This season has started as bad as it possibly could have for the Philadelphia Eagles. (Yes I know my bold prediction of an Eagles Super Bowl appearance looks absurd at this point!) We have learned a lot about this team through the first three weeks. Mostly not good. Here are my top three things we have learned.
1. Carson Wentz is not playing like (and maybe is not at all) an elite QB. I have been the leader of the #WentzisElite hashtag. I have been blaring the horns of him being a top 5 QB all offseason. He simply just is not playing anywhere near that level at the moment. His 35.5 QBR is ranked 29th in the NFL at this point. Last season his 27 TD to 7 INT is flipping real fast this season. He currently has 3 TDs to a whopping 6 INTs so far.... not elite at all! I have officially retired the elite hashtag for the remainder of the season no matter how it turns out.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr I mean Jeff Driskel and Mitchell Trubisky have higher QBR's thus far!
2. Doug Pederson should not be calling plays anymore. He has lost all confidence in his skills as a play caller. His aggressiveness which was his calling card has completely disappeared. He has a lot of issues with healthy and skilled weapons, but his one skilled player Miles Sanders, is not getting nearly enough touches in his two games played. 132 passes to 79 rushes is not going to win many games when you have an anemic wide receiver crop like the Eagles do. When you have a running back as elite as Miles Sanders, you feed him the ball 20-25 times out of the backfield. And of course the punting at the end of the Bengals game sums up the fact that Pederson has lost it completely....
3. Howie Roseman cannot evaluate talent for the draft. This is another year of the same narrative of critiquing Roseman's draft abilities. While Jalen Reagor has been hurt, the 2020 draft class is either under performing or not performing at all. There were serious holes on this team, and he spent draft capitol on players that are projects or reaches. It will be an interesting offseason, if this season continues to spiral, to see if Howie is relieved of his duties. But we cannot let him make the final call on player personnel anymore. We can look at each pick throughout the draft (especially in the first 3/4 rounds) and look at the player Roseman selected and then look at 2 or 3 players that were on the board at the time... there are players that he skipped each round that are making impacts right now.
What have you learned thus far? What are you most surprised by thus far? Let us know! Do not forget to tune into the AATBirds LIVE shows and interact with all of us on Wednesdays @ 915pm Thursdays for the Fantasy n Gambling Show @ 830pm and as always immediately when the clock hits zero for the Eagles Post Game Show.