Eagles preseason frustrations have nothing to do with the record

The Philadelphia Eagles may be winless, but that’s not exactly why everybody is upset this offseason.

It’s starting to truly feel like Philadelphia sports again. Just this past February, the Philadelphia Eagles have accomplished something for the first time in the franchise’s existence. Bringing the Vince Lombardi trophy home to Philly after defeating the defending champions, the New England Patriots. Since then, the city has been on a high, and the expectations for the new defending champs have been higher than ever.

Well, that has all changed over the last few weeks. Some things don’t last forever, and we know that. And after a slow start to the preseason, the Eagles are currently winless through three games. As you would expect, a majority of the fanbase is not happy with the performance of the birds. In fact, the coaching staff has been quite frustrated as well, which is unusual.

If you’re on social media, I’m sure you’ve seen this saying one, twice, or maybe ten times at the least; “It’s just preseason! Relax!” You know, the ever so positive people who want to prevent their fan base from jumping to crazy conclusions, as Eagles fans tend to do more often than not. But a lot of the frustrated fans are not precisely fed up with the record. It goes deeper than that.

Sure, seeing your team go 0-3 is never ideal. The record isn’t the problem, though. And even though the Eagles are missing a lot of key players on the offense, we still have every right to feel frustrated with what select players put on tape these past three weeks. After all, preseason was never about the starters and key players in the first place.

What is preseason anyway?

Preseason’s meant to serve two purposes. One being so everybody who will make the final roster has got the feeling of a game-time situation back. The second and most important reason being that the young rookies and veterans make a case to crack the final roster. There’s no playoffs, championships, and trophies; therefore the meaning of a record automatically goes in the trash.

Again, nobody is mad about the record, though. For a typical football fan, they might throw on the game for the first series or two just to see their starters back in action for a few plays, and then it’s on with their everyday lives. For other types of fans, they may like to dig deeper into the roster and get a feel for the future by watching some of the unknown players. Apparently, the unwritten fan rulebook doesn’t allow fans to get upset about the roster hopefuls and young guys, though.

Why is that?

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Why is it that fans can’t get upset with the recent performances of Halapoulivaati Vaitai? All because Jason Peters comes back in a few weeks we are supposed to just look the other way from Big V’s terrible preseason? Here’s the reality of it all. Peters turned 36 back in January and is coming off of a major knee injury that cut his season short.

We have no doubts about Peters this season, but what about 2019 and beyond? That’s when Vaitai is supposed to take over. Seeing how consistently poor he played these past three weeks, now we have doubts, which can be mighty frustrating for a fan.

Let’s discuss Nick Foles now. Are we not allowed to criticize the Super Bowl MVP? Guess what, that’s now the past, and this is the present. What we’ve seen from Foles so far this preseason has been extremely disappointing. It’s understandable that there is no offensive gameplan, but Foles’ is out there making mistakes that a veteran of his caliber should not be making. Knowing that Foles is playing like this when he may begin the season as the starting quarterback is very alarming.

Last but not least, where is Mike Wallace? The ten-year veteran who replaced Torrey Smith this offseason might’ve been issued a more prominent role than expected. As of right now, Eagles number one receiver Alshon Jeffery remains sidelined due to his shoulder issues. Automatically, Wallace is looked to be the number one target for whoever is playing quarterback.

So far, Wallace has done nothing. Is it time to cut him? No, absolutely not. But just remember, Eagles fans had high expectations for veteran receivers before (Rueben Randle, Dorial Green-Beckham) and they created zero positive impact on the team. We’re not saying this is the case with Wallace, but we are also not saying this isn’t the case. Only time can tell, and so far we’re left with nothing to be confident in.

Here’s a question for you:

Before we wrap this up, let me ask a question: As a fan, do you sit in front of your TV watching a visibly frustrated Doug Pederson and say to the TV “Hey Doug, relax it’s just preseason!”? You probably don’t. Why is that? Is it because Pederson’s the coach and he expects better from his players regardless of their position on the 53-man depth chart? That’s most likely the case.

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So, why can’t that be the same case with the fans and the local media? We have expectations as well, and we want to see everybody in midnight green play their best football, whether the final score means something or not. So just know, Eagles fans are not upset with the record. They are frustrated with what they have seen from select players, that is all.

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