Primed for a Ring or Doomed to Fall again?

The Philadelphia Eagles finished their 2025-26 campaign with an 11-6 record and fell in the Wild Card round to the San Francisco 49ers. Despite earning their second straight NFC East title and boasting a top 5 scoring defense led by All-Pro selections Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, their season highlights a central paradox: impressive defensive success and star talent, but underperformance and inconsistency on offense. The Eagles' 19th-ranked offense does not reflect the caliber of their roster, raising key questions about their ability to maximize talent.

The Eagles have stars at every level: Jalen Hurts (Super Bowl LIII MVP), Saquon Barkley (former 2,000-yard rusher), two 1,000-yard receivers in AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, and a strong offensive line featuring All-Pro Jordan Mailata, Lane Johnson, and Pro Bowler Landon Dickerson. Yet, the team couldn’t translate talent into consistent offensive success, emphasizing the gap between their roster quality and actual performance. This disconnect is central to understanding their struggles after last year's success.

Barkley’s 2,000-yard season was a huge reason for their success in 2024-25, earning 5.8 yards per carry, an astonishing rate as essentially one rush from Saquon would get the Eagles halfway to a first down. He also had 7 rushes of at least 40 yards, which led the league. Saquon had the home-run ability and also the consistent workhorse ability, making him the best of both worlds for Philadelphia. This production was essentially cut in half a year later. Barkley ran for almost 900 fewer yards, and his average went down to 4.1 yards per carry. On the field, it looked even worse. Barkley had little room to run and was constantly met behind the line, having to work just to get back to the line of scrimmage.

The passing game encountered similar struggles, and when you look at the film, it becomes obvious. Hurts threw for 3,224 yards this past season, which is almost 400 more than the previous year, but with 100 more attempts, partly because of the running game struggles and being less successful in general as an offense. Philadelphia has taken flak for running simple, predictable passing plays. Most notably, hitch routes, which the Eagles ran nearly a quarter of the time—the most in NFL history since routes were tracked in 2012. Those routes can be useful when you want to manipulate the defense, get a beat on the coverage, or just need a short gain. The Eagles, however, ran them so much that many teams could predict this, and it lost its effectiveness quickly. Simple hitch/curl routes are increasingly frustrating when the Eagles have players like AJ Brown and Devonta Smith, who are great route runners and have great ability to run after the catch. Many reporters and analysts have looked at first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo as the reason for the drop-off in success.

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Eagles 2025-26 Highlights

Patullo has been with Philadelphia since head coach Nick Sirianni took over in 2021, working mainly as a passing game coordinator until 2025, when he was promoted to offensive coordinator. This was his first season in such a big role. Patullo was put in a tough position, expected to have this offense primed for a Super Bowl, but as the season went on, his inexperience became more glaring. After their week 9 bye, the Eagles earned 20 points only three times in 10 games, as it became more difficult for Patullo and the offense to figure out the opposing defense. The Eagles finished the season with 306 first downs, 24th out of the 32 teams in the NFL. They also ended 19th in scoring and 24th in yards. A Nick Sirianni-led offense has never finished so low in so many statistics, which in part led to the firing. Kevin Patullo can be a good offensive coordinator, but this fit just never made sense, as Philadelphia is trying to win a Super Bowl now with all the talent they have. They need an offensive coordinator with experience who knows how to win and use all-pro talent. This is what the Eagles did: two days after their loss to the 49ers, they let go of Patullo and began their hunt for a new offensive coordinator.

​ During the search, the Eagles initially wanted someone experienced in the offensive coordinator role, calling plays. Philadelphia has a strong offense, so having someone with experience makes sense, as they can hit the ground running and compete early on instead of having a learning process, which is what the Eagles experienced this season. As it went on, Sirianni realized he wanted to prioritize someone who was a leader and had conviction. “I just think that conviction is a good portion of any leadership,” Sirianni said. “If I'm going in there and I'm going, ‘Ahh … we can run this.’ If I'm a leader, I need to go in there, and I need to be like, ‘Hey, here's what the f— we're doing.’” They also wanted to look for creative play calling and schemes, both passing and running, and that’s how they landed on former Packers Passing Game Coordinator Sean Mannion.

