Why Clint Hurtt is a critical hire for the Eagles, a look at Charle Young’s unprecedented rookie year for the Eagles and my thoughts on Greg Ward. Yes, Greg Ward.
Here’s a Super Bowl Weekend shipment of Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations!
1. One of the most important of the Eagles’ coaching hires is Clint Hurtt, the new defensive line coach. We’re assuming defensive line coach Tracy Rocker won’t be back and we don’t know yet about Jeremiah Washburn, who coached the edge rushers, but out of all the position groups that underachieved the second half of last year, the defensive line was at the top of the list. At some positions, the Eagles just didn’t have much talent. They just weren’t very good at linebacker or in the secondary, and that’s on Howie Roseman as much as anybody. But the d-line is loaded with talent, with 1st-round picks, with huge contracts. For that group to struggle the way it did is a direct reflection of the defensive coaching staff. The first nine games of the season, the edge rushers had 16 sacks. The last eight, they had 4 ½. The last four they had none. If you include the interior linemen, the defensive line had 25 ½ sacks the first nine games and 11 the last eight. We saw Josh Sweat disappear. We saw Haason Reddick mis-used. We saw Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter fade. The Eagles’ most effective defensive linemen the second half of the season were Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham, two older veterans who are probably immune to subpar coaching at this point. We also saw the whole group suddenly begin to struggle against the run, and that’s not all d-line but a good chunk of it is. Through nine games, the Eagles were 7th-best in the NFL vs. the run (3.7 yards per carry) and the rest of the year they were 25th (4.6). There’s no way to know how much blame to assign to Sean Desai, to Rocker, to Washburn or even to Matt Patricia. But although we don’t know Cox or B.G.'s future, Sweat, Reddick, Davis and Carter aren’t going anywhere and Hurtt has to get more out of them than what we saw this year. This team can’t be great unless this d-line is.
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2. Fifty years ago, Eagles rookie 1st-round tight end Charle Young, the 6th pick overall from USC, caught 55 passes for 855 yards, six touchdowns and an average of 15.5 yards per catch. No NFL rookie tight end has hit those marks since.
3. I think there are two major reasons the Pro Football Hall of Fame continues to snub Eric Allen, who by any measure was one of the greatest cornerbacks in NFL history. The first is Reggie White. There’s a misconception out there among people who didn’t actually watch the Eagles that those defenses of the late 1980s and early 1990s were largely the product of the greatest defensive end to ever play the game. And Reggie was legendary. But nobody does it himself and Reggie’s supporting cast was outstanding. Not just Allen but Seth Joyner and Clyde Simmons, Andre Waters and Wes Hopkins, Byron Evans and Jerome Brown. And so on. Joyner has never even been a semifinalist despite being the only player in NFL history with 25 interceptions and 50 sacks. Clyde has never been a semifinalist despite more sacks than Dwight Freeney, who was just voted into the Hall on Thursday in his second year of eligibility. And the other big reason is the absence of postseason success. That whole group was only part of one playoff win – the wild 36-20 comeback over the Saints in the 1992 wild-card round. The Eagles didn’t make the NFC Championship Game between 1980 and 2001. And during that stretch when the Gang Green Defense was together from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the Eagles were 1-4 in the postseason. And who knows, maybe there’s some anti-Buddy Ryan sentiment in there, too. The Hall of Fame voters tend to be old-school traditionalists, and Buddy was anything but. Whatever the reason, it’s a punch in the gut to every Eagles fan when this time of year comes around and Eric Allen isn’t invited to the Hall of Fame party. He’s got two years of eligibility left before his case turns over to the Seniors Committee, which is dealing with a pretty large backlog of qualified older players. Nobody is more deserving than E.A. and I won’t stop campaigning for him until the voters wake up and he gets in.
4. Jalen Hurts’ 41 rushing touchdowns are more than 18 of 26 modern-era [post-1960] running backs in the Hall of Fame had in their first four seasons. Among the Hall of Fame RBs with fewer rushing TDs after four years than Hurts are Tony Dorsett (36), Marshall Faulk (36), Gale Sayers (31), Thurman Thomas (26) and Jim Brown (9).
5. The lowest passer rating ever recorded against the Eagles in a Super Bowl is Tom Brady’s 110.2 in 2004. Jim Plunkett’s 145.0 in 1980 is 3rd-highest Super Bowl rating of all-time, Patrick Mahomes’ 131.8 is 7th-highest, Brady’s 115.4 in 2017 is 17th-highest and his 110.2 is 25th-highest. Overall, those three QBs in four Super Bowls facing the Eagles are 85-for-129 (66 percent) for 1,184 yards with 11 TD passes, no interceptions and a 123.7 passer rating.
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6. The Eagles have drafted 23 players who’ve had at least 10 interceptions in an Eagles uniform. None since Nate Allen in 2010.
7. Interesting to me that one of the few practice squad guys the Eagles didn’t re-sign to a futures contract was Greg Ward, who’s been with the Eagles for most of the last seven seasons. Ward isn’t a great wide receiver, but he’s been a great Eagle. Led the team with 53 catches and six TDs in 2020 when everybody else was hurt, catches everything thrown his way, terrific practice player who’s never out of position and knows the offense as well as anybody, a true leader and mentor for all the younger receivers, just a guy any coach would want to have around. Ward is one of my favorite Eagles just because of where he started out – an undrafted college quarterback who had never played WR – and how he carved out a long career, was part of two Super Bowl teams and always handled himself with class, never complaining, even when he went two years without catching a pass. Twice. Hope he lands with a team that will give him a chance to get on the field and catch some passes out of the slot. If not, I hope he’s back here doing what he’s done since 2017. Being a pro.
8. The worst passing performance in Eagles history happened on Nov. 2, 1952, in a game against the Packers at Marquette Stadium in Milwaukee – one of only two games the Packers ever played at Marquette. Eagles QB Bobby Thomason went 4-for-23 for 49 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions against the team he had spent the previous season with, and the Packers won 12-10. Not only is Thomason’s 3.4 passer rating worst in Eagles history, his 17.4 completion percentage is also lowest. It would be 20 more years until another NFL quarterback completed less than 20 percent of his passes with no TDs and multiple interceptions. That was Dan Pastorini of the Oilers in a 34-0 loss to the Raiders on a Monday night at the Astrodome in 1972. Pastorini was 3-for-21 for 31 yards with no TDs and four INTs and a 0.0 passer rating.
9. Is Chip Kelly looking to leave Ohio State yet?
10. Only one Hall of Fame defensive back has ever played for the Eagles, and that’s legendary Brian Dawkins. But the Eagles did draft another one. In 1940, the Eagles had the second pick in the draft, and they used it on a defensive back from Duke named George McAfee. But they traded McAfee to the Bears soon after the draft for linemen Russ Thompson and Milt Trost. Thompson played 11 games for the Eagles in 1940 and never played football again. Trost played seven games for the Eagles in 1940 and never played football again. McAfee? All he did during his career in Chicago was intercept 25 passes, pile up over 3,000 scrimmage yards and set an NFL record that still stands with 12.8 yards per punt return. He and legendary Don Hutson are the only players in NFL history with at least 3,000 scrimmage yards and 25 interceptions. McAfee was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1966 - he'll always be the first Hall of Famer the Eagles ever drafted. One of the best draft picks the Eagles ever made. And one of the worst trades.