Can’t disagree with anything here. When has Sirianni chosen his own coordinators – with the one exception of Steichen – they failed spectacularly. He appears to have very poor judgement when choosing his senior staff, which should be a strength of a “CEO coach”. I’d trust Howie to choose the coordinators, but why in the world would you retain a coach who doesn’t appear capable of solving schematic problems on his own?

First of all, great Pink Floyd reference.

I agree with your assessment, Les. The things that need to be fixed will have to wait until the offseason. Even with the injuries on offense (the core issue in my view has been the health of the offensive line, compounded by the playcalling), with the talent on on that side of the ball the performance should be better. Hopefully they will find a coordinator who can maximize the talent. And maybe get some more depth on the line given the injury issues this season.

Great article, Les!

I know it’s so tough to repeat as SB champs, but it’s frustrating to see an entire season get flushed away with such a talented roster primarily because of the incompetence of the offensive coaching staff. The next OC needs to focus on designing and calling plays that focus on the strengths of Hurts and this offense, not calling 40+ pass plays in a game (which is basically coaching malpractice)!

Ditto. We all want to see Tanner because it’s DIFFERENT from the slop we’ve been served most of the season. A shake-up is coming this offseason (please spare us another in-season disaster a la M. Patricia). One involving Hurts does not seem in the cards. My one take-away from the Bears game: that was some well-coached offense! 3 1/2 years of a high-powered rushing offense that was central to Hurts success has fallen to wear, tear and injury. The change I’m really ready for is that modern era offense of which you spoke. Can Hurts command such an offense? This all begs lots of questions as this season sputters to a (most likely) disappointing conclusion.

Re Jalen hurts
He is either unable or unwilling to run the ball on planned plays so to me he has outlived his usefulness if the threat of him running is not there? Has he ever been a good enough qb just from a passing perspective and being able to read defenses and or see the field ?

How fickle I am as a fan. After his MVP performance in the SB, I considered the Jalen Hurts debate closed forever. And early in the season, it seemed like whatever problems the offense was having couldn’t really be laid at his door. The Eagles were winning games because of his play. The post-bye games are hard to ignore, though. There was nothing about the Chargers game to indicate that anybody but Hurts was the problem. Watching Fran’s analysis of the turndown of an easy TD throw to Smitty was depressing. So, I have to admit — the Hurts critics have a point. It seems like he can be thrown off his game when the system isn’t supporting him to a high degree. We got what we wanted: more variety and ambition in the passing game. But that raises the question: would the version of Hurts that plays to avoid turnovers at all costs have won that game for the Eagles? Is it possible that Sirianni and the coaching staff know *exactly* who they have at quarterback and have tailored their planning to account for his weaknesses?

In the end, he’s another high variance quarterback. Kinda like Foles. Capable of hitting the highest highs and the lowest lows. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he seems to be in lowest low territory again, and there aren’t a lot of indications that he’ll snap out of it.

If things continue on this way, I’d like it if the Eagles would consider a true QB competition next year between Hurts and McKee, and I say that as someone who backed Hurts even before he was the full-time starter.

There will a new offensive coordinator next year, as surely as ballplayers will fly to Florida and Arizona in February. If the Giants don’t make Mike Kafka their permanent head coach, he might be a good idea. And a training camp name I remember who was often hailed as beyond his years in understanding of the game – GJ Kinne, the head coach at Texas State. He is not tearing it up but he became a head coach quite young. I wonder if he’d be interested in a return to Philadelphia?