kick, didn't get it either and the ball was recovered by Devonta Smith and thus the game was over. 

Failed Commanders 2 Point Conversion Attempt

So let me get into the impact and disappointing players for the Eagles in the game. Let us start with a player that really surprised me in the game, that being Dontayvion Wicks. A guy who Eagles fans really hyped up and everyone else was like "Eagles fans are stupid". Well, Wicks ended the game with 2 receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown including a deep 63 yard pass from Hurts that set up a Dallas Goedert touchdown. Then in the second quarter he would catch a touchdown of his own after a big Saquon Barkley run. Of course the other main impact player of the game on offense was Dallas Goedert, who caught 2 of Jalen Hurts 3 touchdowns with the inclusion of 4 total catches. On defense the impact players included linebacker, Zack Baun who recorded 19 total combo tackles, including one for a loss and 2 pass defenses. Not to mention, Baun apparently played so well that he was one of the NFC defensive players of the week. It must also be shown that both starting cornerbacks, Riq Woolen and Quinyon Mitchell excelled in the game, with both allowing minimal catches and yardage in the game. Oh, and I forgot, special teams. Braden Mann really killed it as a punter against the Commanders. So much so that with his 7 punts, four of them landed inside the 10 to set the Commanders in bad field position. Chalk another one up for the brand!

Linebacker, Zack Baun #53 wins NFC Defensive Player of the week

Punter, Braden Mann #10

And now for the players who I wished stayed home on Sunday. The first one being the completely obvious, Makai Lemon. This guy was such a disappointment, if I could rate this guy on a scale from Jalen Reagor to Terrell Owens, I would rate him as J.J. Arthega-Whiteside, who might be worse than Jalen Reagor. Makai was targeted on 3 passes for negative 5 yards. Which, yes, I and almost everyone else on the entire planet has better stats than Makai Lemon. One reason might be because they only tried to deal passes to him on screen routes, which immediately got blown up by the Commanders, the other reason is because he was open, Hurts just didn't throw the ball to him. On the first Goedert pass, he was open, but Hurts didn't throw to him, likely because he doesn't trust him and if you know anything about trust, Hurts has his favorites. Suffice to say it is his first game, but you gotta play better if you were a 1st rounder. 

Makai Lemon #9 (not doing the number 9 any favors)

Next is Cooper DeJean, who was an All Pro Cornerback and had one of the greatest interceptions for a touchdowns in Super Bowl history against Patrick Mahomes. However, on Sunday against the Commanders, he just looked slow. He was getting beaten on big plays and even the touchdown catch by Stefon Diggs. Like I know Diggs is no slouch, but he looked really slow on that slant route and seemingly let him score. A lot of people have been saying he has slowed down because he is drinking and partying too much, some say he is dating too many cougars and Cowboys cheerleaders and finally that he is missing his buddy Reed Blankenship (who played like dirt himself as he got picked apart by Josh Allen). Regardless, I think he has an ab injury and might be questionable for the Eagles game on Sunday in Nashville against the Titans. On a scale from Michael Jaquet to... Cooper DeJean from 2024, I would rank him at Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. A guy who is able to be physical and make plays, but also a guy that gets burned way too much. 

Cooper DeJean #33 getting his lunch money taken away by Stefon Diggs #3

The final player I wish stayed home was pro bowl offensive guard from the University of Alabama, Landon Dickerson. Let me first of all say that Landon Dickerson is a freaking warrior. The way he was able to play in the NFL Championship Game injured against the Commanders two years ago at a position he didn't play was nothing short of amazing. He clearly put his body on the line and got the reward of winning the Super Bowl. With that said, his level of play in 2025 was really bad and his level of play week 1 was equally horrendous. The news, however came out and it said that he had a bone bruise in his right knee that he absorbed in training camp. This begs the question, if he had a bone bruise and it was that bad and he didn't play in any preseason games... then why did he even play? Like there is being a hero for your team and raising the level of play, but then there is going out there in a debilitating way, while being injured at the same time and almost costing your team the win. Dickerson and the Eagles obviously chose the option of Jalen Hurts getting immediate pressure and losing the opportunity of getting drives going and Saquon Barkley getting tackled in the backfield almost immediately. To me, that isn't heroic, that is being selfish and not being smart with your body. 

Now to save the best for last, grading Jalen Hurts. On the scale from Mike McMahon to Nick Foles in Super Bowl 52, I would rank him at Carson Wentz in 2019. I think he played an okay game. Obviously he did very well throwing deep passes. On his three main deep passes or passes that went over 15 yards he completed a high amount of his passes. He also threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, so that is also great to see. He also made some major plays with his legs and was able to get the team to where they needed to be in order to win the football game. At the end of the day, that is what you want to see. Some criticisms though and I am not sure if this can be completely pegged down to Jalen Hurts, but the offense really struggled to methodically get down the field. I think the offensive line definitely played a factor with that, but when you don't get a single first down on first down, then your offense as a whole might be hampered. The Commanders certainly did a good job limiting Saquon Barkley, who got around half of his yards on one play, so a better running game could help the quarterback out. If I would describe Jalen Hurts in one phrase when it comes to this game it would be "hero ball". He came up hot when the team needed him the most, but when the team didn't need him, he and the offense were stagnant. 

