Can Philadelphia Eagles Reinvent Big Red’s Magic?
By Bret Stuter
The Weaponless Offense
If you look at the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles today, you will find potential for great things. But If you look at the stats of the team, the following jumps out at you.
No receiver has more than a thousand yards receiving last season.
No running back has more than a thousand yards rushing last season.
Under Andy Reid, his offense seldom had a player break a thousand yards in the beginning. It was Duce Staley who rushed for good yards, but who was relieved by Brian Westbrook. It was Terrell Owens who generated 1,200 yards receiving, but whose personality was never a good fit on the Eagles.
Eventually, the team would add pieces to the offense: DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, LeSean McCoy, each bolstering the offense a little bit more.
But the honest answer to the 2016 Philadelphia Eagles offense is that there is no true single player who will warrant the attention of each defense faced this season.
The truth of the Philadelphia Eagles offense this year is that if the team can coax 200 or more carries from Ryan Mathews, he could likely rush for over 1,000 yards. Similarly, if the Eagles offense could nudge 100 or more receptions from wide receiver Jordan Matthews, the team could boast a 1,000 yard receiver this season. For that matter, 100 receptions from Zach Ertz could result in a similar 1,000 yard reception performance.
The Eagles have potential all across the lineup.
But potential is a hope for production. Defenses plan to neutralize production, not potential. That may make the Eagles a very dangerous football team this year. With less expectation from the offense, the team may be able to surprise some teams this year. This is Sam Bradford’s second season with the team, coming off a 14 game season. While he may not excite fans’ hopes for a Super Bowl with his performance, the hope is that his interception rate will drop significantly from his 2.6 % rate this past season. Bradford had an unusually high interception rate, but he managed to toss as few as a 1.5% rate in 2013, a rate enjoyed by Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs which ran Doug Pederson/Andy Reid’s offense last year.
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