Philadelphia Eagles: five keys to a successful 2015 season – EndZoneScore – EndZoneScore
For some teams, finding five key issues that need answering in order to succeeding for an upcoming season may seem like a large, but not overbearing, amount. For other teams, they would likely be celebrating if their franchise only needed five problems resolved before week one. For the Philadelphia Eagles, it was honestly difficult trying to find five major issues that needed to be addresses in order to have a positive season this year. Between the countless number of moves made throughout free agency as well as the draft, many of Philly’s previous ailments appeared to have been answered, but five issues were found nonetheless.
Franchise quarterback:
Whether it’s Sam Bradford or Mark Sanchez, the Eagles need to determine who the franchise quarterback is. Fans have been growing wearing of the lazy Susan of quarterbacks who have started for Philly ever since the Donovan McNabb trade to Washington. Bradford has the greatest skillset of any quarterback the Eagles have recently employed, but considering he has never played in the spread offense before and is recovering from his second torn ACL, optimism is not particularly high at the moment. Sanchez went .500 in his eight starts with the team after Nick Foles went down with a broken collarbone, and both Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow are struggling for the role of third-string quarterback. Considering Chip Kelly has given up both Foles and draft picks for Bradford, fans can only hold their breath as training camp begins in a little over two weeks from now.
Maintain a healthy offensive line:
After the team released veteran right guard Todd Herremans, it was widely assumed that one of the backups would fill the void and the Birds would draft an offensive lineman, given that they were relatively weak at that position last year. Fast-forward to July and the Eagles have released veteran left guard Evan Mathis and did not select an offensive lineman in the 2015 NFL Draft. Instead, the Eagles are relying on unretired former-Seattle Seahawk John Moffitt, journeyman Allen Barbre, and a handful of undrafted free agents to help anchor their offensive line that plans on being better than what’s currently cooking in Dallas. Once again, if the Eagles want to have any Super Bowl aspirations come 2015, it has to start with the offensive line.
Solidify leaky secondary:
The Achilles heel of Philadelphia’s defense ever since the departure of Brian Dawkins, the secondary needs to be solid if the Eagles wish to improve on their 10-6 records, let alone go 16-0 as tight end Zach Ertz predicted. The team made headlines after signing ex-Seahawk and Legion of Boom member, Byron Maxwell, to a 6-year $63 million contract, which some analysts call overspending, but he possesses the desired size at 6’3” and is a scheme fit. Malcolm Jenkins returns to serve as the brains of the backend, but who will serve opposite of them remains a toss up. CB2 will be fought between Nolan Carroll, Eric Rowe, and Brandon Boykin, and despite drafting three defensive backs this season, only Rowe could plausibly start at safety. The Utah product spent 3/4 years at safety before switching to corner his senior year. As stated, Rowe has been taking his practice reps at corner, whereas new Eagle, Walter Thurmond, has made the transition to safety due to numbers at the position. In 2014, the Eagles defense ranked 32nd against X-plays, which are plays in which the offense gains at least 20-yards. They also ranked 32nd in plays of 40+ yards gains, so if this franchise is truly serious about contending for a Super Bowl, getting torched by Dez Bryant, DeSean Jackson, and Odell Beckham twice a season is unacceptable.
More support from 2014 draft class:
It was truly sad how little input the 2014 Draft class had on the team in their rookie year. Marcus Smith never started, Josh Huff suffered injury early on that derailed his development, Jaylen Watkins did not start until the final game of the season solely because Bradley Fletcher was on IR, pick Taylor Hart never saw action, and Ed Reynolds ended up on the practice squad. The only players to make an impact were Jordan Matthews who showed an impressive performance playing primarily from the slot, and Beau Allen who became the primary backup to Bennie Logan at nose tackle. Next to offensive line, outside linebacker is one of the shallowest positions on the team, and with only Travis Long and Bryan Braman as other options; the Eagles must get production out of Smith in 2015. Huff is poised for a breakout season after spending most of 2014 learning the offense and taking notes from Jeremy Maclin, Riley Cooper, as well as fellow rookie Matthews. Watkins is caught in a game of numbers. As stated in the previous paragraph, the Eagles signed both Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond in free agency, plus, used three out of their seven draft picks on defensive backs this year. Now that the secondary has become one of the deepest positions in the franchise, Watkins best bet is to bulk up and become a backup in dime, outside corner, as well as safety if he wishes to have any hope at cracking the starting lineup. Hart has beefed up from 281 lbs. on draft day to 305 lbs. during OTAs. Couple his new weight with his familiarity in the defensive scheme, and Hart, like Huff, is also poised to breakout and make a solid contribution this season. Reynolds has shown no promise that he could be a viable solution to Philly’s problem at safety, and will likely not even make the practice squad this season. Finally, Jordan Matthews looks to start on the outside this season and become a huge part of the Eagle offense, and Beau Allen looks to continue his success at backup nose tackle to keep the defensive line fresh.
Proven deep threat receiver:
Ever since the loss of DeSean Jackson, he has continually reminded Philadelphia every time they play Washington that they allowed one of the league’s fastest receivers to walk; and ever since then, the Eagles have yet to find a replacement capable of taking the top off a defense. Granted, Chip Kelly prefers larger receivers as they stand up to his belief of, “Big people beat up little people”, and because smaller receivers get by via speed, the odds of the Eagles finding a nine-route achieving, 6’1”+ monster is highly unlikely. However, there is some hope as to how the Birds will remedy this problem. Coach Kelly believes that the smaller receivers, as fast as they may be, cannot win at the line of scrimmage consistently because of the new-age cornerbacks that range between 6’0”-6’4” will manhandle them. Therefore, the Eagles draft larger wideouts who may not have the best 40-time, but can get physical with corners and win at the line, allowing them to get that extra second and a half of time to go out and get the deep ball. These larger receivers may not be able to outrun corners forever, but when push comes to shove, the 6’3” wideout will always win the 50/50 ball versus the 5’10” receiver. The point I’m trying to make is that the Eagles have yet to find said wideout capable of getting over the top. First-round pick Nelson Agholor is prepared to start in the slot the same way Jordan Matthews did in his rookie year, and Matthews is poised to start on the outside now that Jeremy Maclin is no longer with the team. Cooper showed last season that he struggles getting off the line, so it is really down to either Matthews or Huff to perfect the go-route in 2015.
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