Jalen Hurts, that ugly Jets loss, and more bold predictions for the rest of the Eagles’ season
What will the Eagles do to fix that soft middle of their defense? What will their regular-season record be? We try to answer those questions and a few others.
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We have a sense now, an idea of where this is all going. It’s not fixed or immutable. It’s not even a particularly clear sense. But you get nine weeks into any NFL season, and things start to reveal themselves. The Week 1 surprises and stumbles fade into distant memory. The Week 7 wins and losses start to have some context. And here we are, with the Eagles 8-1 in their bye week, atop the NFC — atop the NFL, really, as the league’s lone one-loss team — and it’s reasonable at this point to draw some conclusions and make some predictions. Doesn’t mean those predictions will be right. Just means we can make them without sounding sillier than usual.
We will look back at Jalen Hurts’ 2023 season in the same way we should look back at the second half of Donovan McNabb’s 2003 season.
By playing through that painful bone bruise on his left knee and playing as well as he has, Hurts has pretty much put to rest any questions about his ability to beat opposing defenses from the pocket. He was terrific there last season, but he had the relative luxury of being injury-free from the torso down. Yes, his interceptions are up this season, but so are his completion percentage and yards-per-game average, and his sack percentage is actually down. Over his last three games, he has completed 75% of his passes for 805 yards, eight touchdowns, and just one interception. Teams know now that he doesn’t have to run to beat them.
For McNabb, it took the arrival of Terrell Owens in 2004 for most opponents and Eagles fans and followers to give him the same benefit of the doubt. But everything clicked into place for him as a pocket passer long before Owens showed up. For his final nine regular-season games in 2003, with James Thrash, Todd Pinkston, and Freddie Mitchell as his wideouts, McNabb played at a pace that, over 17 games, would have led to some darned good numbers: a completion rate of 63.2%; 4,195 yards; 25 touchdowns; eight interceptions; and 8.38 yards per attempt — all before the NFL changed its rules to stop cornerbacks from hand-checking receivers.
» READ MORE: Eagles stats: Josh Sweat ranks among NFL’s top pass rushers; Jalen Hurts is elite on the ‘go’
We will look back at the Eagles’ Week 6 loss to the Jets and say, “They lost to that team and that offense?”
The 2023 Jets are evidence that no philosophy or assertion about football (or about anything else, for that matter) is foolproof. For example …
“You have to throw the ball to win in the NFL. The rules encourage you to throw the ball. Throwing the ball allows you to score more quickly and more frequently. Throw it.”
“Nope. Gonna run it.”
“You moron! Why would you do that?”
“Zach Wilson is our quarterback.”
“You’re right. My bad.”
We will look back at the Eagles’ Week 7 victory over the Dolphins and say, “Yeah, that win felt more impressive at the time than it turned out to be.”
Mike McDaniel is a funny guy and a smart coach, and Tyreek Hill is the most fearsome receiver in the league for his speed. But they aren’t revolutionizing the NFL with their motion-happy offense, and even though they’re 6-3, a telling pattern has developed: They’ve played six teams that now have losing records … and beaten all six. They’ve played three teams that have winning records … and lost to all three. Miami is good. Just good. That’s all.
» READ MORE: Eagles preparing for life without tight end Dallas Goedert
A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith will complete the best season that any pair of Eagles wide receivers have ever had.
They keep this up, and they’re going to combine for more than 200 catches, close to 3,000 yards, and 19 touchdowns. And since Dallas Goedert will be unavailable for a while, Hurts is likely to lean on them even more than he already has.
Brandon Graham will be on the field more in December and January.
This is a timely guess, in light of Graham’s 1½ sacks Sunday against the Cowboys, but it’s a solid guess. Graham himself acknowledged that, because he’s 35, the Eagles have kept him on a “pitch count” this season, limiting his snaps so he’ll be healthy and fresh later. More importantly, though, the Eagles are struggling so much to defend passes between the hash marks that the most viable solution to the problem might be to ramp up their pass rush. That could mean more blitz calls from defensive coordinator Sean Desai. It should mean more Graham, too.
» READ MORE: Sielski: Brandon Graham helped save the Eagles by saving his best for the Cowboys
The Eagles will finish 13-4.
Wins: Buffalo, San Francisco, the Giants twice, Arizona. Losses: Kansas City, Dallas, Seattle. But if they beat the Chiefs coming out of this bye week, all bets are off.