Jalen Hurts #1 winding up for a pass

Jalen Hurts #1 running away from defenders

Before the game I actually did a bit of lurking on the bad place (twitter or X) or whatever you call it just to see what Commanders fans were saying about Jalen Hurts before the game. Most of them were saying that without AJ Brown he would suck, but in all actuality, he played about as well as he had when AJ Brown was in Philadelphia back in 2025. And even so, he played better than Jayden Daniels for most of the game, so I think that means that Jalen Hurts at least has to be "pretty good". It was tough to see that Jalen Hurts didn't start the game out very well, but I understand that with no preseason, you have to get up to the mark quickly during game one because you are probably relatively rusty. Oh well, hopefully I have good things to say about the team as they go to Nashville to play against the Tennessee Titans. 

Philadelphia Eagles 2026-27 Preseason Wrap Up and Regular Season Preview

 So I know that I haven't posted on here in years and there are a few reasons for it. The first being the fact that it hasn't been as important to me. Throughout my time on the internet, I have been making videos and doing a podcast and all of that was great at the time, but I feel like I have matured over the years and want to get back into writing, which is something I enjoy doing. The other reason I am not posting much in terms of video and audio content is during the last eight or so years, I have learned that the more I am mentally involved, the more it hurts not only my mental health, but also my real life. It feels like over the last ten years, no matter where you turn, there is always someone, somewhere rearing their heads to try to get a reaction out of people and usually it is a negative one. I know that negativity sells, but this won't be negativity. It will be completely honest, to the point and without any existential biases. I enjoy very much reviewing, previewing and analyzing thing, but one thing I am not too impressed with is rage baiting. 

This post will be about essentially wrapping up the entire preseason in a nice neat bow, talking about what I liked, what I didn't like, what needs to be improved and my philosophy on the preseason. It'll include statistics and reviews about how my favorite football team played during the preseason. To begin with, my philosophy on the preseason is it is a way to see what you have. Some teams decide to play starters during the preseason at certain points and some teams don't. I feel like teams with young, more inexperienced quarterbacks definitely play with examples being Bryce Young of the Carolina Panthers or DeShaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns (obviously isn't inexperienced, but hasn't played well in years). The Philadelphia Eagles usually don't and the last time Jalen Hurts played in the preseason was around four years ago, it was one game and he never played during the preseason again. A very similar thing happened with Carson Wentz before the Eagles won the Super Bowl back in 2017. The point of the preseason in not to try to win as many games as humanly possible. In fact, the two teams that have lost zero games in a season both went 4-0 in the preseason. 

To put things plainly, I do not think you need to win games in preseason to be considered a good or a bad team, especially because the team is mostly playing against backups and you are looking for who is going to make an impact or who you are willing to part ways with. Now one thing that I absolutely dislike that fans say is "the offense is playing bad because it is a vanilla offense, we aren't going to show what the team actually is going to do." While this might be true, if every team is running a vanilla offense and three quarters of the teams score over 20 points per game and the other quarter doesn't, what does that mean? It means not every team is running vanilla plays during preseason. In fact I think it is very few teams running vanilla plays because why would you run vanilla plays to evaluate your backup players? Also, the team ran a bunch of screens in one game and an end around. Were these concrete examples of a "vanilla" offense? Personally, I think not. The other thing that annoys me is when the team does well in preseason games, the fans go crazy and consider the team to be huge contenders, but if the team does poorly, the excuse is "well, it's just preseason". Now you are more than able to speak this way, but it doesn't change the fact that it is hypocritical when the same fans say it. 

Okay, let me get to the specific preseason games. The game against the Ravens in week 1 was just plain ugly. There really was nothing offensively that could be gained from that game besides the fact that they couldn't get drives started and only scored on the final drive of the game thanks to a miraculous 6 yard touchdown by Cole Payton to Erik Ezukanma, who was a guy I had to look up because I do not expect him on the active roster. 

Cole Payton #10 with the lone points in the game.

Both Andy Dalton and Tanner McKee started these games, but were completely unable to net anything of any importance. They spent the majority of the game either getting sacked or throwing incomplete passes. This was kind of discerning because Tanner McKee had actually shown himself to be a relatively decent backup, coming into the game in reserve for Kenny Pickett and Jalen Hurts in a few occurrences. As for Andy Dalton, the guy is almost two years older than me and while he might have been doing well in practices, he arm just appeared to be shot. The defense was able to "bend but not break" during the 1st half where both teams had recorded zero points thanks to a missed field goal by Tyler Loop, an interception in the end zone by Kelee Ringo and a fumble recovery by Ambry Thomas that was forced by Shaun Wade against Ravens receiver Elijah Scott. 

Kelee Ringo #7 interception.

With this said, un-drafted rookie Joe Fagnano completely undressed the 3rd string Philadelphia Eagles defense on their road to a 24 - 7 win by the Ravens. 

After witnessing probably the worst preseason game of my entire life, I had a few gut reactions of the game. The first being how horrific the offense looked. I understand the sentiment by Eagles fans who would claim "but it was a vanilla offense", but I think it is much worse than that. While it is definitely possible the offense was "vanilla", I remember fans saying this about the Kevin Patullo offense and the Brian Johnson offense and those offenses looked way better than this. 

                                                                                                 Eagles offensive coordinator, Sean Mannion

My personal opinion is that fans really don't know what "vanilla" offense means and are just using it as a place holder to not take responsibility for what happened on the field. Sean Mannion has brought a new scheme to the Eagles, one the franchise has never seen in history and it just became worrisome because I haven't noticed other teams struggling this much on the scheme. I also understand that it was their first game against another team, but it was kind of frustrating that the Eagles young players and backups weren't getting it, but the young and completely inexperienced players on the Ravens were. The Eagles offense just seemed to not play with any heart and by the time the 2nd half rolled around, the Eagles backup defense was just completely gassed. It was also completely nuts that the Eagles hadn't converted one third down all game and actually converted more 4th downs than they did 3rd downs.

