‘Makes No Sense’

The banged up Philadelphia Eagles enter the NFL playoffs with more questions than answers on offense and defense.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher discussed the team’s current injury situation and provided schematic intel on both sides of the ball.

GETTY IMAGES: The Eagles offense continues to struggle under Nick Sirianni’s scheme

Jalen Hurts

Geoff Mosher: “We have to monitor the finger. It looked like a dislocation when he suffered it, it is apparently not broken, so that is good news.”

A.J. Brown

Adam Caplan: “I believe he will play, I have no idea how limited he will be. He couldn’t come back [against the Giants], it wouldn’t have mattered if it was the Super Bowl. It looked bad. It’s a right knee injury, we don’t know if it is an MCL or if he just hyperextended it. The early word is he should be able to play, but with this team nothing is a guarantee.”

Safety

Caplan: “Sydney Brown tore his ACL. If for some reason (Reed) Blankenship can’t play, it will be Kevin Byard and Tristin McCollum.”

Mosher: “If Blankenship plays, you have a safety playing through a groin injury so that takes you down a little bit. For a team that has been playing a lot of big nickel lately with Blankenship, Byard, and Brown, Sydney Brown being out for the year leaves them with two safeties they can trust. You have to take out a core part of your defense.”

Caplan: “McCollum is a practice squad player. It’s hard to sign someone now and have them play but I don’t know why they didn’t sign anyone weeks ago. You could have signed a veteran street free agent.”

Nick Sirianni

Mosher: “Here is what somebody who watches the Eagles tape and is familiar with them has said to me: he feels like Nick Sirianni has a scheme and a system that when it is good, it works. When it doesn’t work, when you are having a systemic issue the way the Eagles are having this year, that is still your system. If you can’t add something new to your look and are married to your system is when you get in trouble. One set of eyes who has looked at the Eagles said it looks like Sirianni is married to his system and now that it is not working, he doesn’t know how to marry himself to a different kind of way.”

Caplan: “Looking at my notes, one person said they do not ID blitzes very well, their technique was poor.”

Defense

Caplan: “They are not running the same scheme [as earlier in the season], they have adjusted a lot. The guys are struggling, they are trying but are being asked to do too much. When you are asking players to do something they haven’t done in OTAs, you are asking for trouble.”

Mosher: “I am not going to be the guy who rips Josh Sweat and Haason Reddick for not understanding the rules and zone drops. When have they ever had to do that? They are pass rushers who occasionally may have had to do a simple drop. They are now asking Sweat to cover the number two receiver on a fire zone blitz. That makes zero sense.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com