Just now, NOTW said:

Yes, let's do that.

Good use of that meme. Who do you bring in at WR to replace him on top of the huge cap hit? He's not here long-term, but probably at least through next season. I'd prefer getting a real OC and seeing what happens vs finding another and wasting space.

1 minute ago, BigEFly said:

Vikings (next Bears opponent is under .500. Then before the Birds, they have the Steelers. (Steelers lose to Bengals this week and they would be at .500), so Bears as division leaders if the Lions lose this week is a possibility, just sayin’.

Oh it’s very possible. they hit the schedule jackpot for up until the eagles game. I feel like there’s a lot of teams this year that have had fortuitous scheduling on the front end of their schedules.

Also, if everyone can remove emotion and bias from the equation, Howie does have a problem to evaluate in the offseason. @TEW hinted at this.

Hurts, AJ Brown, and Devonta Smith, collectively, are a massive cap hit. The Eagles are 26th in the NFL in passing yards and most of the teams behind them have been cycling QBs. If you want to defend these results because the Eagles are winning, that's fine. But that means some of this money should be directed at the OL, edge rushers, secondary, etc. It's a waste to pay 2 WRs big contracts.

They are spending too much money on a passing game they aren't using. Obviously it is too late now given they are already signed and too early based on taking cap hits for trading people, but it's time to take steps to wind down the investment in these guys in favor of other areas. Howie is a great, efficient GM. Having a $100m receiver on pace for a James Thrash-like season is a major resource allocation issue. And that's unquestionably eating away at Howie.

Just now, Diehardfan said:

Good use of that meme. Who do you bring in at WR to replace him on top of the huge cap hit? He's not here long-term, but probably at least through next season. I'd prefer getting a real OC and seeing what happens vs finding another and wasting space.

So Smitty is WR1. They now have Bigsby as a nice 1-2 punch 2nd RB behind Barkley and Shipley is good too. 3 headed monster running game. Dotson is capable. So my new look offense in 2026:

WR1: Smitty
WR2: Dotson
WR3: rookie draft pick to eventually become WR2
TE1: Calcaterra simply because of returning veteran
TE2: rookie draft pick to eventually become TE1, hopefully takes over as a rookie

Get the current O line healthy, draft and sign more O line to beef up the line and get back to dominant run game. I think you need Lane's replacement on the roster to groom, potentially Lane even retires after this year. The O line without Lane also is a big change.

9 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Why a slant? We've seen him open on a crosser and on a deep out against GB. The ball never went his way.

The OC could dial up every pass play with AJ as the primary, but if Hurts doesn't make the right read or gets gun shy or the protection fails, AJ won't see the ball.

I am frustrated by stuff Patullo does (not running outside, getting the play in), but he is not the only problem with the offense.

Said something similar to this last year when the passing game wasn’t working. It wasn’t all Moore and it wasn’t all hurts and it wasn’t all everyone else. Everyone has a part in this being what it is. There’s definitely a problem that needs to be fixed

2 hours ago, bpac55 said:

YUP

What the heck?? Do you not understand the level of trauma to older long-time fans that gets brought to the surface with the white helmets. Make them go away...make the bad man stop...lol

1 hour ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Why is AJ frustrated? Exhibit 1002 on the season.

53 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Watch what a real QB could do to the Packers.

(Also note a brief shot of Doug Pederson on the GB sideline.)

This was back in the good old days when our offense wasn't 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Reid was ahead of the game understanding a team has to pass first to win.

1 minute ago, eagle45 said:

Also, if everyone can remove emotion and bias from the equation, Howie does have a problem to evaluate in the offseason. @TEW hinted at this.

Hurts, AJ Brown, and Devonta Smith, collectively, are a massive cap hit. The Eagles are 26th in the NFL in passing yards and most of the teams behind them have been cycling QBs. If you want to defend these results because the Eagles are winning, that's fine. But that means some of this money should be directed at the OL, edge rushers, secondary, etc. It's a waste to pay 2 WRs big contracts.