Week 2 of the preseason saw the team going against the New England Patriots in joint practice and then they would play their preseason game later on in the week. This joint practice was highly talked about because it would be a practice where the Eagles would be going against their formerly disgruntled receiver, Arthur Juan Brown, who once he was traded the the Patriots acted like he was a bat out of hell. And while this was a very hyperbolic way of describing the city of Philadelphia and the Eagles, the team still had to go against him in practice. From what I could notice, there were times in which A.J. burned Quinyon Mitchell and other times in which Quinyonamo Bay got the best of the former Eagles receiver. A lot was discussed in terms of "we won the practice" or "we lost the practice", but I have always held onto the feeling that winning and losing in practice is so stupid and only propagated by radio show talking heads and hot take artists like Eliot Shorr Parks, who I am not even sure how he still has a platform after he called DeSean Jackson a gangster and never apologized. If you would like to know more about my feeling about that man, he does what he does for rage bait purposes. If ESP told me that the sky was blue, I would immediately disagree with him. You essentially take what he says and believe the complete opposite. He is the backwards Midas touch, whatever he touches immediately turns into crap. 

In all honesty, "joint practice" is just practice. I have said that years ago when the Eagles would always "win" practices and I am saying it now. It is all completely ridiculous. It is like saying a corner or a defensive back sucks because they get burned by a receiver on a 1 v 1 drill. The receiver is supposed to win those like 90% of the time and the only time in which they lose is if the defender guesses right or the receiver drops the ball. After said receiver drops the ball, the corner pretends they did something, even though they didn't.

To juxtapose from the first preseason game, the second preseason game against the Patriots was night and day better. The reason being was because the Eagles offense actually did something and it seemed like it had to do so because there were more rushing lanes and because the Eagles utilized the flats on passing plays to get yards after the catch, which for some reason the Patriots refused to cover. Like in the previous game, the Eagles started off with Andy Dalton, who went on to complete 3 out of his 10 passes for 44 yards and a scoring drive at the beginning of the 2nd quarter where Eagles running back, Will Shipley was able to slice up the Patriots defense en route to a rushing touchdown. 

                  Will Shipley #39 with a touchdown rush

After this, Andy Dalton was removed from the game and replaced by Tanner McKee, who played quarterback until the final offensive drive of the game. Tanner McKee completed 16 out of his 22 passes for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns. One of which came late in the 4th quarter to Eagles receiver and punt returner, Britain Covey and the other one came to the skill player of the game on offense, Carson Steele. And my gosh, this guy absolutely beasted out with his 6 receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown at the beginning of the 3rd quarter. 

              Carson Steele #34 huge hurdle for a touchdown

Eagles fans were also excited to see the backup center, Willie Lampkin, who was acquired after the Rams forgot that other teams can claim players off of injury waivers right before the 2025 NFL season and tall offensive tackle, Markel Bell, who the Eagles drafted in the 3rd round of the 2026 draft. Eagles fans were kind of worried about him because of his 6'9" frame that might make him to tall to play offensive tackle. However, both of these guys did a good job according to the fans and while they might not play immediately in the 2026 season, they could be players told to "go" if players start getting injured. 

As for the defense, there was a lot of up and down, especially from the secondary. However, Eagles defensive lineman, Ty Robinson was able to record 2 sacks of Patriots quarterbacks and once again, Shaun Wade was able to force another fumble in the 4th quarter that was recovered by Brandon George to help the Eagles go on a scoring drive. 

                 Ty Robinson #95 sack of Tommy DeVito

However, this was another situation in which the Eagles allowed Patriots quarterbacks to chalk them up. Tommy DeVito completed 8 passes for 15 for 151 yards and a touchdown to Kyle Williams where Ambry Thomas completely got out run and then Behron Morton, who had 13 completions for 17 attempts and a touchdown to Nick DeGennaro where Eagles cornerback Isaiah Bolden completely blew a coverage for an easy touchdown. Ultimately it was a much more competitive game where the Eagles probably could have scored more points if they hadn't completely whiffed on two 4th down conversion attempts, but at the time I thought that the Patriots were probably one possession better than the Eagles overall. 

The final game of the preseason pitted the Eagles against the Bengals. I didn't watch any of this game, but from what I could see on the game cast on the ESPN app, both Tanner McKee and Andy Dalton played pretty poorly. McKee started and completed 12 out of 22 of his passes for 55 yards and an interception (we will get to this) and Andy Dalton completed 12 passes for 19 for 104 yards and a touchdown to Carson Steele. This makes me think that the offense has been very tough for the quarterbacks to learn this offense likely because it isn't in the style they are used to? It is just kind of weird that Tanner McKee had at least a modicum of success in the Kevin Patullo and Brian Johnson offenses in previous years, but he seems very stagnant here outside of the Patriots preseason game. 

As for the defense, they were allowing the Bengals down the field at will, but at the beginning weren't allowing many touchdowns. Once again, the Eagles had a fumble recovery that I believe led to points. The defense just seems like the type of unit that will be allowing teams to get down the field, but will tighten up when it comes to the red zone, this is tough because the defense won't be shut down in any sense and will have to deal with just keeping teams out of the end zone. It has been positive that the team has been forcing fumbles, but once again we go through a preseason without many interceptions. I hope that guys like Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Riq Woolin will be able to get involved with getting interceptions, but I am not holding my breath. 

