Philadelphia Eagles come fresh off a 7-9 season...A season filled with highs and lows...The lows took over for most of the season though..Coaching issues with Chip Kelly to quarterback issues with Sam Bradford...Running back issues with DeMarco Murray and countless injuries on both sides of the ball..This team never hit it's stride under HC Chip Kelly and his departure was one that the Philly faithful welcomed..How will they fair this year?....Not Good !!!
OFFENSE: The Eagles offense will be led this year by Sam Bradford...Bradford has won nothing in this league except a starting job...He was a bit worried about his job this year with the signing of 2nd overall pick Carson Wentz...All is well though in the city of brotherly love and Bradford will be under center to start the year...Issue for Bradford is the weapons he has...Philly didn't do much on offense last year and the play makers are limited with skill IMO...Eagles lack a big target WR and a quality RB...Mathews will run the ball, but the departure of DeMarco Murray will hurt this team..They still might have some speed, but my gut feeling is this quickly becomes one of the worst offensive units in the league...New HC Doug Pederson will try to come up with some type of game plan to produce points...He has a few guys that drop passes and health on this team IMO is going to be horrible....Eagles have a high number of veterans approaching the twilight right now..Aging stars won't help them on the field..Perhaps in the locker room, but the overall feel I get is this team is going to self implode. One of my biggest concerns is depth...If the injury bug hits this team, it's all over..This team will fall apart..A few play makers and Bradford will have nothing to throw or hand off too....I like the TE Ertz enough to plug him into my fantasy lineup though..Besides that, this Eagles offense will be in the bottom 5-10 teams in the league...The O-Line has issues and depth as well..I just don't see a ton of talent here on this side of the ball...Philly might lead the league in FG's and that's nothing to brag about...I got the Eagles offense ranked #25th as of right now late June.
DEFENSE: The Eagles defense might be the bright spot here for the team..Overall they have a few guys with talent, but a bunch of hole fillers as well..They brought in a team on defense that I thought would be ok...They had some good times and some bad..Overall the defense tired down the stretch and some of the blame goes on Chip Kelly...The offense couldn't produce enough points or long drives to keep them off the field..The back end was trash and Maxwell was disaster..He has departed to Miami, but the Eagles need to fill about 6 spaces now..Free Agency will hurt this team as they have a large number of guys who might hit the road. I'm very high on guys like Kendricks and Cox, but not much else...Linebackers look rather weak and so does the backend once again...This can be one of the worst units on defense again this year. The departure of Thornton will hurt and so will Ryans...I just don't see much here with how bad this offense will be..This unit will spend plenty of time on the field again this year..I have some serious concerns.
The Schedule: Eagles start out with a layup as they are at home against the Browns..How easy will that game be is another story...We might know right from week 1 just how good this team is..If they win and I expect them to with a home opener, it might gloss over how bad they are and we might find value against them the following week. I'm not a fan of early bye weeks and the Eagles get the worst possible bye week. I look for warm weather teams coming into Philly late in the winter..They have none...They face a few of the weaker teams, but I'm not even sold they can beat them..Division games will be the key and I have the Eagles finishing last in the division..Trying to get this team to 8 wins to beat us is going to be impossible. Although I root for Philly and watch them every week, It's not going to be enjoyable watching them this year..If they win 5 games, I'll be surprised....The bright spot for the season will be next years draft...I think 4 wins about all I can go here.
Season Projection - 4-12 (UNDER 7)