Eagles 2019-2020 Season

LegoDoom 2019-12-30 23:30:06 UTC #361

Garrett has made the playoffs in 3 of 9 years as coach? The NFC East has been weak that entire time and the Cowboys have had a plus offense in most of those years. I am not sure Jerry is enticed by college coaches. I am more worried about someone like Greg Roman being a Cowboys coach, than anyone from NCAA. Even coaches like Marvin Lewis, Mike Tomlin, and Ron Rivera are threats. As much as they have their flaws, they are all better than Garrett.

Florida_Sunshine 2019-12-30 23:33:43 UTC #362

This is what is wrong with the Cowboys..................

LegoDoom 2019-12-30 23:48:58 UTC #363

I would like to hear an argument about how Pederson was responsible for the 1st half of the season, but not the last quarter. I believe most fans called Wentz a bad QB in that first half of the season. Nothing has changed except for injuries to some starting WRs, OL, and TE. Is it your contention that Pederson wasn't a reason that the offense got better after all of those injuries and the perceived sub standard QB play? If so, then what what is?

I'm not sure why Groh was hired and assume he is the weak link in this system. Pederson seems like a good coach (in-game and off the field), but needs better coordinators. This is in contrast to what Reid was (a great team coach, advanced assistant coaches, but wasn't a great game manager). Still... Reid is a top 3(?) coach in the league and most Eagles fans still wouldn't want him back.

LegoDoom 2019-12-30 23:56:30 UTC #364

I guess I glossed over this, but I very much disagree. In-game coaching is a huge part of NFL games. Yes, preparing a team is very important, but even just going for it on 4th down in certain situations leads to wins over bad in-game coaches. Being as the NFL has a 16 game season, that makes it much more important than a MLB analytics decision.

Coaches like Tomlin, Rivera, and even Reid would be much better if they embraced analytics.

allentown 2019-12-31 00:10:33 UTC #365

Pederson and his staff and Wentz were responsible for the whole season, the good and the bad. I think the change between the middle 10 games of the season and the last 4 was that Pederson, his staff, and Wentz finally decided that they had no choice but to make serious offensive changes, as Pederson and his staff did in past seasons when Foles replaced Wentz. The offense was actually very good, when they had Jackson to spread the field and Jeffery to make the tough, contested catches. When they lost these two key receivers they were unable/unwilling to adapt the game plan sufficiently. Wentz was unwilling/unable to get rid of the ball quicklsy, including throwing it away if necessary. They've actually improved the past 4 games with the additional injuries, making major changes to the game plan. The defense also has been more aggressive the past 4 games. To win the championship, Pederson made substantial offensive changes to accommodate what Foles could and could not do. A mundane QB was put into a position to be a winner. The other big difference in the last 4 games is that Sanders and Scott are quick/fast enough to do what the coaches' game plan wanted the RBs to do. Our injured main RBs just weren't. Howard did well with straight ahead plays early in the season, but wasn't good at the other plays the staff wanted to run.

LegoDoom 2019-12-31 00:49:44 UTC #366

Yes, the offense was good against a bad Washington team. DJax played one game.. is there a reason to believe that the offense hinged on his performance (being as the SB season didn't have a speedster like him)? It's not like Alshon was as good as you made him out to be. Greg Ward pretty much replaced him and he came off of the practice squad.

The Eagles have played bad teams the last month. Their strength of schedule was front loaded. Are we all ignoring that?

zambonir 2019-12-31 07:14:19 UTC #367

I'm saying Pederson gets all the credit , for the good and the bad. If you think his performance this past month suggests he would have won more games with the Cowboys' players his performance in the losses says the that too. Both coaches lost games they shouldn't have and won some good ones, even as neither of them beat a ton of good teams (including each other). But mainly if Pederson had to work for Jerry Jones he doesn't necessarily win 12 games. Who knows, maybe if he had Kellen Moore and Jon Kitna he wins 12 in Philly this year. I'm also not saying in-game coaching isn't important, I'm saying in-game coaching by the head coach is not as important as we tend to think and if you believe Groh is the weak link you think so too.

I suppose nobody will turn down the Cowboys job just because of Jerry, Ron Rivera's gonna take the Redskins job after all.