The one thing that I know most Eagles fans have been looking at was 1st round receiver and Fred Biletnekoff winner Makai Lemon. Lemon has not been on the field that much during training camp and the preseason because of a hamstring injury. When it came to the team joint scrimmage at Lincoln Financial Field, Jalen Hurts hooked up with Lemon on a sneaky wheel route for an amazing play. However, in the Bengals game, Lemon was thrown to 5 times, caught 3 passes for 1 yard a piece. There was a ball that McKee threw a bit high to him but he probably should have come down with it. This is a bit disappointing because Makai Lemon was a 1st round draft pick and there are expectations that he would be able to immediately come in and be at least a slot guy, but the fact that he is struggling against backups is tough to watch. 

       
          Makai Lemon #9 Eagles 1st round draft pick.

So I want to discuss some of the positives and the negatives of preseason. The first part being Carson Steele who had 21 carries for 59 yards and 14 receptions 136 yards and 2 touchdowns including a nasty hurdle. I heard he was released by the team, so I don't think he will be back, but you never know. I know that wherever he goes he will be used very well (EDIT he made the practice squad). On defense, the guy was Shaun Wade, who forced 2 total fumbles in both the Ravens and Patriots games, which went back to the offense. Ty Robinson was also a player on the defensive line that stood out for 2 total sacks in the Patriots game. He was a guy who needed a really good preseason game and stepped up for the line. 

As for the negatives, I would say the inconsistency of play by the quarterbacks. Like I said before, McKee and Dalton were inconsistent and didn't play well. Either because they are not mastering the system or because they don't work well in it, the fear is that the offense doesn't click until midseason. If this happens then it might be too late. I really wish the Eagles could have gotten a more experienced offensive coordinator and not someone who is just doing this for the first time. If the offense does work out and Nick Sirianni does have to step in to make changes then I fear that the offense might be worse than Kevin Patullo's offense. I really see the two minds working together in this situation as a bad thing. The reason is because Nick Sirianni runs a more spread out shotgun offense while Mannion has made it clear that he is running more of a Kyle Shanahan offense with a lot of motions and playactions, it just seems to me that the two offenses aren't meshing together and specifically the quarterbacks are falling into bad habits. I will tell you something, Mannion might be riding a high right now because he isn't Kevin Patullo, but that could turn really fast if the offense isn't being run in that high flying way it was back in 2024. 

Now that I have essentially recapped the preseason and made some observations about the players that played, let me get into my expectations for the season and how they might differ from the expectations of Eagles fans. From what I could see about the backup offense in the preseason, it is very clear to me that the offense has been very difficult for the team to swallow. I would be lying if I were to say I wasn't a little bit worried. I am not going to come out and say that the offense performed poorly in camps, but they were likely way below usual output and there are a lot of questions that I have going into the season pertaining to how the offense will show out. If the offense comes out slow in week one, I would expect a long season. If they are able to put a lot of big drives out, then that will make things seem better going into midseason. I would expect a lot of improvement to the other teams in the NFC East so I don't expect the year to be a cake walk. With this said, I do not expect a strong season record-wise. I would expect a generic 9-8 or 8-9 season unless these offensive woes get cleared up. Many might be going on to say that I am a hater or I am chicken little, but I am merely being realistic here based on what I have seen and of course if I am wrong, I will always admit it. 

What Went Wrong With Carson Wentz? (OPINION)

    A few days ago, former Eagles Quarterback Carson Wentz did his opening press conference with his new team, the Indianapolis Colts. Watching him stand up there in that blue blazer and that smile on his face, I felt really happy for him and his family for his new opportunity. Obviously we know the details about the trade, the Colts got Carson Wentz and the Eagles got a 3rd rounder in 2021 and a conditional 2nd/1st rounder in 2022. That 2022 second rounder will become a 1st rounder if Carson Wentz takes 75% of the offensive snaps or if the Colts go to the playoffs and takes 70% of the offensive snaps. So let me just say that I am cheering for Carson Wentz to be as good as he can be so that the Eagles can get that higher draft pick in 2022. 

    However, I have seen a lot of Eagles fans speak about their feelings about Carson Wentz and have positively and negatively reacted to how things ended up. And let me say that I don't blame one particular person in this situation between Howie Roseman, Doug Pederson, Carson Wentz, Jeffrey Lurie, the coaches, the players, the fans and the media, but one thing is for sure and that is the fact that we have to make sure that that this never happens again or we will be right back to where we started with this mess of questioning everything we see and everything we've heard and we don't know who to trust and who is trying to pull wool over our guys. 

Carson Wentz in his opening interview with the Colts.

    I want to preface this by saying that I don't know what actually happened and I have an opinion like everyone else and I do have a bias, but I am just drawing a conclusion based off of what I saw and what I lived through. Someone else could go ahead and draw a completely different opinion off of it and that is fine. Again, nobody is at 100% fault and nobody is completely to blame, but it is important to admit how things soured in Philadelphia and who was responsible for souring what. 

