If the playoffs started this week, which would be weird, the Eagles would be the #1 seed in the NFC. This is exactly where the team expected itself to be coming out of their bye. But what have we learned about the Eagles midway through the 2025 season?
NFL free agency was a waste of time
- Joshua Uche and Azeez Ojulari have combined for 1 sack and 3 TFL, and have been replaced by trade this week and unretirement last week.
- Adoree’ Jackson is somehow still on the roster after the team traded for yet another CB last week.
- AJ Dillon is RB4, behind a RB that the team traded for in September.
These were all low risk signings, but low risk veteran signings almost always come with a low reward. Also see: the 2023 offseason where the Eagles got a null contribution from the signings of Terrell Edmunds, Justin Evans, Greedy Williams, and Rashaad Penny.
The good news here is that the Eagles have gotten squat from their free agency class and are still in the driver’s seat for the NFC. But again, that was the same situation they were in this time in 2023. Would some better depth have helped stop the end of season spiral? Perhaps that is one reason why they traded for four players since the season started.
Jalen Hurts keeps getting better
Last year Jalen Hurts was overshadowed by Saquon Barkley’s incredible season. This season he doesn’t have anyone to steal his thunder, and he’s playing the best ball of his career. Matthew Stafford is the only other QB who has at least as many TDs as Hurts’ 15 and fewer than 3 interceptions.
At 4th in Intended Air Yards Per Attempt and 5th in Completed Air Yards Per Attempt, he’s certainly not throwing a lot of low risk, low reward passes. He’s not throwing a lot of passes of any kind, attempting 24 or fewer passes in five games.
Nor is his 70% completion percentage, 7th best, padded by RB screen or check down passes, with RBs accounting for just 17.8% of his completions, fewer than completion percentage leaders Drake Maye (20.5%), Jared Goff (23.6%), and Jordan Love (22%).
The NFC East is theirs again
The 20 year streak of no repeat NFC East winner is going to end, and soon. The rest of the division has laid out a red carpet for the Birds. And all of it was completely predictable.
The Cowboys having 3 wins through 9 games feels like an overachievement. Dallas is giving up 31.2 points per game in losses and 30.3 in wins and their tie. The Bengals of the NFC.
The Giants being terrible is right on track. Brian Daboll should have been fired in the offseason and should be fired this offseason, but Jaxson Dart’s vibes, which include running the ball like he has a deathwish and a loss to the Saints, might be enough to keep his job. Whenever he goes, I will miss his child like, how has nobody sat him down and told him that grown men can not act like this temper tantrums about a 5 yard penalty on 2nd down.
And the Commanders? Oh boy. Their disaster season is going even worse than all but the hatest of haters could have seen coming. Who could have possibly seen that an old roster would have injury problems, or that a talentless defense that didn’t add talent would once again be bad, or that relying on your QB for your running game wouldn’t work?
The vibes might be back?
The vibes on this team were just off all year. Not bad, just… off. They threatened to turn sour. Thursday night and divisional games can have some weird outcomes, and when you combine them you run the risk of some really weird outcomes. The Eagles got humiliated on Thursday Night by the Giants in Week 6. That they came back two weeks later and completely turned the tables is something.
Of course if they go out and lay a brick against the Packers, who just lost to the Panthers and two weeks before that needed a 14 point 4th quarter to beat the Cardinals by 4, then it was just beating up a bad Giants team. We should know immediately: between regular season openers, regular season byes, playoff byes, and Super Bowl byes, the Eagles are 12-1 under Nick Sirianni when they have a week off.
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