Mannion spent 6 years as an NFL quarterback, primarily in a backup role with the Rams and Vikings, before joining the Green Bay Packers in 2024 as an offensive assistant and a quarterbacks coach. Mannion has learned a lot in his time from Matt Lefleur, a coach from the Mike Shanahan/Sean McVay pipeline, whose offenses feature a lot of creative zone runs and play-action passing. Sirianni likes this type of scheme to help combat a lot of the “junk” defenses that were thrown at the Eagles last season, and it will help the offense look less predictable as the season goes on. Mannion was excited about the prospect of working with Hurts, Brown, Smith, Barkley, and all the potential that comes with that. This is a huge risk the Eagles took, but both sides are very excited about the hire and the fit. The Eagles also did a good job making this search and hire efficient, hiring Mannion in January, giving the new staff time to meet and plan before free agency and the draft, allowing them to get on the same page when the time comes to make signings and trades.

​ The biggest free agency move that hurt the Eagles was definitely losing standout safety Reed Blankenship. Blankenship has been the starter for about four years and was a consistent staple in Philadelphia. He was in the top three in tackles last season and was always reliable, and elevated the defense. His departure puts a huge question mark at an already weak safety position that has yet to be filled in free agency. Philadelphia also saw edge rusher Jaelan Phillips head to Carolina in free agency. Phillips was picked up in a midseason trade, so he never fully settled in Philly, but he provided a huge boost for the defense in the final stretch of the regular season, earning clutch sacks and timely tackles for loss. The final significant loss for the Eagles was wide receiver Jahan Dotson, who was not a consistent starter but a key depth piece at a major offensive position for the Eagles that is in the spotlight this offseason.

The Eagles quickly filled the wide receiver loss by picking up Marquise Brown, Elijah Moore, and Dontavion Wix, really filling the depth at wide receiver again, raising questions on how that will look with the new offensive scheme next season. They also acquired Super Bowl Champion Tariq Woolen to bolster their strong secondary, allowing some versatility on defense. With the hole at safety, this pickup could allow a player like Cooper DeJean to move to safety for some plays, who has matched up with tight ends in the past and has played well at that spot. These are the biggest moves affecting Philadelphia, but some are saying there are bigger chess pieces yet to be moved.

Most of the noise and rumors from Philadelphia are coming from the wide receiver position and AJ Brown. He has been in the spotlight during the season and now in the offseason. Brown’s statistics have dropped off a little, but he was the leading receiver (nearly even with Devonta Smith) in a very down year for Philadelphia overall. The media, however, painted this picture of AJ being a diva, not a team player, and a reason for a disgruntled locker room in Philly. During the wildcard loss to San Francisco, Brown and coach Sirianni had a heated exchange on the sideline. Sirianni called it competitive spirit rising to the top, and that this team is a family, and sometimes families fight. Brown did not finish the game well, having just three catches for 25 yards and also featuring some costly drops that led to a lot of boos from the Philadelphia faithful. GM Howie Roseman has nothing but great things to say about AJ Brown, stating, "It's hard to find great players in the NFL, and A.J.'s a great player. That's what we're going out and looking for when we go out in free agency, and the Draft is trying to find great players who love football, and he's that guy. So that would be my answer." Brown says, “When I got to Philly, man, Philly welcomed me with open arms,” Brown said. “That's home, man, and I love them.” Brown said, “I love the support, I love the accountability, I love everything else that they do.” But I just love it. … Philly is Philly.” This doesn’t sound like a strained relationship or a relationship that hopes to end anytime soon. Brown sounds like he is happy to be in Philly, and the Eagles sound happy to have him as well, and his production has not faltered from a wide receiver one level. On paper, seeing the Eagles add three wide receivers brings people to believe that Brown will be moved, and all this positivity from the Philadelphia camp could be the Eagles trying to show how much of a professional and good player and person Brown is, so that he is more appealing to other teams around the league. Top NFL insider Adam Schefter also believes Brown will be moved, stating on April 20th, “The Eagles remain open to trading AJ Brown, the Patriots remain highly interested in acquiring the star receiver, and conversations are expected to resume shortly on or before June 1, likely culminating in a deal, per league sources…A trade to New England is now considered likely.” With the NFL draft just around the corner, and a draft-day trade is what got AJ Brown to Philadelphia, many eyes are on Philadelphia during the draft to see if they will make this big move on draft night.

With the free agency window seemingly coming to a close, all eyes rest on the NFL Draft, where the Eagles have been especially successful in past years, acquiring their two All-Pro corners in the 2024 draft, their two standout defensive tackles in Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis in back-to-back years. The Eagles have the 23rd overall pick this year, and their biggest needs rest on the defensive side of the ball, most notably the safety position. They are also likely to go early at offensive and defensive line (more specifically, an offensive guard and a defensive end), as this is a recent tendency for Philadelphia in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. The Eagles are a team poised and ready for a deep playoff run, but it will ultimately come down to the execution and cohesion of the team as a whole.