PART 1: The Beginning

    Before I begin speaking about what went wrong I need to discuss the beginning of Carson Wentz's time in Philadelphia before the bad times. Ironically, Carson Wentz was drafted with the 2nd overall pick from North Dakota State University in the 2016 NFL draft. This was a pick that originally belonged to the Cleveland Browns, which they traded back with the Eagles because they felt like Carson Wentz wasn't going to be as good and for most of Carson Wentz's 5 year career, they were wrong. In just Carson Wentz's 2nd NFL season as a starter, he would put up MVP numbers after 13 games as a starter where he threw for almost 3,300 yards, 33 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions and leading the Eagles to an 11-2 record. However, his season was derailed after attempting to run in a touchdown late in the 3rd quarter of a week 14 game against the L.A. Rams. After diving into the end zone, he got caught between two defenders and it negatively affected his leg, tearing multiple ligaments in it. He would be replaced by backup Quarterback Nick Foles and after some struggles leading up to the playoffs, Foles would lead the Eagles all the way to the Super Bowl and would be the team's first Super Bowl MVP in their first ever Super Bowl victory. 

Carson Wentz when he got injured against the Rams in 2017.

  

    While I was extremely happy about the outcome of the game, I saw dark cloud on the horizon. I remember my friend Josh asking me following the game "hey Hank, why don't you seem excited?" I told him that while a great thing happened on that day, I knew that there were obstacles along the way. I also believe today that at this moment, this great moment where a city was content and the fans were filled with such joy, it was the beginning of the end for what could have been a promising window where another championship could have possibly been won. 

Nick Foles hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy

Part 2: Returning Too Quickly

    After the Super Bowl was over there was one big question that was on everyone's mind, when was Carson Wentz going to be able to return from his injury? And when he did come back, how effective would he be? The obvious guess by the mainstream sports media was "of course this injury was bad, but Carson Wentz is so talented and he could do so much that it wouldn't matter." Of course you had nay sayers claiming that Nick Foles should be the Quarterback for the season until Wentz was completely healthy, but if he didn't come back during the season that was okay because the Eagles didn't have to win now, they had time to regroup. 

    I do not know what the true plan was, but what I do know is that Carson Wentz wouldn't have been able to start the season. After a tumultuous first two games where the Eagles barely beat the Falcons and then had a pretty big loss to the Buccaneers where Foles recorded 1 passing touchdown, 1 interception and 1 fumble, the fans pled for Doug Pederson to bench the Super Bowl MVP for who should have been the real MVP in Carson Wentz. I mean, we all saw him running around, throwing the ball and working on his footwork in practice, so surely he was ready. So because of pressure from the high ups in the organization or because of pressure from the fans, coach Doug Pederson decided to once again make Nick Foles the backup and have Carson Wentz play with a modicum amount of success where over his next 11 games would go 5-6 including a blowout win against the New York Giants and two fourth quarter choke jobs to the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers. A Panthers game where Carson Wentz was theorized to have aggravated a small fracture in his back that would affect him for the rest of the games that he played in. 

Carson Wentz after a week 14 29-23 loss to the Cowboys

    After a week 14's 29-23 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the Eagles would officially bench Carson Wentz with 3 more games left because of his back injury. The other reason of course was because the Eagles sat at 6-7 with the Vikings ahead of them vying for a wildcard spot and the Eagles playing the 2nd seeded L.A. Rams on Sunday Night Football and the at the time 2nd seed in the AFC Texans in week 16. All seemed to be lost until the Eagles pulled out the upset over the Rams in a 30-23 win where the Eagles defense confused Jared Goff and held Todd Gurley to under 50 total rushing yards and then pulled out a last second 32-30 victory over the Texans where Nick Foles threw for almost 450 yards and had 4 passing touchdowns. After shutting out the Redskins in week 17, the Eagles had done what everyone thought they never would do again, go to the playoffs and win a playoff game with a backup quarterback. The team played like a cohesive group and I believed that they were 1 dropped catch away from facing off with the Patriots again in Super Bowl 53. If that had happened, yup, Foles would be the starting Quarterback and Wentz would have gotten traded. However, that isn't what happened. The Eagles got eliminated and said goodbye to Nick Foles as he went to Jacksonville to be the starting quarterback there for a season. 

                                                                   Nick Foles during the Eagles 2018 playoff run

    This was the second season where Carson Wentz got injured and Nick Foles had to essentially finish the job. At the end, he lamented the fact that he wasn't playing in the Super Bowl and had to watch from the sideline. He wanted all the glory and now he would have that chance with no heroic backup quarterbacks behind him to compete for his job and steal his thunder. Carson Wentz would sign a 4 year extension equalling to 128 million dollars or 32 million per year to be the Eagles franchise quarterback of the future. However, before this happened...

Part 3: Joseph Santoliquito, Josina Anderson and the Anonymous Sources

    In late January of 2019 a bombshell dropped by a reporter named Joseph Santoliquito. The article detailed that Carson Wentz was egotistical, a bad teammate and most of all, a bully. It went into great detail about how Nick Foles was universally loved in the locker room, but Carson Wentz wasn't and he had the power to remove anyone from the equation that he didn't like or didn't bend to his will. Of course, this is all conjecture and a complete exaggeration. What made things worse was the fact that Eagles fans took this as an attack on their best friend. Carson Wentz had helped to bring the Eagles success and he seemed like a good person. Nobody in the fanbase could fathom that Carson Wentz could be a bad person. Unfortunately, Eagles fans didn't take too kindly to Joe bashing their dear quarterback, so they cyber bullied, harassed and disgraced his home and his mailbox. These were of course all wrong, however, one aspect of his article did reign true. What it said was that when former Offensive Coordinator Frank Reich was with the Eagles, he was able to challenge Carson Wentz, but after he left, Carson got kind of pig headed and thought that he could do anything he wanted and didn't have to take criticism by anyone. Carson Wentz would come out eventually and claim that he could have done better as a teammate but outright denied he had bullied anyone. This was the moment I feel Carson knew that the media will make up anything to attempt to destroy him.