They are spending too much money on a passing game they aren't using. Obviously it is too late now given they are already signed and too early based on taking cap hits for trading people, but it's time to take steps to wind down the investment in these guys in favor of other areas. Howie is a great, efficient GM. Having a $100m receiver on pace for a James Thrash-like season is a major resource allocation issue. And that's unquestionably eating away at Howie.

Yep. Get back to dominant run game by beefing up the O line. You've got Barkley, Bigsby and Shipley under contract for next season. Smitty is WR1, Dotson is capable as WR2. Draft a new TE to work in with Calcaterra, maybe even start as a rookie. Draft a WR to develop and get into the mix.

1 minute ago, NOTW said:

So Smitty is WR1. They now have Bigsby as a nice 1-2 punch 2nd RB behind Barkley and Shipley is good too. 3 headed monster running game. Dotson is capable. So my new look offense in 2026:

WR1: Smitty
WR2: Dotson
WR3: rookie draft pick to eventually become WR2
TE1: Calcaterra simply because of returning veteran
TE2: rookie draft pick to eventually become TE1, hopefully takes over as a rookie

Get the current O line healthy, draft and sign more O line to beef up the line and get back to dominant run game. I think you need Lane's replacement on the roster to groom, potentially Lane even retires after this year. The O line without Lane also is a big change.

Not a bad plan. My issue is the cap hit. If they could move him without much of a hit I don't think many here would care.

Just now, NOTW said:

Yep. Get back to dominant run game by beefing up the O line. You've got Barkley, Bigsby and Shipley under contract for next season. Smitty is WR1, Dotson is capable as WR2. Draft a new TE to work in with Calcaterra, maybe even start as a rookie. Draft a WR to develop and get into the mix.

The key is if AJ Brown is going to be a pure loss plus cap hit or if they can actually get something back. If it's pure loss, they are in trouble. Losing 2025 AJ Brown and his utilization may be negligible, but it still involves promoting a mediocre Dotson to WR 2 while also dealing with another year of age on Barkley, another year on Lane, and having no TE. That's a clean sweep of 4 regressions. I think they'd really need to find a way to get a stud RG or TE that actually upgrades things,

1 hour ago, tuffstuff07 said:

Why do we always play the whiners on the road unless it's playoffs

yup..at first look I am excited that the Eagles will be playing less than an hour from my home in Santa Clara. But my wiser self knows better...the Niner fans are unstable and dangerous...I know too many horror stories.

6 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Also, if everyone can remove emotion and bias from the equation, Howie does have a problem to evaluate in the offseason. @TEW hinted at this.

Hurts, AJ Brown, and Devonta Smith, collectively, are a massive cap hit. The Eagles are 26th in the NFL in passing yards and most of the teams behind them have been cycling QBs. If you want to defend these results because the Eagles are winning, that's fine. But that means some of this money should be directed at the OL, edge rushers, secondary, etc. It's a waste to pay 2 WRs big contracts.

They are spending too much money on a passing game they aren't using. Obviously it is too late now given they are already signed and too early based on taking cap hits for trading people, but it's time to take steps to wind down the investment in these guys in favor of other areas. Howie is a great, efficient GM. Having a $100m receiver on pace for a James Thrash-like season is a major resource allocation issue. And that's unquestionably eating away at Howie.

Ive been saying that for months. I was not in support of trading Brown away because of any of this distraction stuff. And I also understood it was fiscally impossible. But I did say Id be ok with it hypothetically that money would be better spent on OL and defense. Hurts does not maximize the WR talent he has. The offense would function just fine with Smith as a #1, Dotson and Metchie. Now Metchie is gone, I guess because they have confidence in Cooper. Thats fine too.

The big problem is that Hurts continues to have excuses made for him. At one point it made sense to build up the offense as much as possible so that he had no excuses left because the talent was so good around him. And then, he got the new OC excuses.

