Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations now becomes Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Offseason Observations for the next eight months, which is never a good sign.
No Eagles football until Sept. 13 and that should not be the case. But here we are.
We’ll start out by trying to recall a worse playoff performance by a top Eagles player than what we saw from A.J. Brown last weekend. I’m not sure there’s ever been one.
1. Trying to think of the worst Eagles playoff performances over the years by star players and A.J. Brown last weekend is right up there. Donovan McNabb threw three interceptions in the 2023 NFC Championship Game against the Panthers. Ron Jaworski threw three INTs in a Super Bowl. Jalen Hurts was really bad in Tampa in that 2021 wild-card game. I’m not sure he qualifies as a star, but Kevin Curtis did have a 1,000-yard season in 2008 and dropped that 4th-down pass in the NFC Championship Game in Glendale. That wasn’t a great game for Dawk, either. David Akers missed 34- and 41-yard field goals in the five-point 2010 wild-card loss to the Packers. Randall replaced an injured Rodney Peete in Dallas in 1995 and he was terrible because he didn’t know the plays. He had left his playbook in Vero Beach, where the Eagles were practicing, when he flew home to Las Vegas, where his wife was having a baby. Oops. He never played another snap for the Eagles. Wally Henry lost two fumbles in the 1981 wild-card game against the Giants. But we might have just seen the worst postseason performance in Eagles history by an otherwise elite player. According to Stathead, Brown is the first NFL wide receiver in six years to drop three passes in a playoff game. Ironically, the last guy to do it was Demarcus Robinson of the Chiefs vs. the Texans in 2019. It was Robinson who torched the Eagles for 112 yards Sunday for the 49ers. With no drops. The last Eagles WR with three drops in any game was J.J. Arcega-Whiteside against the Cowboys in 2021. Not the company you want to keep. Brown may have cost the Eagles a postseason win with his lackluster and mistake-prone performance against the 49ers. How can a player that gifted drop so many passes? How can a player that gifted play so poorly in the biggest game of the year? What happens next? It sure seems like Brown doesn’t want to be here, but I’m not sure it’s possible under the cap for Howie Roseman to trade him. Even with Howie being Howie. A.J. is such a great freaking player when he’s locked in and motivated. The Eagles are a better football team with him and hopefully they can make it work. But all I know is if he’s here in 2026 he needs to be the A.J. Brown of 2022 through 2024. Not the guy we saw Sunday. Don’t want that guy. That was brutal.
2. Any list of the most disappointing Eagles in 2025 has to include Nolan Smith. After he had 4.0 sacks and four tackles for loss in the playoffs last year and 10 ½ sacks in his last 16 games in 2024, expectations for a double-digit sack season from the Eagles’ 2022 1st-round pick were fair. But Smith managed only three sacks in 13 games – fewer than he had just in the playoffs last year – and just one tackle for loss all year. This is a 1st-round pick in his third season and that’s just not good enough. The Eagles need consistent pressure from Smith. They need him to be a force as a pass rusher, and we just didn’t see that this year. Contract time is coming up for Smith – he’s eligible for an extension now – and he really hasn’t proved himself yet. A world of potential, sure, but I’m not ready to open up the checkbook for him.
3. I keep hearing people say Tyler Steen wasn’t any good this year and bring back Mekhi Becton if the Chargers release him, blah, blah, blah. Where is this coming from? Guess what. Steen was fine this year and I don’t know why people are so down on him. He had a better year than Becton, and he was certainly better than Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens. Out of 66 guards who played at least 500 snaps, Steen’s Pro Football Focus grade of 73.4 ranked 14th, which isn’t bad at all. He was the Eagles’ 2nd-most consistent offensive line starter, behind Jordan Mailata. Maybe the Eagles can do better and I don’t think anybody would be surprised if they drafted a guard-tackle pretty early in April to begin preparing for life after Lane. But you could do a lot worse than Steen did this year.
4. Whoever the Eagles bring in as offensive coordinator will no doubt have at least some of his own assistants he wants to bring in. Two current assistants who I would expect to be replaced are quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler and passing game coordinator Parks Frazier, who were both in their first year with the Eagles. First of all, I feel like if Nick Sirianni had confidence in either one he would have handed them play calling duties during the season when it was obvious Kevin Patullo was struggling and change was necessary. They were the obvious candidates to serve as interim O.C., but Sirianni never took that step. Then again, why would you feel confident in a passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach from this offense? I like the position coaches – Jeff Stoutland, Jason Micheel, Aaron Moorehead and Jemal Singleton are all very good – but it’s no lock a new OC will want to keep them. I wonder if wanting to replace Stoutland would make a candidate a non-starter. Hard to imagine this team without Stout. Even after a year in which the o-line wasn’t at its best, the guy is a legend and I consider him irreplaceable.
5A. Speaking of the Eagles’ passing game, it’s crazy just how lackluster it was in the 49ers game. How do you go through an entire playoff game and your longest completion to a wide receiver goes for 15 yards? Obviously, there were drops on deeper throws, but still. First time the Eagles have gone through a postseason game without a WR catching a pass longer than 15 yards since the 1990 wild-card loss to Washington at the Vet, when their longest catch by a WR was Calvin Williams’ 9-yarder. That’s just inexcusable stuff and it reflects on everybody – A.J., Hurts, Nick, Patullo, Frazier and Loeffler. You’re not going to win many playoff games if your WRs don’t catch a pass longer than 15 yards. Man, that game was hard to watch.