LegoDoom 2019-12-31 11:41:15 UTC #368

I don't agree with this. Even if you limit in-game coaching to 4th down decisions, then it's highly important. It's probably the biggest reason why coaches like Rivera and Tomlin are not more successful (or at least equal to their play-calling). And both of those coaches have been successful, but could be much better with a better understanding of expected points.

Pederson was roasted for his 4th down decisions in his 1st year. The outcome of those decisions were the wrong side of variance. He hasn't changed his philosophy, but there aren't as many critics because the sample size has gotten bigger and the outcomes have return to the norm.

LegoDoom 2019-12-31 11:47:09 UTC #369

And I think Groh is the weak link because of his play design, not because of his play-calling.

phillychuck 2019-12-31 12:06:11 UTC #370

NFL is more of a coach's league than any other pro sport.

Gameplan is very important--as Andy always says, putting the players in position to succeed. Perfect example is the complete change in game planning with Foles in the Super Bowl year. Pederson seems very good at this, although his gamelans get better as the season progresses.

Culture is very important--players have to play hard and care. Pretty much all the guys play hard for Doug.

Hiring and keeping good assistants is very important, which Doug seems to have done with Schwartz (not as much with offensive coaches except Duce). It's a hard league to keep good assistants--that's what killed Andy in Philly.

In-game coaching is crucial--4th-down decisions, challenges, 2-point conversions, clock management. Doug is above average at all of these I think.

Performance in high leverage games is important, and, again, Pederson grades out well here.

After being very skeptical of the hire initially, I'm fully on board. Even if we get crushed Sunday.

LegoDoom 2019-12-31 12:59:09 UTC #371

IMO, what killed Andy in Philly was not winning a SB. He's had coaches leave in both Philly and KC, yet keeps rolling out good replacements. That shows how good of a coach he actually is. You can only keep an assistant coach who has proven he can't, or doesn't want to, be a head coach.

bkeich 2019-12-31 13:43:38 UTC #372

I fear we do know. We have a very, very old team and almost all of our draft picks have been bad, I can take a pretty good guess what we will be by then.

Maybe some of our CBs will work out, but at the moment the only one that looks like a solid player is Maddox. Our safeties will be very old by then (already are really). Our DL, minus Barnett and maybe Sweat will be near the end of their careers. We wont have a single LB that is on the team now that is worth anything.

RB we are set. QB we are set. Our OL is getting insanely old. We dont have a single WR on the team now that will likely be on the team in 2022 (maybe Ward of all people).

Howie has a ton of work to do. Probably too much to even talk about actually succeeding.

Our window I think is next year. After that, barring an amazingly solid offseason we are looking at a rebuild, and possibly a long one by NFL standards.

Lawman 2019-12-31 13:43:51 UTC #373

Overall, agreed. Doug is turning out to be a very good head coach. The media had no clue who this guy was when he was hired, I remember the hot name was Ben McAdoo from the NY Giants. We dodged a bullet there.....

bkeich 2019-12-31 13:48:32 UTC #374

Pederson will not win coach of the year, but he should. No one actually did a better job with what they have and to win 9 games win this many guys who frankly should not be in the NFL is amazing. The award to go to the coach of a team with a better record, but I could coach Lamar Jackson (well, maybe not, but still).

I hope Doug Pederson is our coach for another decade at least. He has been terrific, he has made some mistakes but still he continues to come up with game plans that use what he has to win. We won a Super Bowl SOLELY because he figured out what Nick Foles could do well and used it, Foles is a very limited QB, but very good at specific things, no one else has had success with him other than one season by Chip. Foles is exactly the reason that Pederson is a very good head coach / offensive coordinator.

bkeich 2019-12-31 13:51:04 UTC #375

I bet McAdoo gets another chance. The Giants are a hot mess and lacked the talent to succeed. They had one of the worst QBs of the last 10 years, they had a supremely talented WR with a team crushing ego and little else.

Remember, once Bill Belichick had a job like this with the other team in NY and they dodged a bullet by firing him too. Or, maybe not....

phillychuck 2019-12-31 14:08:19 UTC #376

The determinants of success in the NFL are QB and Coach (look at the Pats). We are set there for a decade. I disagree with the above sentiment about the team--we will continue to be good in 2021 and 2022 if Wentz stays healthy.

