February 02, 2026
The NFL's Super Bowl week will begin on Monday, and the Philadelphia Eagles will not be participants after an incredibly disappointing 2025 season. Let's do a post-mortem "10 awards" post, shall we?
In 2024, the Eagles had one of the best rushing attacks in NFL history, with Saquon Barkley breaking the single-season rushing record (regular season + playoffs), and Jalen Hurts chipping in 19 rushing TDs.
In 2025, the rushing attack fell off a cliff:
| Eagles rushing attack | 2024 | 2025 | Differential |
| Rushing yards per game | 184.1 | 118.2 | -65.9 |
| Yards per rush | 5.0 | 4.1 | -0.9 |
| Rushing 1st downs per game | 9.6 | 6.9 | -2.7 |
| Rushing TDs per game | 1.9 | 1.0 | -0.9 |
| EPA/rush | 0.09 | -0.02 | -0.11 |
There were no shortage of issues:
There was never any question that the rushing attack would fall off to some degree from 2024 to 2025, but I don't think anyone expected them to be below average, which is what they were in most statistical categories.
Oh, and along the way, the Eagles' cheat code play stopped working to the point where the Eagles all but stopped running it. Prediction: You won't hear an outcry this offseason from other teams around the league over how "dangerous" the Tush Push is.
The Eagles ran a Tecmo Bowl offense in 2025, and, like, not even one of the better Tecmo Bowl playbooks.
They ran a historic number of hitch routes, and on the "HAVE TO HAVE IT" play of the season against the the 49ers, they ran a vanilla all verts play that was easily broken up by the defense.
No creativity. Nothing inventive. Rarely ever any motion, play action from under center, or other modern trends that work for so many other teams. They did have some red zone shovel passes to the tight end that worked, I suppose. But otherwise, it was just boring garbage all season long.
The Eagles' offense stunk both in the running game and passing game, as noted above. Their numbers were down almost entirely across the board.
| Eagles offense | NFL Rank: 2024 | NFL Rank: 2025 |
| Points per game | 5 | 19 |
| Yards per game | 8 | 24 |
| Yards per play | 11 | 20 |
| First downs per game | 8 | 25 |
| Rushing yards per game | 2 | 17 |
| Rushing yards per attempt | 4 | 24 |
| Passing yards per game | 30 | 23 |
| Yards per pass attempt | 7 | 16 |
| Third down conversion percentage | 11 | 24 |
| Average time of possession | 1 | 13 |
And it's not as if the Eagles' offense changed from 2024 into 2025. It was more or less the same starers, with the exception of Tyler Steen taking over for Mekhi Becton at RG.
The Eagles entered the 2025 with the most expensive offense in the NFL, filled with highly decorated players. Even if most of the above players underperformed individually in 2025, it's still unfathomable that the Eagles could finish comfortably in the back half of the league in almost all of the team stats shown in the chart above with the roster they fielded.
But even worse than the pure numbers was the experience of watching the Eagles' offense, which was predictable, far too conservative, and frankly, often nonsensical. On some levels, Patullo unfairly bore the brunt of the blame for some aspects of the offense that were very likely outside of his control. For example:
• In several games — notably in losses to the Broncos and Cowboys, as well as a near-loss to the Bills — the Eagles got a lead, and then went into hyper-conservative mode in the second half, blowing double-digit point leads.
• Oftentimes on third and long the Eagles would call ultra-conservative plays (draws to Will Shipley, for example), opting not to risk a turnover and instead choosing to punt.
• In several scenarios at the end of the first half, the Eagles would effectively opt not to try to score more points, and let the time run out.
Those frustrating, big-picture types of strategic decisions came from Nick Sirianni, not Patullo.
Certainly, there were aspects of the offense that were at least partly attributable to Patullo that were maddening to watch on a week-to-week basis, such as:
• They were the slowest team in the NFL to get out of the huddle and to the line of scrimmage.
• Pre-snap procedural penalties were a season-long issue.
• They rarely schemed their receivers open for easy throws/catches, and instead relied on their receivers to constantly have to win contested catches.
• Route concepts were remedial at best, as they ran a historic number of hitch routes, complemented by four verts.
• There was rarely any discernible play sequencing, in which one play early in the game might set up another play later in the game.
• Personnel decisions were often maddening, such as the reliance of tight end Grant Calcaterra to serve as a run-blocking specialist, when that is the biggest weakness in his game; or the refusal to get the effective Tank Bigsby involved in the rushing attack in any meaningful way.
• They would line up in tight formations, bringing receivers close to the offensive line, thus triggering the defense to bring more defenders into the box and then running out of those looks into brick walls.
I could go on.
And after every game, film junkies would point out these very obvious flaws, and the offensive staff would be asked about them during their weekly press conferences. And yet, it never changed. They ran their boring, predictable offense complete with all of their annoying quirks all the way through the regular season and into the playoffs, when an absolutely abysmal 49ers defense was able to shut them down one last time.
Patullo was in over his head as an offensive coordinator, and had to go. That was clear. But he also took a lot of flack that should have been aimed instead at the head coach and in some ways, the quarterback.