5B. Along those lines … Hurts’ 4.8 yards per pass attempt Sunday is the lowest in an Eagles playoff loss since Donovan McNabb’s 4.5 in the 14-3 loss to the Panthers in the 2003 NFC Championship Game. Yikes. And his 168 passing yards is the fewest by any NFL quarterback in a playoff game on 35 or more attempts in eight years, since Tyrod Taylor had 134 yards on 37 attempts in the Bills’ 10-3 loss in Jacksonville in 2017 and the fewest at home since Tom Brady threw 42 times for 154 yards in the Patriots’ loss to the Ravens in Foxborough in 2009. The 20 times since 1962 a quarterback has thrown 35 or more times for 168 or fewer yards his team has lost. The more we look back at that game the more of a catastrophe it was.
6. Before Sunday, the Eagles were 25-2 in the postseason when they had a lead going into the fourth quarter. The only losses were the 1978 wild-card game against the Falcons in Atlanta, when they lost 14-13 after leading 13-0 going into the fourth quarter, and Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Ariz., when they led the Chiefs 27-21 but lost 38-35. Before Sunday, they were 17-0 in home playoff games when they led going into the fourth quarter. League-wide, home teams had won 22 straight wild-card games when leading going into the fourth quarter going back to the Titans’ 22-21 win over the Chiefs in Kansas City after the Chiefs went into the fourth quarter with a 21-10 lead. I sound like a broken record, but inexcusable to lose that game.
7. It’s baffling to me that the Eagles never tried to upgrade the TE2 spot. Grant Calcaterra played 380 snaps this year and was a non-factor both as a receiver (9-for 76) and a blocker. Kylen Granson is a hell of a special teamer but was only 7-for-40 receiving and isn’t a blocker at all. With Dallas Goedert facing free agency, the Eagles actually don’t have a single tight end under contract for 2026. Goedert is coming off his best year yet, with 13 touchdowns, including two in the wild-card game. He is Jalen Hurts’ comfort zone and one of the greatest postseason tight ends ever, with 56-for-595-5 – top-10 all-time among tight ends in all three categories. Howie should be able to afford Goedert, and coming off 2024 he probably should have signed him to a multi-year deal. He’s one guy you just can’t afford to lose. Especially because there’s literally nobody waiting in the wings.
8A. Don’t believe anybody who tells you the Eagles’ offensive coordinator job is not an attractive one. Just ask Shane Steichen or Kellen Moore. If you have success here, you’re going to get a head coaching job. And you’re inheriting a ton of talent with boundless upside. Where else are you going to get a Super Bowl MVP quarterback, one and perhaps two 1,000-yard receivers, a record-setting running back, a Hall of Fame right tackle and an all-pro left tackle and some other potentially outstanding building blocks on the offensive line, quite possibly a top-5 tight end and a general manager who knows how to replenish whatever spots are lacking? You’re also coming to a team that’s been in the playoffs five years in a row and has an elite defense already in place. You’re going to have a chance to do great things here and if you do your job right, you’re going to be part of an annual deep playoff run. You’re also going to be playing under a head coach who’s promising to stay out of your way and let you bring in your own system. Where else are you going to get all that?
8B. And if Mike McDaniel and Kevin Stefanski get head coaching jobs, I’d be fine with Brian Daboll. He’s a little goofy, but I like what he did with Josh Allen in Buffalo, I know Saquon Barkley thinks highly of him, and he’s a sharp offensive mind. And yeah he wasn’t the world’s greatest head coach, but neither were McDaniel or Stefanski. And while everybody is all of a sudden terrified of the Giants, just a reminder that John Harbaugh won exactly three playoff games in the last 11 years. Or half as many as Nick Sirianni has won in the last five years. And still hasn’t gone to the second Super Bowl that took Sirianni four years to get to. I like Harbs, and he was one heck of a special teams coach here. But the notion that he’s going to instantly transform that team into a winner just doesn’t add up. He hasn’t had success with the Ravens in a decade. Why would he instantly with the Giants?
9. Cool Quinyon Mitchell nugget: Q on Sunday became the first Eagle with two interceptions in the second half of any game in 11 years. In a 33-10 win over the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in 2014, Nate Allen picked off Tony Romo once in the third quarter and again in the fourth. Last Eagle with two 2nd-half INTs at home was Lito Sheppard, also against the Cowboys, off Drew Bledsoe in a 38-24 win over Dallas at the Linc in 2006. The only other Eagle with two 2nd-half INTs in a playoff game is Damon Moore, who picked off Brad Johnson twice in the second half of the 31-9 win over the Bucs at the Vet in 2001.
10. It seems crazy because he’s only been here two years, but Saquon Barkley is already 10th in Eagles history with 3,750 rushing yards and goes into 2026 needing just 1,250 yards to become the sixth Eagle with 5,000 rushing yards. With just 1,250 yards – and I’m guessing he’ll be closer to 1,500 with someone who can actually call plays and get the most out of his players – Barkley would trail only Wilbert Montgomery, LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook, Steve Van Buren and Duce Staley after just three years. And he would need 1,442 to pass Duce. To make that sort of impact this fast is wild. Montgomery needed eight years to rush for 7,056 yards and Shady needed six years for 6,939. If he stays here a few more years and stays healthy, Saquon is going to break every Eagles rushing record there is.