The 2011 Philadelphia Eagles put the dream in “Dream Team”. They can dream about hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, but that is as far as it is going to get.
The rallying cry from the positive fans this season has been “The Green Bay Packers started 3-3 last year and they won the Super Bowl.”
They also had Aaron Rodgers and Clay (not Casey) Mathews.
In the off season Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie said his team was making moves to compete with the Green Bay Packers, he mentioned that he wanted to be like Green Bay because they were the champions. So my question is this, if Lurie wanted to be “like” the Packers why did they Eagles neglect the two things the Packers do the best? Protect the quarterback and build a stellar defense.
“But the Eagles did address the defense! Jason Babin, DRC, Nnamdi, Jenkins!!!”
If the Eagles were serious about emulating the Packers, why didn’t they get a veteran NFL defensive coordinator like the Packers have? If Jeff Lurie wanted to be like Green Bay, why didn’t he hire a veteran defensive coordinator who runs a 3-4 defense like the Packers? The two teams in last season’s Super Bowl both ran a 3-4 and both had well established defensive coordinators. Would the Packers invest millions of dollars in defensive talent and have a rookie NFL defensive coordinator run that very same defense?
The team the Eagles emulated this off-season was the Washington Redskins. Like the Redskins of the past 15 years the Eagles signed big named players with no plan on how to use them while neglecting key but less glamorous 
positions in the process.
What is the point of having three pro bowl corner backs if the team’s starting linebackers would struggle to make the St. Louis Rams practice squad? Anybody with the most basic football IQ would know just to run the ball to beat the defense. The counter argument to that is the offense was supposed to be so good the Eagles will be playing with a lead. That’s all well and good, but don’t offenses protect their quarterback?
As a fan I can only blame myself for my severe disappointment in the Eagles, I was fooled by the big names and was not smart enough to see the team had major problems. In the pre-season I was excited and was only thinking “Nnamdi, Nnamdi, Nnamdi!” I cockily dreamt of the insults I was going to dish out to opposing team’s fans at the Linc this season “go ahead try and throw the ball on us!”
Never did it cross my mind a team doesn’t have to deal with the Eagles three pro bowl corners because the Eagles safeties and linebackers are so abysmal it would make the pro bowl trio irrelevant in the outcome of the game.
The big mistake which I made was I forgot professional sports is a business. The Eagles were never competing with the Green Bay Packers. They were competing with their local business rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. In December of 2010 the Eagles were making a playoff push and pulled off the biggest NFL miracle of 2010, yet the Phillies were just as big of a story because they signed Cliff Lee and built the best rotation baseball has seen in decades.
Even though the Phillies were coming off an NLCS against a team they should have beaten, yet they were the darling of the city. I am not suggesting the Phillies signed Cliff Lee to steal the Eagles headlines, I am suggesting the Phillies and Eagles are in direct competition for our money.
The Eagles could not afford to stand pat this past off-season. They had to make a big splash in free agency. If all the Eagles would have done was trade for DRC, there was a chance the Eagles could have generated their biggest amount of disinterested fans since they were 3-13 in 1998.
Because of the big names the Eagles brought in the Eagles are a major story in Philadelphia. For better or for worse they are in the headlines just as much as the 5-time NL East defending Champion Phillies are at playoff time. The signing of Nnamdi was done first and foremost to make the Eagles a better team, but in the business aspect of football he was worth every penny of his contract for the simple fact he raised Philadelphia sports fans interest and expectation in the Eagles.
From 1994-2007 the Eagles made a splash one time in free agency by signing Terrell Owens. During that same time frame the Eagles passed on controversial players who may be a problem. Remember when the Eagles were only interested in “good character guys”? Between 1994-2007 the Phillies were a non factor in Major League Baseball and the mind of Philadelphia sports fans.
Since the Phillies first of five NL East titles in 2007 the Eagles have signed the biggest off season name in three of the five off-seasons. Three splashes in five years after only one big splash in the previous 13 years?
In the past five years the Eagles have been taking a lot more risk on big name players that come equipped with big time headlines, expectations, and jersey sales. How many convicts did the Eagles sign pre 2007? Post 2007 Michael Vick was welcomed with opened arms, at the time of the signing the Eagles had Kevin Kolb and Donovan McNabb.
Would the 2002 Eagles have taken a risk like that at a position they were already strong in? Vince Young led to the end of the longest tenured coach in the NFL’s firing, and has depression issues yet post 2008 bring him in! It seems like if the Phillies are “All In” the Eagles had better be “All In” too.
I hope what I am suggesting is just another idiotic rant by an idiot fan, but it is just too coincidental that the Eagles began to consistently make big moves after the Phillies became successful. I enjoy big moves, they are fun they get me excited as a fan, but the best way to win the fan’s money is to ultimately win a championship, not the offseason.
Great article Jerry! Best yet!! Bring on the Phillies playoffs & the Flyboys! This football season was over before it even got started!
I think as each week goes by ,it becomes more obvious and even to the fans that Coach AR is just not that good of an Coach and his real-time adjustments and game time calls are questionable at best.. The room for error is so slim in the NFL anymore.. It used to be the better conditioned, beter gamed plans and overall the better prepared team won the games more times than not.. It has chcanged somewhat to more of a game abuot matchups and taking advantage of the those good and bad mathchups over the course of the game… Ginats called a couple of brilliant plays that caught the Eagles flat-footed (the Wheel route to B Jacobs versus Casey Matthers who about about 5-8 yards behind in coverage and teh Screen play to Bradshaw on a 3rd and long when even my 14 Year Old son knew tthe Eagles were going to blitz the kitchen sink leaving then vulnerable for a screen play)
I will go on record right now and state that this week upcoming game versus the 49ers is a must win plain and simple.. Falling to 1-3 will end their season of any legitimate playoff hopes in my opinion, (3 NFC Division losses and 5th in a row at home) The team will be in a free-fall mentally afterwards which will be hard for Coach AR to recover from…
I translate “rival” into “biggest threat” and to me the biggest threat to the Eagles suggest has been and always will be the head coach. They will NEVER WIN ANYTHING MEANINGFUL with Andy Reid at the helm. Reid is their biggest enemy to success, bar none.
What’s obvious is not only is Reid arrogant but he is also comfortable and secure in the knowledge that Lurie is NOT going to can him. With that job security safely tucked away, he feels he can treat this season as a throw-away season and make Castillo DC and let him get on-the-job training until he becomes comfortable and proficient in the position even if it takes until the end of the season to do so. He further feels he can make wholesale changes on the OL AND DL and use this throw-away season to get them to jell in preparation for NEXT season. He feels he can use this throw-away season to give Casey Matthews the valuable experience and playing time he wouldn’t have been able to get even in a “normal season.” Because of the abbreviated training camps, no OTAs, and no mini-camps, he feels with his job safely secured he can afford to do all of these thing while pointing toward NEXT YEAR. Meanwhile, any wins and improvement in the standings will be treated as icing on the cake as well as count as good experience for his extended training camp in this the entire 2011 throw-away season. This is my take on it. This is what I interpret within his smug arrogance. This is what I believe he and Lurie and Banner have already discussed during the long lockout. This, I believe to be the plan…2012 season. This is my theory. All speculation of course but, how else to explain it? How else to explain the complete silence and serenity of the FO?