Now we are at the point where some of that offensive talent will be gone by the time we ever see a real QB here. And Ill repeat what Ive said years ago- its going to be a shame that we will never know how good this offense could have been if we had a QB to run it.

15 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

Agree. Hurts needs to make the right read and not be shy 1000% correct, but I was just asking about slants. He's good at them and when was the last time we saw one dialed up for him on a quick throw?

Slants are man-man beaters...the Eagles are seeing a lot of zones is my suspicion.

6 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Why is AJ frustrated? Exhibit 1002 on the season.

Meh, you can do that with any game with any QB. Every thread on game day is littered with fans screaming their QB didn’t hit the open guy.

I’m sure there a couple times a game Devonta doesn’t get the ball when he thinks he should. AJ not getting the ball on a 5 yard crossing route once isn’t a good reason to become a team cancer. Which at this point he definitely is.

8 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

Not a bad plan. My issue is the cap hit. If they could move him without much of a hit I don't think many here would care.

Yep, again that's just a "what if" scenario. If Howie gets such a good offer, and like the Wentz contract he finds a way to make it work. I don't know. But in the "if" scenario that he's traded this year, that's what I would think is a plan for the WR position, also accounting for Goedert. They have to get younger on offense with rookie deals because of the shift coming on the defense, those young guys gonna get paid soon. So a rookie TE and WR, along with RT makes a lot of sense contract wise. While you still have other veterans on the offense.

20 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

No Nick, the process is getting plenty criticism because it was a stupid process.

There is an advantage for an offense if the defense has to defend against stupid and unpredictable -- see the 4th down stop of the Packers. Statistically it is likely still stupid but, other than the tush push, it is better to be unpredictable as an O

8 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

The key is if AJ Brown is going to be a pure loss plus cap hit or if they can actually get something back. If it's pure loss, they are in trouble. Losing 2025 AJ Brown and his utilization may be negligible, but it still involves promoting a mediocre Dotson to WR 2 while also dealing with another year of age on Barkley, another year on Lane, and having no TE. That's a clean sweep of 4 regressions. I think they'd really need to find a way to get a stud RG or TE that actually upgrades things,

Well I didn't say "no TE." Not sure why you said there would be no TE. They'd draft a TE to pair with Calcaterra. They'd return 4 of the 5 O line, just need Lane's replacement (whether to groom for a year or start if he retires), and get some O line depth. Barkley isn't getting as much wear this year, and Bigsby is now here to take on a lot more snaps. Next year those two plus Shipley can continue the run game, need the O line to get healthy and dominant again.

Again, this is all a fantasy "what if" scenario if they do trade AJ Brown.

17 minutes ago, NOTW said:

So Smitty is WR1. They now have Bigsby as a nice 1-2 punch 2nd RB behind Barkley and Shipley is good too. 3 headed monster running game. Dotson is capable. So my new look offense in 2026:

WR1: Smitty
WR2: Dotson
WR3: rookie draft pick to eventually become WR2
TE1: Calcaterra simply because of returning veteran
TE2: rookie draft pick to eventually become TE1, hopefully takes over as a rookie

Get the current O line healthy, draft and sign more O line to beef up the line and get back to dominant run game. I think you need Lane's replacement on the roster to groom, potentially Lane even retires after this year. The O line without Lane also is a big change.

Dotson and Calcaterra are pending FAs. So you would need to resign them at market, which would be similar to the Rodgers, Becton, Blankenship range that they seem to be avoiding. The concept is sound, the cap mechanics, which would include the AJ cap hit, just wouldn't work IMO.

16 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Also, if everyone can remove emotion and bias from the equation, Howie does have a problem to evaluate in the offseason. @TEW hinted at this.