Philly Beat Writer, Joseph Santoliquito

    All during the season Eagles fans wondered who that anonymous source was that went to people like Santoliquito and ESPN's Josina Anderson, who became a villain in the city because people thought that she was sleeping with the leak. Some even blamed Alshon Jeffrey because of how the source complained about how Wentz threw to Ertz a lot. Some people later theorized that the leak was Nelson Agholor mostly as a red herring because of his awful 2019 season as he had a penchant to drop easy passes that went right into his hands. Whoever it was, the person was going around and saying that the offense was too complex and Carson Wentz should throw more check downs. The Eagles locker room was essentially leaking like it hit an iceberg and was sinking. 

    Eventually with a rag tag of backups and practice squad players, the Eagles were able to go from 5-7 to 9-7 and win the NFC East despite the fact that the organization was unable to stop their locker room and members of their organization from going to the media to complain about other teammates. Of course injury always loomed over Carson Wentz's head as he was going into his first playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks, a team he always struggled with. Well, during an early passing play, Carson Wentz would roll out, run up to the line of scrimmage, get tackled from behind and then got speared right in the head by dirty defensive end Jadeveon Clowney. Carson got a concussion and left for the rest of the game. 

                                                         Carson Wentz getting concussed by Clowney in the playoffs.

    Many people theorized that Carson Wentz wasn’t truly concussed, he just merely wished to not finish. Some even theorize that one of those people was General Manager Howie Roseman. In reality he didn’t even take himself out of the game. Rather, it was his backup Josh McCown who noticed that Wentz was nodding off on the bench. A source close to the training staff told me that Carson’s reaction to the concussion in the locker room was something they never experienced where he forgot what team the Eagles were playing as well as who his wife was. Sufficed to say that this concussion was real and happened through no fault of Carson’s, but it was the moment that the front office lost trust in him. The Eagles would lose this game 17-9 after the team had chances to score but failed 4th down conversions and lack of offensive fire power caused drives to derail. It truly was one of the most frustrating games I had ever watched and made Howie Roseman yearn for a Quarterback that could be competitive if Wentz got injured again.

Part 4 With the 53rd Overall Pick the Eagles Select...

    Fast forward to the 2020 NFL draft. Sure the Eagles didn’t win a playoff game, but most people considered the 2019 season a success. Carson Wentz set a team record by being the first Eagles Quarterback to throw for 4,000 passing yards and was the only one to do it without a 500 yard wide receiver. Eagles fans hoped that the Eagles would go into the draft attempting to draft a premier group of players as the Eagles needed a cornerback, a few linebackers, a receiver and some depth on the offensive line.

    After grabbing a receiver, Jalen Reagor from TCU, the Eagles could have selected Jeremy Chinn at the Safety position, but instead selected Jalen Hurts, the Heisman runner up Quarterback from Oklahoma. Speaking from experience, this pick made me boo and hit the bottle. Not that I didn’t think Jalen could be good, but in the second round? Second rounders are players you hope to start in the near future and already having a starting Quarterback that didn’t even receive his big money extension yet. I tried to talk myself into this pick, but no matter how I rationalized it, it continued to make zero sense.

                                                                      Jalen Hurts, former Oklahoma Quarterback

    “Could Carson be planning to retire after the concussion?” he just had a baby girl, so that might make sense. “Could Howie Roseman have lost faith in Carson?” Could be, but you paid him 128 million to play for you? How does a freak concussion in a playoff game change that? “Could the Eagles be attempting to run a two QB offense like the Saints do?” Yeah cause that totally worked with Michael Vick 10 years ago... 

    Then Howie Roseman said something that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame of dumb quotes. Something that should go right next to Vince Young’s “Dream Team.” Howie Roseman said that he wanted to make the Eagles a “quarterback factory”. This created a narrative that Howie Roseman might be drafting high round quarterbacks with the plan of flipping them for higher draft picks, which is freaking stupid.

                                                                             Howie Roseman, the candyman!

Part 5: Carson Wentz from MVP to Disappointment 

    The 2020 season was horrible for multiple reasons. Doug Pederson couldn’t call plays or game manage. The offensive line suffered copious injuries that caused them to use 14 different line combinations, and for most of the first 13 weeks, Carson Wentz looked like he had never stepped foot on a football field. He had the most turnovers, threw for less than 3,000 passing yards, didn’t know when to throw the ball away and when he did throw the ball away, it was caught by the other team. A few times he would have guys wide open, but instead either ate a sack or would fumble the ball.

    I think the moment I knew that the old Carson wasn’t coming back was in a Sunday Night Football game against the Ben DiNucci led Cowboys. The plan for this game was to not make mistakes, punt if you need to, throw safe passes and again, don’t make mistakes. Now the defense did their jobs only allowing 3 field goals, but Doug Pederson consistently put Carson Wentz in a bad place and when he was put in a good place, he fumbled and threw interceptions like he didn’t even care. The Eagles won 23-9, but this game felt more like a loss than a win and was a microcosm for what was to come.

                                                             Carson Wentz getting sacked by Leighton Vander Esch

    Carson Wentz’s season came to a head in a week 13 game against the Green Bay Packers where the Quarterback completed way less than 50% of his passes, had 0 touchdowns and only led 1 drive that ended in points. Coach Doug Pederson then replaced Wentz for Jalen Hurts and this was a long time coming. Jalen seemed to be the anti Wentz. While Carson appeared to overthink himself, Hurts seemed calm and collected under pressure and even added the teams first touchdown of the game on a deep pass to Greg Ward on a 4th and 17. The Eagles would lose, but the team had trust in their rookie Quarterback as Carson Wentz wouldn’t start another game for the rest of the season.

