The 2024 Eagles have to get their mojo back

The Eagles’ Camp Wonderland broke last week emitting stirring, and amazing tales of how good Jalen Hurts looked, and how the defense will be tighter under new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, and how the offense will hum under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, and how no opposing defense stands a chance to stop the Eagles’ explosive offense.

The Eagles actually should be good this season, among the best teams in the NFC, behind the defending NFC champion San Francisco 49ers, and NFC North powerhouses Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.

The one glaring problem still facing this team, aside from a dubious pass rush, is finding the intimidating quality they had for the last few years. That needs to be reestablished.

Late last season, opposing teams were more wary of the Eagles’ frothing, fervent fanbase than they were the talent—and the attitude—on the field. Guess what, not much has changed, aside from the additions of Fangio and Moore off the field, and the glaring departures of future Eagle Hall of Famers Fletcher Cox and Jason Kelce on the field.

The 2024 Eagles are a team that will need to separate itself from the 2023 team “that quit” last season. There is no other way around it, when faced with adversity, the coaching staff shriveled up, with head coach Nick Sirianni being partly to blame, as did the players themselves. They quit. The eye test blatantly showed that. Players were literally running into each other. Wasted timeouts came because the right personnel were not on the field. You had players holding their hands up in bewilderment questioning what to do on national TV.

The cumulative record of the six teams the Eagles played in their 1-6 fall was 52-50 (which includes playing the New York Giants twice). Their 1-6 downfall marked a span in which they were outscored 214-132 (by an average of 11.7 points per game), while getting outgained 2,729 to 2,293, giving up an average of 389.8 yards a game and outgained by an average of 62.2 yards a game.

The Eagles had the worst defense in the NFL the final month of last season. The defense gave up the second-highest amount of passing touchdowns in the NFL, only behind Washington (39 to the Eagles’ 35). For the season, the Eagles were 30th in the NFL in opponent red zone scoring percentage (TDs only) at 66.1%, and were No. 31 in passing defense, allowing an average of 252.7 yards a game. They were 30th in scoring defense (25.2) and allowed 51 touchdowns, the third-highest total in the NFL, behind only Washington (59) and Arizona (54).

For a team that landed 11-7 overall, the Eagles became only the fourth double-digit winning team in NFL history to finish with a minus-point differential, at minus-18 (442/460) overall behind of the 2021 Las Vegas Raiders, who finished 10-8 with a minus-72 point differential (393/465), and the minus-34 difference posted by the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers (321/355) that went 10-8. The Eagles finished ahead of the minus-10 differential by the 13-5 Minnesota Vikings (448/458) in 2022.

Enough with the rehash.

Were the 10-1 version of the 2023 Eagles more lucky than good?

Can Cam Jurgens replace future NFL Hall of Famer Kelce this season?

Did the Eagles take a large risk in basically replacing Haason Reddick, who along with Myles Garrett are the only two players with double-digit sacks in each of the last four seasons, with free agent Bryce Huff, who will be playing every down for the first time in his pro career?

Left tackle Jordan Mailata, right tackle Lane Johnson and left guard Landon Dickerson are proven quality NFL linemen—the backbone of this team. Can Jurgens and frequently injured new right guard Mekhi Becton, a New York Jets’ castoff, uphold the Eagles’ stability on the offensive line for a whole season? There is only so much Jeff Stoutland can do.

Defensively, Cox was the hammer opposing teams had to game plan for. Can Jalen Carter serve that role? Will he be good enough to play an entire season at a high level (we think he will), though how much help will he get from the make-or-break year former first-rounder Jordan Davis faces this fall?

The Eagles have the best collection of offensive skill position players in their history. No past group comes close to Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, Dallas Goedert, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

Who protects Hurts? Where do the holes develop for Barkley with Kelce not calling the line adjustments?

The scary part is like last year, this team is built more to outscore the opposition than to stop it.

It is a team in need of an attitude overhaul.

That will have to come from Sirianni.

For all the kumbayas that sprouted during the Eagles’ Camp Wonderland this summer, the 2024 Eagles need to make former Dallas Cowboys’ great and NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman recant the words he uttered with 10:44 left to play in their 32-9 playoff loss to Tampa Bay, when he told the nation that the Eagles were a … “a defeated team and they were when they came in. And there’s been no life to this group really throughout the entire ball game.”

Being labeled “quitters” is a grime that does not easily rinse off.

The 2024 Eagles have to get their mojo back.