Sirianni was never in danger of losing his job one season removed from a Super Bowl win and having signed a new contract during the offseason. But if the team underperforms anywhere remotely close to the way it did in 2025, all bets are off. There's little question that Jeffrey Lurie can recognize how talented the team is to have underperformed the way it did, and he has nearly fired Sirianni in the past.
Meanwhile, Hurts is going to be under heavy scrutiny in 2026, like he has at other times in his career. As usual, he'll have another new offensive coordinator to work with. In the past, Hurts has responded when he has been under fire. He has not really had two consecutive down seasons, at least relative to expectations. But, if he doesn't have a bounce-back season, would it really be that surprising if the team considered other options?
During the 2024 season, Brandon Graham let slip that the relationship between Brown and Hurts had soured a bit.
"I don't know the whole story, but I know that 1 is trying," Graham said during an interview on WIP. "11 could be a little better with how he responds to things. They were friends, but things have changed and I understand that because life happens. But the business side, we got to make sure we don't let the personal get in the way of the business."
That interview came after a win over the Panthers during which the passing attack struggled. When asked after the game what the offense could improve upon, Brown said, "Passing."
Ultimately, whatever was going on between Hurts and Brown didn't matter enough, because the Eagles would go on to win the Super Bowl.
The following season in 2025, Brown made his frustrations clear.
After a Week 4 game in Tampa during which he only had 2 catches for 7 yards, Brown tweeted a cryptic bible verse that he later deleted.
A week later PhillyVoice reported that Brown, Hurts and Saquon Barkley had a positive hours-long meeting. Hurts and Barkley confirmed that the meeting happened, but Brown oddly denied it.
Soon after that, Brown made alarming comments while playing video games on Twitch with someone named "Janky Rondo," saying that his family was good, but everything else was a "s***show." He also urged fantasy football owners who had him on their rosters to trade him. When asked about his comments on Twitch, an unapologetic Brown said that he was upset with the offense as a whole.
After Brown dropped a crucial pass in the Wild Card Round against the 49ers and was slow to get off the field before an ensuing Eagles punt, he had a sideline dustup with Nick Sirianni, who was imploring him to get off of the field more quickly.
Postgame, as media was entering the locker room to conduct postgame interviews, Brown hugged a few teammates before making a quick exit, opting not to speak to the media, just as he hadn't done for the prior couple of months.
None of the above "incidents" or whatever you'd call them are all that bad on their own, but when you add them up and combine them with Brown's down season statistically and his generally joyless play, all the repeated drama starts to wear a little thin, particularly for a player who was named a captain and should be leading by example.
The Eagles' defense was outstanding in 2024, and it was great again in 2025, despite losing starters like Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and Darius Slay.
Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were First-Team All-Pros, establishing themselves as star players, while Jalyx Hunt, Jordan Davis, and Moro Ojomo all had breakout seasons.
They held opponents to under 20 points per game, despite the offense going three-and-out at a historic rate. Their outstanding season will largely be forgotten because the offense didn't come close to pulling its weight.
Fangio's time in the NFL is short, and, well, while he told the team he was returning in 2026, the possibility remains that he could still change his mind and retire. Even if he comes back in 2026 as is expected, it does sort of feel like this could be his last season.
Everyone involved should feel ashamed that one of Fangio's last seasons in the NFL was wasted by an incompetent offense.
In each of the last 20 seasons, we've seen the previous year's divisional champion dethroned, until now.
| Year | NFC East champion |
| 2004 | Eagles |
| 2005 | Giants |
| 2006 | Eagles |
| 2007 | Cowboys |
| 2008 | Giants |
| 2009 | Cowboys |
| 2010 | Eagles |
| 2011 | Giants |
| 2012 | Commanders |
| 2013 | Eagles |
| 2014 | Cowboys |
| 2015 | Commanders |
| 2016 | Cowboys |
| 2017 | Eagles |
| 2018 | Cowboys |
| 2019 | Eagles |
| 2020 | Commanders |
| 2021 | Cowboys |
| 2022 | Eagles |
| 2023 | Cowboys |
| 2024 | Eagles |
| 2025 | Eagles |
Of course, the Eagles won the division party because the rest of the teams in the NFC East stunk, with each team having at least two more losses than wins:
• Cowboys: 7-9-1
• Commanders: 5-12
• Giants: 4-13
And the Eagles actually lost to all three of those teams. But, at least that streak is over.
Throughout the season, national commentary folks often admonished Eagles fans for complaining about the way the team was playing, despite having won the Super Bowl the previous year and having a good record for most of the 2025 season.
My advice to them: Shut up. You don't know more than Philadelphians do about their teams.
This city can accept losing seasons and sometimes even bad teams. Hell, they were largely in favor of one of their franchises tanking for multiple seasons, in hopes of a long-term payoff.
But what Philadelphians don't accept is when a team that should be great... isn't. That was the 2025 Eagles.
This city has repeatedly seen #SuperTeams capable of a dynasty win one championship and then fade back into the pack, whether that was the early 80's Sixers, or the late aughts Phillies, to give two examples.
The 2025 Eagles had the talent to "DO EPIC SHIT," as it says on Sirianni's desk at the NovaCare Complex. And they wasted that opportunity.
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