    The one picture that everyone saw at the end of the game was Aaron Rodgers speaking to Carson Wentz about something, we don’t know what. I joked that he was telling Carson to “get the f*** out of dodge.” More or less I think Carson felt betrayed by the organization. I think he felt as though he did enough to solidify himself after helping the team win the division in 2019 and he didn’t want to have to look over his back at a rookie quarterback who had the tenacity and drive to compete for the spot. I don’t necessarily think that you could call Carson Wentz a quitter because I don’t think he had a choice to come back in, it was made for him. However, a lot has to be said about his reaction to stiff competition. You look at Aaron Rodgers who had a similar thing happen and he helped the Packers get to a number 1 seed.

"Get the hell out of dodge" - Aaron Rodgers

Number 6: Carson Wentz is Speculated to be Upset

    The fact of the matter is that Carson Wentz wasn’t speaking to anyone, Jalen Hurts put up some pretty good numbers for a rookie in his last 4 starts only winning 1 out of 4 games. A lot of people speculated that Carson Wentz would demand a trade and he was upset about what was going on in Philadelphia. Many members of the media and the fans called Carson Wentz a crybaby, but none of these things were confirmed. People were just connecting the dots despite the fact that Wentz was being a good soldier.

Jalen Hurts during the week 14 win against the Saints

    Many speculated that Carson Wentz had a problem with Doug Pederson after it was speculated by the creative writer named Jeff McLane that Doug and Carson never spoke despite both saying they had a great relationship. Because of these thoughts, the fans figured that if Pederson was fired, Carson would be happy and stay. It wasn’t until after Doug was fired and Carson was still missing in action that it was then theorized that Carson wasn’t upset with Doug (ha doyyyy) he was upset with Howie Roseman for mismanaging his career. 

Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson

    Now again, I don’t know if this is true because the media has been far more miss than hit here, but even after the Eagles hired former Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni, when the media asked questions about Carson, they were met with deflections. So the narrative continues with “the Eagles hired Sirianni to be their Frank Reich and had also hired Sirianni to help out Wentz and only Wentz.” This was in hindsight a silly theory because just 3 weeks later, Carson Wentz was traded to the Colts and Jalen Hurts, who had been propped up by workout videos and news of him working out with the receivers in Texas would be the only quarterback on the team.

Part 7: And Here We Are...

    So here we are back to the present and after outlining this I was to discuss the three groups of people who aren’t to blame here. The first is Nick Foles. This guy did everything that was expected from him from this franchise and more by winning the Super Bowl, winning the MVP of the game and by winning while Carson Wentz was injured. Sure he’s been terrible since then, but it’s not his fault he won when Carson was injured. 

    The next person is Jalen Hurts who again might have been a victim of circumstance when he was drafted by the Eagles with the 53rd overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. It isn't his fault that he has drive, it isn't his fault that he is tenacious and it isn't his fault that Carson Wentz played like cow crap for three quarters of a season and got benched. It isn't his fault that players rallied behind him and they played better for him. 

    The final group that shouldn't be blamed are the fans. Sure, the fans can be down on players and boo them when they are playing poorly. They can also be extremely fair-weather, supporting you when you are good and saying you're the worst ever when you are bad. Sure, constantly being crapped on can do a number on your mental health, but again, that isn't their fault if you are playing badly even if you are in a rut. Sure, they could be more understanding and not as aggressive, but they are what they are and you can't change them. 

    And now to the people who do deserve blame and why they deserve the blame. The first group I would go with is the Philly sports media and the mainstream sports media. The reason being is because these people are supposed to do real investigative journalism and to speak truth to power, but now in the digital age, they are just merely around for clicks and whatever will get them the spotlight. Sure the media is the extension of the fans, or wait, are the fans the extension of the media? Regardless, the media often times screws situations and people up if you hang out too much on social media. 

    As far as the hot take talking heads on ESPN and NFL Network, they might have the easiest job in America. The problem is the fact that most of them aren't qualified to or aren't paid to critically analyze the game so they spend most of the time sitting up there and railing on people they don't like in a biased way. And I'm not saying they hold a ton of responsibility here because they have a job to do where they get a lot of money, but along with the Philly Media, they build narratives off of clickbait headlines and do not read into stories enough to get the full essence of it, but just enough to get twitter chatting about it and just enough for people to speak about it all day. Again, the fans fall for this clickbait with false titles, but they don't get paid to do this and they aren't influencers so they shouldn't be as responsible about what they post so it really falls on a responsibility issue. I put them lower on this list because again, this is their job and they want to be controversial and build up their brand. Knowing that Carson Wentz doesn't pay attention to this stuff is why they aren't as responsible for why things happened the way they did. 

    The next is the locker room leak or leaks plural. Again, from a specific source I know who one of the leaks is, but I am not at liberty of releasing this information. After the 2018 NFL season the Eagles starting to leak from all parts of the locker room and organization and the coaches and organization did absolutely nothing to quell it. The leaks were always coming out claiming that Carson Wentz was a bad teammate and he was this bad person who ate babies and was an axe murderer. Those last two are purely hyperbolic, but you catch my drift. 

