Imagine Buddy on Twitter, give Hurts credit and more in Roob's random observations

[Road to Victory]

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/imagine-buddy-ryan-twitter-jalen-hurts-stats-more-roobs-10-random-eagles-observations

Imagine Buddy on Twitter, give Hurts credit and more in Roob's random observations

Rueben Frank

The Jalen Hurts stats that will amaze you, Ryan Day's season with the Eagles and Buddy Ryan on Twitter.

It's all here in the final regular-season edition of Roob's random Eagles observations.

1. If you take Hurts’ three starts so far and project his passing numbers over 16 games, here’s what you have: 4,517 yards, 27 TDs and 11 INTs. Here are the QBs in NFL history who’ve done that: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Daunte Culpepper, Pat Mahomes, Peyton Manning, Carson Palmer, Dak Prescott, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan. None as rookies.

Not to mention 1,269 rushing yards and a 6.2 rushing average, which only Jamaal Charles and Jim Brown have ever done. Neither as rookies.

A little context for those unable — or unwilling — to give the kid even a little bit of credit for the way he’s played.

2. One more on Hurts: With his last two games, he became the only player in NFL history with consecutive games of 330 passing yards and 60 rushing yards. He’s only the second player with two such games in any season, joining Steve Young in 1991. And he’s only the fourth player with two in his entire career.

3. From 2008 through 2013 — a span of six drafts — the Eagles selected at least seven players who will wind up in the Eagles Hall of Fame: DeSean Jackson in 2008, LeSean McCoy in 2009, Brandon Graham in 2010, Jason Kelce in 2011, Fletcher Cox and Nick Foles in 2012 and Zach Ertz in 2013. That’s at least one Eagles Hall of Fame lock in six straight drafts! And maybe Lane Johnson as well. Puts the last seven drafts in perspective.

4. It’s been amazing watching Day go from an obscure Eagles position coach to one of the most successful coaches in college almost overnight. Day, who played for Chip Kelly at New Hampshire and had a couple stints at Temple early in his coaching career, became the Eagles’ quarterbacks coach in 2015 when Bill Musgrave became Raiders offensive coordinator. Day coached Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez and G.J. Kinne (now Hawaii’s offensive coordinator) in 2015 before spending 2016 with Kelly and the 49ers.

When that staff got fired, Day joined Urban Meyer at OSU as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator. He became interim coach late in 2018 when Meyer was placed on administrative leave and then took over as head coach last year when Meyer retired.

After its win over Clemson Friday, Ohio State is now 23-1 under Day with two Big Ten championships, two berths in the College Football Playoff and a shot at a national title. Coaching Sanchez to facing Alabama in the National Championship Game in five years is pretty impressive. 

5. T.O. vs. Donovan has now lasted longer than World War I and World War II combined.

6. Remember how everybody used to say stuff like they’d be OK with a decade of mediocrity if the Eagles could ever win a Super Bowl? Maybe that’s what’s happening now. Over the last 10 years, the Eagles are barely a .500 team — 81-77-1 — but with a Super Bowl championship. Over the previous 10 years, they were 45 games over .500 at 102-57-1 — but without a Super Bowl championship. I’m sure not one Eagles fan prefers the second option.

7. With Cox and Jalen Mills out for the Washington game Sunday, 32-year-old Graham and 33-year-old Kelce — two of the their oldest players — will wind up as the only Eagles to start all 16 games this year. That will wind up being the second-fewest 16-game starters for the Eagles since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. In 2010, with the Eagles already locked into the No. 3 seed, Andy Reid rested a bunch of regular starters against the Cowboys on the final day of the season, and Jeremy Maclin wound up being their only 16-game starter.

8. Imagine if there was Twitter in the late 1980s? Imagine Ryan on Twitter? With his acerbic wit, bite-sized insults and complete absence of filters, Buddy was made for Twitter. He would have driven Jimmy Johnson bonkers.

9. Doug Pederson seems unusually confident that he’ll be back next year as Eagles head coach, considering the Eagles limp into the last day of the season 4-10-1 and in last place in the worst division in NFL history. Pederson is already talking about the offseason program, fixing Carson Wentz and getting ready for 2021.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we learn over the next month or so that owner Jeff Lurie has already assured Pederson he’ll be back in 2021. Lurie is not the kind of guy to fire a coach after one bad year — even when it’s this bad. Not when the team is still playing hard and effort isn’t in question.

If Lurie had his mind made up a few weeks ago that he wasn’t firing Pederson, why wouldn’t he tell him? It empowers a coach when he knows he’s not a lame duck and strengthens his voice in the locker room. Only one head coach has ever been fired within six years of winning a Super Bowl, and that was Don McCafferty of the Colts five games into the 1972 season after refusing to bench 39-year-old Johnny Unitas.

I’m just thinking out loud here, but I don’t expect Lurie to fire Pederson, and it sure feels like Pederson already knows.

10. The combined career won-loss record of the four quarterbacks the Eagles beat this year is 15-31. 

 

[EricAllenPick6]

On 1/2/2021 at 1:44 PM, Road to Victory said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if we learn over the next month or so that owner Jeff Lurie has already assured Pederson he’ll be back in 2021. Lurie is not the kind of guy to fire a coach after one bad year — even when it’s this bad. Not when the team is still playing hard and effort isn’t in question.

If Lurie had his mind made up a few weeks ago that he wasn’t firing Pederson, why wouldn’t he tell him? It empowers a coach when he knows he’s not a lame duck and strengthens his voice in the locker room. Only one head coach has ever been fired within six years of winning a Super Bowl, and that was Don McCafferty of the Colts five games into the 1972 season after refusing to bench 39-year-old Johnny Unitas.

I’m just thinking out loud here, but I don’t expect Lurie to fire Pederson, and it sure feels like Pederson already knows.

It's funny that Roob said this before the game.  A lame duck coach worried about his job would absolutely have not put in Suds to "give him some snaps".  This makes more sense if Pederson already was assured that he would be back next season.  

I like the Hurts stats, but I'm not totally convinced he's the guy there.