Sometimes you can’t be who you want to be.
I, for one, would like to be more creative. I wish I had the ability to write incredible novels, or be a play write or screenwriter. I would like to be more disciplined in my everyday life. I would like to stop drinking sugary sodas. I would like to be a little taller, have a better hairstyle, and be more patient with my kids.
Some of these things I can change. Some of these things I cannot.
After the Eagles’ 24-21 fall-from-ahead loss to the Cowboys in Dallas on Sunday, it’s time for Nick Sirianni and the offense to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror and ask themselves a simple question. To have a “Come to Jesus moment.”
Who are we capable of being? Are we the same offense we were in 2024? Can we be a successful run-first team that imposes its will at the line of scrimmage like we were last year? Or, do we have to be something else?
The Eagles are 8-3 and, for the most part, have failed to establish any kind of consistency on offense. It’s incredible they’ve had the success they have thus far with the offense struggling. Much of that is due to the running game’s inability to be even above league average, let alone the No. 1 rushing unit we saw a season ago.
Point the finger at Saquon Barkley if you must. He admits he’s in a “slump.” Point the finger at Kevin Patullo. Point the finger at Jeff Stoutland, the running game coordinator. Point the finger at Howie Roseman, for not re-signing Mekhi Becton over the summer. Point the finger at Jalen Hurts for not running the ball enough. Point the finger at Nick Sirianni for being the driving force behind all of it. It’s on all of them.
Their 1,215 rushing yards are 21st in the NFL this season, as is their EPA/rush. Only five teams have a lower yards per attempt (3.9) than Philadelphia’s. That has led, in large part, to the percentage of drives in which the Eagles score to sit at 34.2%, 27th in the league. The teams behind them? The Jets, Saints, Titans, Raiders and Browns. Those teams have a combined record of 10-45, and it’s possible those five squads will hold the first five picks in next April’s NFL Draft.
That’s not the company a Super Bowl favorite should be keeping.
Sirianni and Patullo’s game plans continue to be formatted with the idea that the Eagles remain an above average-to-elite running team, when the offense has shown absolutely no indication they are that any longer.
There are any number of reasons why. Lane Johnson’s health has been an issue all season long, and now he’s out for at least the rest of the regular season, if not the entire season altogether. Cam Jurgens entered the season feeling the effects of off-season back surgery, and now is dealing with a leg injury on top of it. Landon Dickerson has been playing hurt most of the year, and he’s clearly not as athletic in ‘25 as he was a season ago. Jordan Mailata has had a terrific pass-blocking year, but the run blocking hasn’t been the same. Tyler Steen is fine, but no Becton. Dallas Goedert, long known to be a great blocking tight end, has seen his quality of play dip this year, and the Eagles continue to use two negatives, Grant Calcaterra and Kylen Granson, in the run game ad naseum.
It’s clear the running game isn’t going to be what it was a season ago. It may even be “bad.” With the binzarre personnel usage and the unimaginative and predictable playcalling from Sirianni and Patullo (can we simply call them Siritullo from now on, just to save time?), there seems little chance of a breakthrough. The offensive line is a shell of itself and something is missing with Barkley.
That’s OK. It’s a new season. Things happen. Players get banged up. It’s the NFL. You have to adapt.
It’s time for Sirianni and Patullo to do that. It’s time to look inside the soul of the team, forget about how you won last year, and throw out the ultra conservative gameplan that has resulted in the mess we’re seeing right now.
The Eagles have always been a team that can find a myriad of ways to win, but it’s difficult to do that when the coaching staff is shackling players to the degree the Eagles are right now. Just ask former Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles.
The Eagles have played this way because they’ve believed the running game would get going again. But they can no longer afford to assume that will be the case going forward. They have lost control of the No. 1 seed in the NFC thanks to Sunday’s loss to Dallas, and are in danger of stumbling to the finish line in a similar, if not as spectacular, fashion as the 2023 Birds.
Should Sirianni and Patullo continue along this path, it will either be an indication that they are not intelligent enough to make the kinds of adjustments most high quality NFL coaches can make in the middle of a season, or that they are simply unwilling to admit things need to change. Yes, the Eagles have been very successful with the ultra conservative mindset that protecting the football is the most important aspect of a winning offense. But that only works if you can be productive on the ground so that you don’t have to risk putting the ball in harm’s way.
Given the failures of the run game, it’s now time to open it up. It’s time to throw a little caution to the wind. It’s time to admit the running game isn’t going to come around and, if it does, it will be because an effective passing game is forcing opposing defenses to play more honestly. We’ve seen how good A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Barkley and Goedert can be when given good routes to run and there’s even a modicum of effort by the coaches to confuse the defense. But the passing game won’t work if Sirianni and Patullo continue running the same stagnant route combinations Nick Foles outlined above, and it won’t work if they keep telling Hurts to swallow the football.
If Patullo isn’t up to the task, it speaks to the team’s inability to develop in-house offensive coaches to take on this important role when called upon. That’s on Sirianni. But maybe there’s someone else in-house who would have a knack for this. Sirianni has made these kinds of in-season changes before, with some success (2021) and some failure (2023). I wouldn’t rule out a change in play callers at this point.
The 2025 season is its own animal. It is no longer 2024. The Eagles need to stop approaching everything like we’re still playing with last year’s players and realize their overall philosophy must change if they want to get back to the Super Bowl this season.
Sometimes you can’t be who you want to be. Luckily for them, to have enough talent to be someone else.
If the coaching staff will help them, that is.
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