March 31, 2022
It was pretty clear before the 2021 season even began that if the Eagles were trying to maximize their short-term success, they should lean into a run-heavy offense. After all, they employed an athletically gifted quarterback with significant passing deficiencies, a very young wide receiver group, and an excellent run-blocking offensive line.
However, at the outset of the season, the Eagles' tried to pass as they normally would, occasionally rolling out game plans that made little sense, like in Dallas Week 3, when Nick Sirianni revealed during his postgame press conference that the team's plan was to essentially win a shootout against a team that they thought was going to score a bunch of points.
After the first month and a half or so of the regular season, the Eagles finally committed to what they did best, which was run the football. They quickly transitioned from a finesse offense to one with a mean, nasty identity led by a star-studded offensive line.
From Week 8 on, the Eagles racked up huge numbers on the ground:
| Opponent | Rushes | Yards | YPC | TD |
| Week 8, at Lions | 46 | 236 | 5.1 | 4 |
| Week 9, Chargers | 39 | 176 | 4.5 | 2 |
| Week 10, at Broncos | 39 | 216 | 5.5 | 0 |
| Week 11, Saints | 50 | 242 | 4.8 | 3 |
| Week 12, at Giants | 33 | 208 | 6.3 | 1 |
| Week 13, at Jets | 41 | 185 | 4.5 | 1 |
| Week 15, WFT | 41 | 238 | 5.8 | 2 |
| Week 16, Giants | 30 | 130 | 4.3 | 1 |
| Week 17, at WFT | 34 | 118 | 3.5 | 2 |
In fact, if you'll recall, during the stretch from Week 8 to Week 15, the Eagles became the first team since the 1985 Chicago Bears to run for at least 175 yards in seven straight games.
Perhaps the Eagles saw that their best chance to compete in 2021 was to pound the run like the rest of us did, but they wanted to see if Jalen Hurts could run an offense that they ultimately wanted to run? And when it became clear that he could not, they changed course? And maybe there was some influence on the type of offense the Eagles ran early in the season from higher up? That's all certainly possible and plausible, as Jeffrey Lurie himself made no mistake in the past that he wanted to be a dominant passing team.
At the 2022 NFL owners meetings, one of the themes of the week was what kind of offense the Eagles will run going forward.
Howie Roseman indicated a need to get more targets for the good, young weapons in the Eagles' offense.
"I think when we look at our skill position guys, and we look at DeVonta Smith, and I'm not speaking out of turn — this is after my conversation with Coach Sirianni and our coaches, obviously this is lockstep with them — DeVonta Smith had 118 targets," Roseman said. "I think I'm right on that number, but if I'm wrong I apologize. (It was actually 104.)
"When you look at the players in Coach Sirianni's offense and the No. 1 receivers in the league, you're talking about guys getting 150 targets. When you talk about Dallas Goedert — and obviously we had Zach [Ertz] — he had 84 targets last year (it was actually 76). Guys who are tight ends of his caliber, you're talking about guys who are getting 120 targets per year. Even when you look at Quez [Watkins], I think he had 60 targets (62, actually).
"And so we believe, in those three guys, specifically the first two guys, they're going to require, as their skill sets continue to get better and better, and as they get more comfortable in the offense, they are going to require more targets.
"So I think we have to look at, we're kind of saying, can we also satisfy players who are going to gobble up a lot of targets while we're trying to satisfy these young players that we think have a chance to be exceptional players."
To be clear, Roseman was answering a question about the Eagles' perceived inability to attract wide receiver talent because wide receivers around the league don't want to come to Philly to play in a run-first offense. Still, his answer was telling. If Smith, Goedert, Watkins, and others are going to see substantially more targets, the Eagles are going to have to, you know, pass the ball more.
#Analysis.
Lurie stressed the need to be good at everything.
"I think, in the NFL these days, you want to be able to have a dynamic passing attack and you want to have a really good running attack and it’s all built around the trenches," Lurie said. "And that’s where we’re at. There’s nothing Jalen I don’t think will be able to not do. We just have to keep evolving that offense in every single way. Time will tell, right? Nick’s an aggressive offensive guy and I know he feels there’s just so much growth in what we can do on offense. And he is very bullish on all the things we can do this coming season and in the future.”
Sirianni acknowledged that the passing game wasn't where it needs to be going forward.
"We’re going to work like crazy to get our pass game where we want it, to get it better," he said. "Because I think, at the end of the day, I don’t remember what we ended up, in the pass game – I think it was maybe 25th or 26th – that needs to be better. You want to make sure that you’re not deficient in any area because, obviously, the teams that are game planning against you have an opportunity to take advantage of that. So we’re trying to make our weaknesses – and I’m not saying that’s our weakness – but we’re trying to make things that maybe we’re not where we want to be, or up to our standard. We’re always trying to get better at those.”
With the Eagles being unable to trade for Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson, Hurts seems to have survived the free agency portion of the offseason. If he can also survive the 2022 NFL Draft and remain the team's starter this season, it appears that he's going to have to show that he can win through the air, and with (for now) basically the same cast of characters.
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