Personnel Mistakes Philadelphia Eagles Did NOT Make In 2014
By Bret Stuter
Jan 4, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; New Orleans Saints free safety Rafael Bush (25) defends against Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson (10) during the second half of the 2013 NFC wild card playoff football game at Lincoln Financial Field. The New Orleans Saints won the game 26-24. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Repeating Past Success
In today’s NFL, it’s easy to succeed once and simply try to recapture that magic again and again. If you follow the Philadelphia Eagles under Andy Reid, much of their early success was repeated again and again until it became a predictable and unexciting team. Success breeds complacency, complacency breeds average play.
The success of the 2013 Philadelphia Eagles was truly remarkable. The Birds turned a 3-5 start to the season into one of the most unlikely 10-6 division winner. In that process, many players stepped up and played absolutely lights out. One of the stars of that 2013 Cinderella team was DeSean Jackson. But as the team entered the off-season, rumors that the future of wide receiver DeSean Jackson was uncertain began to run in every discussion, and were attributed to any number of factors.
But ignoring the cause and effect of that decision, the message is clear. The 2014 offense is already automatically different from the 2013 version. There is no way to repeat DeSean Jackson’s speed and deep threat from the 2014 Philadelphia Eagles roster. So the team will need to do things a new way.
While many see that as a huge disadvantage, I do not. By forcing teams to consider a different style of offense, much of the film footage of how to defend the Eagles is now out the window. And with that inability to anticipate what the Birds will do on offense, the advantage goes back to the offensively minded Chip Kelly.
Yes. 2014 may not have turned out with bells and whistles and standing ovations at all of the Eagles personnel moves. But in the same breath, the Eagles avoided many of the mistakes that had come back to haunt them time and time again. I am content to await this team’s arrival before judging the team’s choices. But I am already satisfied that the team is learning from past mistakes.