It’s been two days since the Eagles’ loss to the San Francisco 49ers and fans are demanding the firing of Kevin Patullo, calling for A.J. Brown to get traded, and looking ahead to an offseason of change — from free agency to the draft to the start of training camp.
The Eagles season ended sooner than expected, and that means there are plenty of questions surrounding the team as eight others continue to battle in the playoffs. Here’s what they’re saying about the Birds after their early exit …
‘Mediocre across the board’
Former Eagles center Jason Kelce believes the offensive coordinator isn’t the only person who should be blamed for Sunday’s loss.
“I know that everybody is out on Kevin Patullo. I happen to know the guy, I love Kevin Patullo,” Kelce said on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown. “I know he’s a great coach. I know it wasn’t the best performance this year, offensively. They had the No. 1 highest-paid offense in the league and were mediocre across the board. That’s unacceptable. They had their chances to win that game [Sunday]. The players didn’t make the plays.”
The 49ers defense held the Eagles to 19 points in Sunday’s loss at Lincoln Financial Field. Kelce praised the San Francisco defense for its efforts in the win over the defending champs.
“What Robert Saleh did to that defense, it’s commendable what they’ve done to get to here,” Kelce said. “It’s absolutely a testament to that organization and how well they’re built and how they function across the board. Kyle Shanahan with the trickeration, finding a way to get things open. You tip your cap to them. But Philly had their opportunities.”
Patullo ‘needs to be gone’
Although Kelce may not be among those calling for Patullo to get fired, his coworker Marcus Spears certainly is.
“I’m not going to teeter around it, Kevin Patullo’s [butt] needs to be gone,” Spears said on Monday Night Countdown. “This was a horrible year of calling the offensive plays. And I don’t think the Philadelphia Eagles offense is as bad as we watched it based on the talent. That’s what kept us on the string all year long.”
‘They’re not trying unless they’re trailing’
Patullo has been a member of the Birds coaching staff since Nick Sirianni arrived five seasons ago, but this was his first year as the offensive coordinator after he replaced Kellen Moore, who took the head coaching position with the New Orleans Saints. After the Birds’ short postseason run, ESPN’s Get Up show posed the question: Was Kevin Patullo the Eagles’ weakest link this season?
“The frustrating part about watching that offense, and it’s happened all year and it’s very on display in this game, is that it appears as if they’re not trying unless they’re trailing,” Domonique Foxworth said on Tuesday. “What I’m watching in the second half, it’s second-and-8, it’s second-and-10, it’s third-and-10, it’s third-and-11. And they’re running the ball and throwing swing passes. I’m not a fan of the Eagles, I’m just a fan of football. Like, come on. I imagine Eagles fans are watching this like, ‘Try something. We won a Super Bowl last year. We’ve been together all year and our answer on third-and-10 is a swing pass to Saquon Barkley?’”
A lot was made about the Eagles going conservative in the second half Sunday, but it’s been an issue throughout the season.
“This is the point that we made about this team all year. And maybe they just weren’t as good as we wanted them to pretend that they were,” Foxworth continued. “But the point that we made was, the reason we wanted them to be more aggressive offensively is that there will come a game where the breaks won’t come your way and you wish that you would have extended the lead. And I’m watching this game and they’re like, ‘We’re up by one, let’s go ahead and punt.’”
Foxworth also noted the difference between how the Eagles and Niners attacked those situations, with San Francisco being proactive while the Eagles seemed content to sit back and wait for something to happen.
“You watch this [49ers] team, which knows they’re not that good — or knows that they don’t have that much of a margin of error — they’re like, ‘Look, we’ve got to take shots.’ And we’re watching the Eagles like, ‘Come on. Do something, do something, do something.’”
‘Our offense becomes dull and stale’
Although most of the blame is being directed toward Patullo, there are some critics, including former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, who have questioned Jalen Hurts’ role in this year’s predictable offense.
McCoy went on The Speakeasy podcast after the game and said the quarterback was holding back the offense. “We can’t do different exotic looks, different formations, different motions because I’m hearing that [Hurts] can’t really do it,” he said.
But Hurts didn’t appear to hold back the offense a year ago, and former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb defended the Super Bowl LIX MVP on 94 WIP.
“Let me break it down for this, and I know there’s a lot of rumblings about what Jalen wants to run and what he doesn’t like,” McNabb said. “He’s deserving of that decision as the quarterback of the franchise. He’s the face of the franchise. He’s won you a Super Bowl. He’s been Super Bowl MVP. You know he’s been in this league long enough where he decides what he likes and what he doesn’t like.
“It’s our choice as the quarterback to be able to be comfortable with what we’re calling. So we can eliminate that whole mindset that everybody on the outside is trying to create. That whole narrative.”
Instead, to McNabb, there was one critical moment that changed the Eagles offense for the rest of the season.
“To me, with this offense, everything shifted ever since A.J. [Brown] started talking he wasn’t getting the ball,” said McNabb, who played alongside another outspoken wide receiver in Terrell Owens. “The offense shifted and everything was kind of going to A.J., and DeVonta [Smith] being the third option. And so, that’s kind of to me where it took us away from what we were very successful with last season to what’s going on with this season. And we didn’t make that change.
“And so we’re trying to please people now. So, our offense becomes dull and stale because we don’t move guys around.”