Hurts, AJ Brown, and Devonta Smith, collectively, are a massive cap hit. The Eagles are 26th in the NFL in passing yards and most of the teams behind them have been cycling QBs. If you want to defend these results because the Eagles are winning, that's fine. But that means some of this money should be directed at the OL, edge rushers, secondary, etc. It's a waste to pay 2 WRs big contracts.

They are spending too much money on a passing game they aren't using. Obviously it is too late now given they are already signed and too early based on taking cap hits for trading people, but it's time to take steps to wind down the investment in these guys in favor of other areas. Howie is a great, efficient GM. Having a $100m receiver on pace for a James Thrash-like season is a major resource allocation issue. And that's unquestionably eating away at Howie.

What they've done with the passing game is criminal considering the talent. Barkley blew up the running game last year but that wasn't expected

Oline taking a step back from losing players to players getting injured definitely hasn't helped and likely is a big reason for a lot of problems

There is a silver lining this weekend. The Lions may run up the score on us, just like the Rams. This would compel Siri/Patullo to open up the offense.

When leading, our EPA/play is ranked 18th and our Success Rate is ranked 19th.

When trailing, we are 11th and 9th, respectively.

EDIT:

We are 5th in highest amount of game time leading (34 mins per game) and 2nd in lowest amount of game time trailing (14 mins).

6 minutes ago, NOTW said:

Well I didn't say "no TE." Not sure why you said there would be no TE. They'd draft a TE to pair with Calcaterra. They'd return 4 of the 5 O line, just need Lane's replacement (whether to groom for a year or start if he retires), and get some O line depth. Barkley isn't getting as much wear this year, and Bigsby is now here to take on a lot more snaps. Next year those two plus Shipley can continue the run game, need the O line to get healthy and dominant again.

Again, this is all a fantasy "what if" scenario if they do trade AJ Brown.

Love ya man but your plan above sounds like trying to replicate 2024. Said after last year, that’s an extremely difficult plan to replicate. If they try to do it this year and going forward it’s extremely difficult. Teams adjust and it was a generational type of ground game. We’ve had good and even very good running attacks over the years. That one was a history book type thing. I think winning a super bow is extremely hard. Trying to replicate that 2024 path to win a Super Bowl is even harder cause you have to stay healthy an also get historic type of running game while your pass game is is extremely efficient. Add on i think we are also seeing the toll with how physical it is to do it that way and has taken on the OL the following year.

Imo i don’t think that’s how lurie envisions his offense being that.

Ya have to wonder how long the organization can go without taking some form of action.

3 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

There is a silver lining this weekend. The Lions may run up the score on us, just like the Rams. This would compel Siri/Patullo to open up the offense.

When leading, our EPA/play is ranked 18th and our Success Rate is ranked 19th.

When trailing, we are 11th and 9th, respectively.

Maybe if we just put us down 14 on the scoreboard at all times it’ll help. lol

4 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

@e-a-g-l-e-s eagles!

AJ Brown sent me a message!

I mean, he's right. Complete waste and it's beyond maddening he is not utilized. Coaches should be held accountable and if Jalen needs to be held accountable then that needs to happen too. More meetings should be underway asap

17 minutes ago, DaBirds said:

Meh, you can do that with any game with any QB. Every thread on game day is littered with fans screaming their QB didn’t hit the open guy.

I’m sure there a couple times a game Devonta doesn’t get the ball when he thinks he should. AJ not getting the ball on a 5 yard crossing route once isn’t a good reason to become a team cancer. Which at this point he definitely is.

I agree but there is context to his complaints which make them legitimate. The team is leading the League in 3 and outs. It's near the bottom of the League in every statistical passing category. The passing game is a mess and shows no signs of getting fixed. I am not sure how he is a cancer to the team. It doesn't look to me that he is doing anything that is keeping them from winning games. No one who is on that team and objective should do anything other than tell AJ they want to fix the problems and get him more involved in the game. If they are watching these plays and think we're ok with this, then they are the cancer. It's they cancer of complacency and obstinance that kills more teams than a star player complaining about their lack of production.