And the O-line is fine. Dillard played well at LT and as a 6th lineman. Semualo, Brooks, and Johnson are middle-aged for linemen. Kelce has a couple of good years left, too, and, if not, Semualo slides over and Opeta (very highly regarded developmental G by the organization) steps in at LG.

LegoDoom 2019-12-31 14:30:41 UTC #377

With a franchise QB, this is never the case. With a franchise QB and a good HC, this is especially not the case. The current team is decimated with injuries and still made the playoffs.

bkeich 2019-12-31 14:30:41 UTC #378

Not sure I agree.

Semualo... honestly, he is the teams secret MVP this year. He has been very, very good, especially in the run game. If you go back and look you might notice they have been running behind him alot this year, which is of course different than other years.

Brooks is getting fairly old and has had 2 bad injuries. OL careers normally end quickly (Jason Peters of course being an extreme example of the opposite as he just fights through every injury). I am worried about him.

Johnson the same.

Kelce, not sure he even comes back for another season, but I suspect if he does next year is his last.

Peters is done. Enshrine him. Put him up on the Wall of Fame. Consider retiring the number, he was that good.

Dillard willl hopefully be good, but his rookie season was not a slam dunk. That said, if he plays 1 position to at least learn I think he will be ok.

We will miss Vaitai. He hasnt been the best in the world, but how many career backups have played as much as he has in all kinds of positions. Wish him well, I hope he can nail down a LT job and succeed.

Other guys are to be determined at best, but we are a long way from having a good, young to middle aged line. All of our good lineman are probably past their primes, Dillard needs to step in.

Maleata (sp?) is the big risk maybe. He might be great, he really might. He has insane athleticism and strength. Missing this year really hurt, he gets a chance next year to fill the Vaitai role. He is still only 22 shockingly.

I hope you are right PC, but to me there are many question marks about this OL. Too many guys on the wrong side of their career and the young guys (except Semualo) havent proven anything yet and their are some results (Dillard) that actually dont look good (ok at LT, benched at RT).

bkeich 2019-12-31 14:41:24 UTC #379

... and I am glad...

We made the playoffs because our division is laughably bad and we are the least bad. Dont get me wrong, I have had a great time watching the last month as we pull people out of the stands to play, Greg Ward and Boston Scott have been about as much fun to watch as I can remember. Then you throw in guys like Burnett (who?) and it has been awesome.

One of the reasons we had so many injuries is that we have a very old team. Many of the guys we have lost are nearing the end of their careers and they are all key parts to this team.

DJax and Jeffries will be back next year, but the over under for both is about 8 games. Our next best WR is Greg Ward, and he is a great story but as it stands right now he might be a #1 WR again at times next year. We have a ton of cap invested in 2 WR that are very suspect, and I am not even sure Jeffries is a good WR when he is on the field now. If anyone says JJAW will be better I ask where has he been and what skill do you see? His supposed great hands have not materialized and he lacks speed. No clue what skill he has, but he isnt going to be in the NFL for long unless he sells his soul to the devil this offseason.

CB. We have Maddox. The others are various forms of guys that should be at the bottom of a roster if on it at all. Maddox is probably not a #1 CB, maybe only a slot guy. We need a miracle here.

S. 2 very old guys who are not at all what they once were. Both are very expensive.

LB. No one. Absolutely no one. Bradham maybe, but he is expensive and his play is going in the wrong direction.

LegoDoom 2019-12-31 15:17:07 UTC #380

bkeich,

You are making all of that up, right? Peters is 37 and everyone knew he was at the end of his career (which is why Dillard was drafted).

Kelce and Brooks are older, but interior OL tend to age better than skill position players. I am more worried that Kelce has said that he doesn't want to play football much longer than I am about him being over the hill.

Malcolm Jenkins is the only player that seems to fit that description.

All of the WRs could be cut next season and it seems that none of them really matter. Keep Ward and let the others walk.

The Eagles made the playoffs because the other teams didn't have a good HC or QB. That is the reason why those 2 jobs are so important in the NFL. The Eagles have good people at both jobs, so they are ahead of everyone in the NFC East.

The team has also had injuries to most of the players you mentioned and still made the playoffs. If you want to say that the NFC East was bad, that's valid, but the team also held its own against non division opponents.

If you think that Pederson and Wentz are franchise employees, then the team won't be in a true rebuild for a decade.