Nick Sirianni knows Eagles have to improve passing attack

 

 

 

Reuben Frank

EAGLES INSIDER

Nick Sirianni spent a few minutes Tuesday insisting that it’s possible to be a championship team in the modern NFL as a running team.

Then he conceded that the Eagles’ passing team does need to improve.

Both can be true, although championship teams that are run-first are rare, especially in recent years.

But even if the Eagles’ offense continues to be focused on the running attack, they still have to get better throwing the ball, and Sirianni knows it.

"At the end of the day, I think we ended up 25th or 26th (in passing), whatever - that needs to be better,” Sirianni said at the NFL owner’s meetings at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla.

"You want to make sure you’re not deficient in any area because then obviously the teams that are game planning against you will have an opportunity to take advantage of that. So we’re trying to make our weaknesses - and I don’t feel like that’s our weakness - but we’re trying to make things that maybe were not where we want to be or up to our standard, we’re always to get better at those things.”

The Eagles did indeed rank 25th in the NFL in passing offense last year at 200 yards per game, their second-fewest since 2003. Not surprisingly, they were worse in 2020 with a struggling Carson Wentz.

They were 1st in rushing yards at 160 per game after a Week 7 shift to a power ground attack.

It’s kind of an anachronistic way to play offensive football. It got the Eagles to the playoffs with a 1st-year coach and 1st-time starting QB. 

But can it get them much farther?

Only two of the last 14 Super Bowl champions have been ranked in the top 10 in rushing but outside the top 10 in passing – the 2013 Seahawks and the 2017 Eagles. That Seahawks team is the only Super Bowl champ since 2009 that wasn’t 15th or better throwing the football. And they had a historically good defense – No. 1 in the league.

In fact, in the last 20 years, only three teams have won a Super Bowl without a top-10 passing offense or a defense ranked 4th or higher – the 2004 Patriots, 2007 Giants and 2012 Ravens. And the 2004 Patriots had Tom Brady and the 2007 Giants, and 2012 Ravens made the playoffs as wild-card teams.

The way the modern NFL is structured, you better have a high-powered offense or a top-5 defense to win a championship.

"I think you see many different ways throughout the NFL how teams get it done,” Sirianni said. "You can be a top-ranked run team, you can be a top-ranked pass team to get it done. The main stats we’re always focused on are: Did we win the explosive-play battle and did we win the turnover battle. Those are the stats that I really always dive into, did we win those two. 

"And you saw last year even in a run-heavy offense we were able to be an explosive-pass offense, with the amount of explosive plays that we made. I don’t want to say that you have to play this way or you have to play that way. We have to do what’s best to be able to win games.”

The Eagles last year ranked 10th in the NFL with 68 offensive plays of at least 20 yards and were tied for 10th at 5.7 yards per play. 

Those were encouraging signs. But there were too many games where the passing game struggled and only the ground attack - the backs and Jalen Hurts - kept the Eagles in the game.

The difference between where the Eagles were last year and a top-10 passing offense is about 50 yards per game.

If the Eagles can get Hurts another big-time weapon and Hurts can increase his accuracy from the 62 percent range into the 65 percent range, the Eagles can get there.

"We’re going to do what we feel like we can do best to win football games,” Sirianni said. "You got to watch some really great offenses passing the football during the playoffs, but I truly believe … there’s always a way to win football games in the NFL and you’ve just got to find that way that week how to do that and sometimes your team grows into a run-heavy team and sometimes it grows into a pass-heavy team. 

"We don’t have to make that decision of who we are until Game 1. And really that always evolves. We’re going to work like crazy to get our pass game where we want it, to get it better.”

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/nick-sirianni-knows-eagles-have-improve-passing-attack

Hurts needs to be better and they need to add another WR. If they do that and Hurts improves then their passing game will be better next year. 

So basically he’s saying Hurts sucks at passing without actually saying it. 

19 minutes ago, nipples said:

So basically he’s saying Hurts sucks at passing without actually saying it. 

Or that they are admitting they need much more from him if they want any chance of being legitimately competitive with the top dogs, that they are hoping he can make serious improvement in that part of his game.  We shall see ... 

28 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Or that they are admitting they need much more from him if they want any chance of being legitimately competitive with the top dogs, that they are hoping he can make serious improvement in that part of his game.  We shall see ... 

I’m not so optimistic about that but obviously hope he can do it. I just think his skill set is so limited, I really don’t see him getting much better throwing the ball. Reading defenses can improve, sure, but I don’t think the lack of zip on his passes or the accuracy are things that are going to improve much. 

5 minutes ago, nipples said:

I’m not so optimistic about that but obviously hope he can do it. I just think his skill set is so limited, I really don’t see him getting much better throwing the ball. Reading defenses can improve, sure, but I don’t think the lack of zip on his passes or the accuracy are things that are going to improve much. 

Agreed, I'm not very optimistic about it either ... but I do admit the possibility is there unlike some others that have already decided there is zero chance he can.  He has 2022 to prove himself.  If he is able to elevate his passing game to a respectable level, then we should be in a really good position to use all of those picks to continue building the other areas of the roster.  But guessing he won't shoe enough such that we'll be targeting a QB next year.  

I wonder how many of those explosive plays were planned and how many were Hurts taking off like a bat out of h***