Fixing the Eagles

Can I address, for a moment, the utter stupidity of the usually reliable Richard Hoffman’s article in the paper yesterday?

It always helps to win. The idea that the Eagles' winning some games here rears them in some way for next season is crazy. Now, this Eagles’ football team is by no means a good one. The offense is sporadic and lacks things, other than Westbrook, to hang its hat on Sunday after Sunday. The kicking is a mess. The kick returners are a mixture of brutal or guys you don’t want handling this chore. The defense has troubles upfront and increasing in the secondary.

But you can’t tell me the tenor of the clean-up doesn’t change based on how the Eagles do the next five weeks. The next three are at home. They should beat Green Bay coming off a short week. They can steal a game at the Linc- and I imagine they probably will- against the "okay-plus to good" Giants and Seahawks squads. I think they’ll beat Arizona on the road; they’re certainly better than that mess. The Rams and Redskins games- I dunno- what is the focus like, what are those teams playing for?

I honestly don’t know if there are four wins out there for them. But if they can beat either the Giants or Seahawks- and get the most of the Packers, Cardinals, Redskins slate- it makes things better. Better in that they probably find out they have a quality back-up quarterback. Better in that to win three-four games probably requires that Cole and Patterson, the two young guys being increasingly asked to play a lot upfront, continue to turn in quality performances again and again. Better in that the two young interior linemen continue to play well. Better in that a wide out or even two catch some balls- solidifying the #2 & #3 spot- and getting Pinkston out of here.

Seriously, I’ll trade three of the four developments above for six spots in the draft.

Plus, the team needs to evaluate what they’ve got. For example, in the midst of the problems the Eagles have dealt with this year, there has been one solidly redeeming area. The key lesson of last season was the interior of the o-line was pretty bad and the tackles were declining. But the franchise, in its one success this year, is off to a good start fixing it.

First, Shane Andrews has developed nicely. The Eagles now are faced with a tough decision whether he’s ready to move outside- but it the good kind of tough decision- the kind where you have options with upside. The current tackles are still okay- if anything they’ve actually been pretty good since their disasterous start. Thomas seems healthier- and Runyon is not yet a minus. So, the Eagles can decide to play Andrews inside for another year and be all right- or they can move him outside and replace one of the tackles. Jackson seems competent and he's real cheap- which is all you need from the center position. They can finally get the bad Hank Fraley out of here. They are clearly going to draft another tackle- so before you know it, they are a free agent guard signing away from re-infusing the line with lots of young cheap guys who can play- added to a plethora of vets outside who can probably give them one year more of good effort.

This evaluation can continue to the defensive front. Cole is off to an amazing start- the first guy they’ve home-developed that looks like he can bring speed and outside pressure since like forever. And Patterson seems better each week.

Look, they can't fix it all this season. They need a very good wideout- which I imagine is the big free agent signing of the off-season they'll pursue. The kick return game needs a huge infusion of talent. The defensive line needs two new faces no matter what they do now.

But the point is these last six games point to the sort of reconstruction the Eagles face. Lose four or five and they’ve got to tear down a lot of things. But win three or four- and you can probably add two cheap young players to both lines, settle on a back-up quarterback, and feel comfortable with Brown and Lewis as #2 and #3 wideouts- and have faith they are not far behind the Giants and Cowboys.