Returning to Form

A lot will need to go right for the Philadelphia Eagles’ expected improvement following a disastrous end to 2023.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher dive into the team’s biggest concerns heading into the 2024 season.

ITB: The Eagles will need QB Jalen Hurts to return to form in 2024.

Jalen Carter

Geoff Mosher: “Last year, Fletcher Cox was their most consistent and best defensive tackle. Now you are going to ask Jalen Carter in year two to go from a guy who showed really great flashes, and struggled in the second half in an expanded role that he has never played in college or the NFL.”

Adam Caplan: “From a talent standpoint, Carter has it. It is just bringing the intensity. That room is so young, we will see who the leaders are.”

Cam Jurgens

Mosher: “You have a third-year player in Jurgens who is going to be a full-time starter at center this year. He is a guy who only did it for two years at Nebraska. A lot of centers start off playing different positions, that part is not as big of a deal. The bigger part of it is a new right guard next to him, a new offense he has to learn, and you are replacing a guy who has done it for 12 years.”

Caplan: “It is the sorting, getting him out of bad plays, helping (Jalen) Hurts see it presnap. You only get experience by playing.”

Jalen Hurts

Mosher: “It is not about 100% makeover for the quarterback, I just think the environment has to be better, he has to get back to eyes downfield, some of the little things he was so good at two years ago that gradually started to erode as the year was going on last year.”

Caplan: “From tape study from the people we talked to this week, they all said the same thing: it is processing, he just did not process like he did in 2022. When the play is dialed up right, you have to execute it.”

A.J. Brown/DeVonta Smith

Mosher: “My concern on the wide receivers would be a long-term injury to DeVonta Smith or A.J. Brown. You could tell me right me that Howie Roseman is going to pull an amazing trade and I am not excited about that. The rapport that Hurts has with Brown and Smith are great and those guys are special.”

Safeties

Mosher: “You have a frequently injured, somewhat one-dimensional guy [C.J. Gardner-Johnson] who has never made an All-Pro or a Pro Bowl and that is who you are relying on now.”

Caplan: “You would like (Reed) Blankenship to be your third safety, but on this team he is not. He is not a bad number two, but there is a foot quickness issue.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.