    Let's play devils advocate and say that Carson Wentz was all of those things, wouldn't it make the leak(s) a bad teammate as well for not trying to keep it in house? Like I understand Carson Wentz's early success could have made him big headed and thinking that he doesn't need to be criticized, but you'd think that this leak would try to be a good teammate as well instead of crapping on your teammate to the media. And hey, maybe the media sensationalized some stories, which could happen from time to time, but that doesn't change the fact that a teammate went behind another teammate's back. 

    Doug Pederson and the rest of the offensive coaches are not innocent here either. You could say "well Doug Pederson did he could with the talent provided and just wasn't able to succeed," but the problem with this is the fact that the 2020 Philadelphia Eagles were the most vanilla, least creative team in the NFL. Most of the plays had Carson Wentz playing from the pocket, rarely rolling out or playactioning and most times giving up on the running game quite easily. Doug Pederson called the most vertical routes for the receivers and barely any screen plays, which the Eagles got a lot of production out of in 2019. It was the lack of game management and the lack of challenging his quarterback that really had a decent hand in making Carson Wentz a horrible quarterback in 2020 and the unwillingness by the assistants to try to change Carson's bad habits were also clear issues. 

Eagles Quarterback Coach in 2019 and 2020, Press Taylor

    Carson Wentz himself also isn't barred from criticism. After being one of the bottom 3 quarterbacks overall in the league in 2020, he left a lot to be desired. After having one of the worst fumbling problems in 2019, he followed that up by having just as bad of a fumbling problem in 2020. And while we were willing to give him a pass on his fumbles because he didn't throw many interceptions, let us just say that he found a way to be the most turnover prone player in 2020 even though he only played in 12 games. Carson Wentz was so bad that he earned the Jameis Winston award and found himself on the bench. Carson Wentz appeared to be a "busy idiot" and just did far too much and it showed. When the team was in field goal range, inside the 20, he would force passes that were intercepted, when he had a chance to throw the ball away or had someone open on a check down, he would hold onto the ball too long, and get sack fumbled. 

    The game in which the Eagles won by the most points that they had all season, Carson Wentz made rookie Quarterback from James Madison, Ben DiNucci look like the veteran quarterback. Carson Wentz made a quote where he said something along the lines of while I have learned a lot from my mistakes, I will not change my quarterbacking style when uh bro, your quarterback style is why you suck this year. I also understand that while he handled himself well on the sidelines after being benched for Jalen Hurts, the way he left the team without trying to work himself up to be the starter again when the season ended. The act of trying to run away from your problems is one of the negative aspects of NFL players today. These guys are championship chasers, not loyal to their teams or the contracts that they signed. You could say the teams aren't loyal either, but if Carson Wentz leaving was his decision, then I think fans have every right to be mad. It was clear that Carson Wentz wasn't as good of a leader than people though and he didn't have the tenacity to get better even with a young rookie standing behind him to motivate him. 

    And finally Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb being the Owner and General Manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. Two men who have never once played football yet one is an owner that meddles in everything since one of his coaches got too much power so he decided to be the next Jerry Jones minus the charisma and then the other is the General Manager who has one of the worst track record when it comes to drafting players you might as well call him useless. I don't know who is controlling this ship, but if you have a Quarterback that you just gave 128 million to over a 4 year span, it probably isn't a good idea to alienate that guy, which is exactly what these two jabronis did. You can blame Carson Wentz all you want for how he did or didn't react to the drafting of Jalen Hurts, but the fact of the matter is that it never needed to happen. I get that Jeffrey Lurie is the owner of the Eagles and I get he has a lot of money tied up into the team, but YOU... ARE... NOT... A... FOOTBALL... MIND! YOU... DO... NOT... KNOW... BEST! A great owner delegates the duties to a general manager or a coach and it is clear that Lurie will have to hit rock bottom before giving up the reigns to someone who knows more about what they are doing. And as for Howie Roseman, if it is true that Carson Wentz wouldn't take your phone calls, I don't blame him my dude. I would take the first ticket out of town if I was playing on a team that you are managing. Sure, I don't think that Howie is as bad as the horrific coaching, but you trying to play 10 Dimensional Chess and your "Quarterback Factory" that should be burned in a fire should be placed on the wall of shame for dumb things people do and say. 

Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman

Part 8: Oh and ONE More Thing

    Screw Josh McDaniels! Like I know I had to talk myself into him possibly being the Eagles next Head Coach, but dude, you're just a bad person. What do I mean? Well, after Super Bowl 52, the Indianapolis Colts were expected to be the next launching point for controversial Patriots Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels. There was one problem though, the Colts were an absolute joke from top to bottom. They screwed up one of the best quarterbacks in my generation in Andrew Luck, their owner Jim Irsay was involved in a drug scandal and they couldn't do anything right. So, like the scumbag that he was Josh McDaniels basically said "PSYCH!" and withdrew his name for the Colts Head Coaching position. So who did the Colts come running to? Well none other than the Eagles Offensive Coordinator, Frank Reich. At the time we didn't know how much of an impact he had on Carson Wentz so we were happy for him overall, but we weren't too worried. Fast forward 3 years and the guy is one of the major reasons why the Colts are having success in going to the playoffs twice and defeating DeShaun Watson in a playoff game. I know that because of parity in the league that Reich would have eventually left the team for one reason or another for a promotion elsewhere, but this totally damaged the development of Carson Wentz. No other offensive coach was able to keep Carson Wentz accountable so I want to thank Josh McDaniels for being the catalyst for why the Eagles got absolutely ruined so thank you very much for that!

Patriots Offensive Coordinator, Josh McDaniels