{"id":320099,"date":"2026-11-03T07:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/320099\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T07:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:48:08","slug":"easy-as-2021-better-think-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/320099\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy As 2021? Better Think\u00a0Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eagles<\/a>\u2022More PHL<\/a>\u2022News<\/a>\u2022Unique Columns<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" \"Photo\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

In the event that the Philadelphia<\/a> Eagles join the growing opinion of both National and local media outlets and decide and go in a completely different direction at the end of this season\u2014turning<\/a> over the roster and purging themselves of large contracts at that same time\u200a\u2014\u200ait might just feel like the task will be as achievable since back in 2021. But those changes in the organization leading to a quick Eagles turnaround and subsequent playoff appearance\u200a\u2014\u200aare most unlikely<\/a> have an impact quite as fast in 2026 in all probability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Eagles and Doug Pederson\u200a\u2014\u200ajust three years removed from the franchise\u2019s first Super Bowl victory<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200ahad ended the season 4\u201311\u20131. Making things even worse\u200a\u2014\u200athey had benched rookie QB Jalen Hurts in the second half of a meaningless game\u200a\u2014\u200ainstead opting for Nate Sudfeld to finish out the season against the Washington<\/a> Commanders. The Eagles loss knocked the New York Giants from playoff contention<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200aa move that gave a veil of impropriety going into the offseason. After a series of winter meetings\u200a\u2014\u200athe last of which with Pederson visiting<\/a> Lurie in Florida\u200a\u2014\u200aled to his dismissal as Philadelphia\u2019s Head Coach.<\/p>\n

What ensued was a whirlwind of events. The Eagles hired the youthful Nick Sirianni to coach the Eagles. An entirely new coaching staff also joined, Jalen Hurts was named the starting quarterback<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200aand Carson Wentz was traded to Indianapolis from whence Nick Sirianni came. The result was an 9\u20138 record and an appearance<\/a> in the NFC Playoffs after only one down year and hiatus.<\/p>\n

But 2021 had several things going for it that 2026 does not.<\/p>\n

The Eagles already had a franchise quarterback in the building besides Wentz when they traded him. Jalen Hurts<\/a> had been in the Novacare Complex for a year prior. If Hurts does not return as QB1 next season\u200a\u2014\u200athe Eagles would undoubtedly need to find another<\/a> franchise quarterback.<\/p>\n

And whether or not you think that Nick Sirianni has done a good job here recently\u200a\u2014\u200ahe\u2019s only one of two Eagles coaches to ever win a Super Bowl<\/a> and the only one to go to two. If Lurie blames<\/a> him for the Sean Mannion offensive debacle despite the injuries\u200a\u2014\u200ait won\u2019t be easy to find a coach of that pedigree again\u200a\u2014\u200aespectially to have one turn the franchise<\/a> around that quickly.<\/p>\n

Since the 1940s \u2014almost every time that the Eagles have been contending for a Championship<\/a>\u200a\u2014\u200athey\u2019ve had a top defense. By January of 2021\u200a\u2014\u200athe Eagles were ranked 19th in the NFL in total defense and 3rd in sacks<\/a>. By the end of Sirianni\u2019s first season\u200a\u2014\u200athe defense<\/a> was ranked 10th in the NFL. The current Eagles defense (now ranked 27th in the NFL) would need a serious turnaround over the next year for a defense including<\/a> a line that has already invested $328 million on contract<\/a> extensions.<\/p>\n

And perhaps most importantly\u200a\u2014\u200awhen both Nick Sirianni and Doug Pederson advanced to the Super Bowl in their respective second seasons\u200a\u2014\u200athey had impactful, well established<\/a>, good offensive and defensive lines. As explained on WIP Radio on Monday by former Eagles linebacker and Analyst<\/a> Seth Joyner\u200a\u2014\u200aSirianni inherited significant talent on the offensive line and an improving defensive<\/a> line. And Doug Pederson also was able to recover the same when he took over from Chip Kelly\u200a\u2014\u200acontributing to the Super Bowl LII Eagles victory over New England.<\/p>\n

The 4\u201311\u20131 Eagles that were beaten in Landover, Maryland by the Washington Commanders<\/a> in 2021 still had a strong nucleus of a team that would bounce back quickly the very next season under Sirianni\u200a\u2014\u200aand already had a rookie who would become it\u2019s franchise<\/a> quarterback. Could it be that easy to turn this team around in less than 24 months?<\/p>\n

Absolutely. Just don\u2019t bet on it.<\/p>\n

Discover more from Philadelphia Sports Nation<\/p>\n

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.<\/p>\n

Tags: #JalenHurts<\/a> #Sirianni<\/a> Carson Wentz<\/a> Doug Pederson<\/a> Eagles defense<\/a> Hurts<\/a> Wentz<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized:Eagles<\/a> More PHL<\/a> News<\/a> Unique Columns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eagles\u2022More PHL\u2022News\u2022Unique Columns In the event that the Philadelphia Eagles join the growing opinion of both National and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[130126,4984,43163,130127,130128,69,71,70,120479,130129],"class_list":["post-320099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-jalenhurts","tag-carson-wentz","tag-doug-pederson","tag-eagles-defense","tag-hurts","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sirianni","tag-wentz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}