Biggest strengths and weaknesses on the Eagles roster entering the 2023 NFL regular season
The opening day of the Philadelphia Eagles training camp comes on July 25th. It signifies the start of the summer holiday season for football fans. Game one on September 10th versus the New England Patriots will be like Christmas and though gameday is still almost two months away, it is never too early to begin shaking the gift boxes to see what the current roster has to offer. The expectations for The Birds align with the hype for the newest Mission Impossible movie: through the roof.
Howie Roseman grabbed his lunch pale and went to work this off-season to ensure the Eagles' roster remained one of the best the league has to offer. As one of the most aggressive GMs the league has had the pleasure of observing, he has retooled the defense in key areas while bringing back nine of the 11 starters on offense. After ranking in the top five in both offense and defense in 2022, the Eagles will be looking to repeat or elevate their performance from last season.
Biggest defensive strength: Cornerback
Fans remember a time when the likes of Bradley Fletcher and Nnamdi Asomugha donned the Eagles uniform as the starting unit and routinely got cooked like a Fourth of July barbecue. Those days are long gone. Darius Slay ranks 3rd in the NFL among all cornerbacks coming into the 2023 season while James Bradberry ranks 13th per Pro Football Focus. Avonte Maddox has shown his value on the field with excellent coverage and a willingness to attack in the run game. His presence was noticeably missed when he suffered an injury during the 2022 campaign.
The Eagles' new defensive coordinator, Sean Desai, has a history of playing with light boxes. He would rather give more in the run game than the passing game. Junking up the field is a very effective defensive philosophy for reducing big plays but like any philosophy, you need the players to execute it efficiently.
The defensive line last season was menacing and produced the kind of stats that gave opposing quarterbacks nightmares. A large reason for that was the coverage in the secondary working in sync to force those QBs to hold the ball. With nowhere to throw the pill, they had no choice but to swallow it. The corners will need to repeat their performance this year with a more daunting schedule filled with top-tier quarterbacks.