Inside The Birds: ‘What Would It Take To Win 8 Games?’

Warm weather has enveloped the Delaware Valley. Spring sunshine has finally arrived.

Has spring also spawned some eternal hope for the Philadelphia Eagles?

In the latest Inside The Birds, Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher tried to make sense of sudden public optimism about the Eagles’ chances of significantly improving in 2021 and perhaps competing for the NFC East title.

What’s changed since the end of the season?

Adam Caplan: “The division is up for grabs. I just don’t think the Eagles are as talented as the other rosters. What would it take for them to be .500? Well, you can’t be .500 anymore … but what would it take for them to win 8 games?

Geoff Mosher: “No. 1, first and foremost, they’re not a very deep team. So they’d have to be not just healthier than they’ve been the last few years … but they have to be in the top third in the NFL as far as health. They’re not deep at linebacker, certainly not deep at corner, not deep as safety … not necessarily deep at wide receiver; even though they have bodies there, it’s not necessarily a lot of proven guys. The Eagles in 2017 and 2018 had good depth but now it’s completely different. That would be No. 1. This team has to be way healthier than it’s been in the past. No. 2 is that their offensive and defensives lines have to be elite to make up for the back end of the defense … and to help a second-year quarterback.”

Competition

Caplan: “[Doug] Pederson in Year 1 was trying to figure it out. He was like a fish swimming up water, really upstream. Quite frankly, he wasn’t ready Year 1. The way I heard it, after the season he obviously must have known about Jim Schwartz’s long meeting with Jeff Lurie. Something happened and the light went [on]. Now, this guy [Sirianni], he hasn’t been here very long, he doesn’t have a great roster. They’re probably not going to be very good. He can’t look at it this way. He’s just got to coach hard. I also liked how he talked about his coaches this past previous week here in rookie camp and how he talked about them competing. This guy is interesting. I don’t know how good of a coach he’s going to be, be he sure speaks like he’s got himself together.”

– Geoff Mosher (@geoffmoshernfl) is co-host of the “Inside the Birds” podcast and staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.

Listen to the latest “Inside The Birds” podcast from Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan here: