The Eagles Offensive Report Card

As expected, the Eagles offense has been one of the most explosive units in the National Football League. They have incredible speed at the wide receiver position with DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, at the quarterback position with Michael Vick, and LeSean McCoy may be the most elusive running back in the league.

They’ve had two areas which have hampered them this season. One area has been the turnovers and the other has been the red zone. Despite the poor play of their defense, their explosive offense could have had them sitting 4-2 without the turnovers and with better play in the red zone.

Let’s take a look at the grades:

The Offensive Line
When Andy Reid named Juan Castillo the defensive coordinator this past off-season he said the hiring of Howard Mudd made the move possible. Now, six weeks into the 2011 campaign, there is much doubt if Reid’s decisions were indeed the right ones. For one, neither the defense nor the offensive line has been particularly impressive, but why?

For one, despite Mudd’s excellent track record, he may not have been the right man for the job, at least not for this season. Mudd’s schemes are different than most and often take a decent amount of time to teach. That necessary “teaching time” was claimed by the NFL lockout and thus the Eagles were put in a difficult position to start with. Couple the lack of adequate preparation time, with the fact that the Eagles entered the season with only Jason Peters returning to his 2010-11 position, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Now, six games into the 2011 season, an ailing Jason Peters and a Pro Bowl looking Todd Herremans are the only thing keeping this offensive line together. The two rookies and journeymen guards have often looked overmatched and unprepared while pass blocking. It’s not that I expect them all to be the next Steve Hutchinson, just simply to be more consistent and not allow the quarterback to be hit on every play.

All that being said, credit is given where credit is due. The running game has improved drastically from seasons past. It is hard to tell how effective this line has truly been in run blocking, but they must be doing something right. After all, LeSean McCoy is seventh in the NFL in rushing yards (569) and tied for third in the league with six touchdowns. The Eagles also lead the league in rushing yards per game.

All right, the bell rang and the paper must be graded. Terrible pass blocking and an injured week two quarterback would earn this offensive line a failing grade. Lucky for them an elusive speedster wearing number twenty-five allows them to squeak by with a D.

Running Backs
LeSean McCoy is the best player on the Eagles. There I said it, feel free to disagree, but think twice before you do. For the first time since Duce Staley donned the midnight green, Andy Reid has an actual reason to run the ball. Six games into the season he is fourth in the league in rushing yards, tied for second in touchdowns, and averaging nearly a hundred yards on the ground each game.

McCoy already outgained his first two months of last season and is just one rushing touchdown from matching his total output from a year ago. He is the glue that is holding this offense together. Unless he can play linebacker, there is not much more that he can do to help this team win.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for McCoy’s backups. If that is what you want to call them. Ronnie Brown has been ineffective in his first year with the team. He appears to be headed to the bench, only because a trade with Detroit was voided.

So the door is open and rookie back Dion Lewis is the man left to take over by default. Despite some questionable decisions he has made returning kickoffs, Lewis has not looked terrible. To be honest, I have been impressed by what the fifth round draft pick brings to the table. In limited action he has shown that he can pickup positive yards. If his blocking improves it is likely that we will see more of Lewis down the stretch.

Now, it’s time for a grade. McCoy has taken the bulk of the load in the backfield and is putting together a career year leaving fans to wonder if the next Wilbert Montgomery has finally arrived. That answer is still up in the air, but McCoy’s sensational play makes up for Brown’s blunders. I give the Eagles running game an A.

Wide Receivers
There is no doubt that thus far into the season this wide receiver corps has underachieved. When one team can put four proven receivers on the field at the same time, expectations should be sky high. There is no reasonable explanation why, as a team, the Eagles are not top five in the league for receiving yards, instead of number ten.
Going into the year this group of receivers was touted at as the best the franchise has ever had. But in recent weeks the talented group has fallen into a comfort zone of mediocrity.

Last year, Andy Reid had the homerun pass in his back pocket at all times. This year the Eagles have only one completion where the ball was in the air for more than forty yards. Reduce that number to thirty yards and the Birds have only four completions. Now move the number down to twenty yards and the team has just seven receptions. That is seven receptions where the ball is thrown for twenty or more yards. On a team with Terrance Small and Charles Johnson those numbers may cut it; but when Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson are the two wide-outs it simply is not acceptable.

If the Eagles have any hope in making the playoffs the wide receivers are the group that must step up their play the most. Maclin and Avant have been consistent as usual, but DeSean has often disappeared and is slowly losing his game changer title. The depth chart also includes a guy named Steve Smith; I guess only time will tell it that is the same Pro Bowl receiver who used to wear the enemy blue and grey.

Take out the red pens, its grading time. Consistency has generally been there from these guys, but not at the level that we all had expected. Big plays have been few and far between and they have proved to be anything but clutch. Despite my earlier criticism they are still a top ten receiving team and worthy of a B-.

Tight Ends
I never realized, until now, how difficult it is to grade a position that a team does not utilize normally. For the first time since Chad Lewis and a young L.J. Smith played in Philadelphia, have the Eagles possessed two effective tight ends. Celek, in the last few seasons has lived-up to his true potential and demonstrated that he can both catch the ball and help out in pass blocking. In the few opportunities that Clay Harbor has been granted this season, he too has excelled. Harbor has caught all five passes that have been thrown his way. But the fine print must be read. No matter how good offensively these tight ends may be, the offensive line is so bad that they have had few opportunities to contribute.

All right, it’s time for the tests to be handed back. A goofy season for these two makes it hard to give them a fair grade because of their small body of work. When all is said and done, both Celek and Harbor have been good in pass protection and caught touchdown passes. They may be worthy of a higher grade, but I am giving them a solid B.

Quarterbacks
This past season the Eagles made a 100 million dollar commitment to Michael Vick that he would be their quarterback of the future. I do not think at this point in time that I am the only person who is questioning this contract. Just six games in, Vick’s durability has already proven to be a problem and I remain pessimistic that it will just disappear.

Thus far, Vick’s 84.4 passer rating is good for thirteenth in the league. To put that into better perspective Curtis Painter (12) and Alex Smith (9) are both ahead of him. Vick is tied for twelfth in the league with nine passing touchdowns, but his eight costly interceptions are not helping his case of a good grade.

The 2011, version of Mike Vick has appeared to be a mediocre injury-prone quarterback. Vick has demonstrated that he still has some razzle-dazzle left in him, but like the wide receivers he has momentarily lost the clutch factor. Also, when will this guy learn to protect the ball?

Despite all of the Vick bashing there is no other quarterback on the Eagles roster that has looked half competent of starting a game in the NFL. Mike Kafka and Vince “Dream Team” Young have a thrown a combined three interceptions in seventeen pass attempts. That is a passer rating that I am not going to waste my time to calculate. You get the point though. If Vick goes down again things are looking dim for the Birds.

Grade time. A mediocre Mike Vick combined with awful back-up quarterbacks eliminates the chance far an A. When the combined interception total nearly doubles the amount of games that have been played it is hard to give this group a B. Let’s just hope things improve. In the meantime we will stick with a C+.