In the words of Aaron Rodgers, here are five letters for Eagles nation: R-E-L-A-X.
Relax. The Eagles are going to be OK.
You might not think so listening to all the pouting and hand-wringing and hating and full-on panic.
Waah, the Eagles aren’t getting the receiver I want! Tsk-tsk, Carson Wentz needs to be more careful! Boo, Jim Schwartz’s defense is a disgrace! OMG, they lost to Ryan Fitzpatrick and the friggin’ Bucs!
Yes, the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers, one of the hottest teams in the NFL, in Tampa, one of the hottest places on earth, with half their offense out with injuries. That gives them a 1-1 record in 2018, the same exact mark as this time last season — when, as you may recall, they went on to win the Super Bowl.
Circumstances obviously have changed, but the mindset in Philadelphia apparently has not.
The Eagles still need every Dez Bryant, Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown who can play wide receiver. Fans still have no problem going at a guy like Jalen Mills on social media less than eight months after he did his part to bring a championship to the city. Everybody and their mother will still weigh in on what Wentz should and shouldn’t do on a football field even after a team of doctors say he’s 100 percent.
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Take a chill pill, folks. The offense needs a receiver, but a veteran like Jordan Matthews who knows the offense will do for a week or two until Alshon Jeffery returns. The defense could be better, but Schwartz’s unit has been almost solely responsible for wins in the past. Wentz has the green light of medical professionals, which is all that matters.
There’s scrutiny, and then there’s straight-up whining. The first few months of the Eagles’ title defense hasn’t gone precisely to plan, so some people have chosen the latter.
Signing Dez or trading for Gordon may have moved the Eagles closer to another Super Bowl — may — but signing Jordan Matthews — and maybe Jeremy Maclin — instead doesn’t put them any further away.
Schwartz and Mills were good enough that both were able to hoist the Lombardi Trophy eight months prior to the beginning of the season, so it wouldn’t be wise to count either out just yet.
As for Wentz’s health, football is a contact sport and he’s an athlete — the type who makes everybody better around him. Something tells me once he’s out there converting third downs and scoring touchdowns, a lot of the other questions are going to disappear.
Wentz won’t say it, but I will. Relax. The Eagles’ quarterback, Doug Pederson and the rest of the coaching staff and the front office led by Howie Roseman are going to be OK.
That doesn’t mean they’re going to repeat. That doesn't mean they won't. Either way, Week 3 is simply much too early to jump off the bandwagon.
