Last year, as they prepared to defend their first Super Bowl title, the Eagles limped into the season.
Carson Wentz, Alshon Jeffery, Brandon Graham, Timmy Jernigan — all of them missed basically all of training camp. The team also had other players, like tackle Jason Peters and running back Darren Sproles, coming off of major injuries.
The results overall were not pretty.
Of the group, only Jeffery had anything close to a successful year. Graham had one of the worst years of his career. Jernigan barely played. Sproles missed the majority of the season and Peters struggled to stay on the field. Wentz showed obvious signs of rust, had trouble moving the offense and ended the season on the bench with a back injury.
The lesson learned? Training camp, and having the offseason to prepare for the season, matters.
This year, Wentz being fully healthy has kind of overshadowed the injury issues the team is dealing with. The reality is, however, that the Eagles face a very similar, if not worse, situation heading into 2019 and their Week 1 matchup against the Washington Redskins.
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, linebacker Nigel Bradham, cornerback Ronald Darby, defensive end Derek Barnett, safety Rodney McLeod, linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill and cornerback Jalen Mills have all missed either all of or most of training camp. Cox, Barnett, McLeod, Darby and Mills missed basically all of OTAs and minicamp as well.
With those seven players basically sidelined all offseason, the Eagles have had to prepare for the regular season without roughly 65% of their projected starters on defense.
Of all the players that have missed time, the biggest concern centers around Cox.
Cox has been sidelined throughout the entire offseason due to ankle surgery at the end of last year. He didn't take part in any of the team's OTAs or minicamp, then was sidelined for basically all of training camp. After at least stretching with the team early on, Cox was not even on the field during the final week of training camp.
The Eagles desperately need Cox to have avoid letting the time off impact him on the field. That hope might not be fair or realistic, but is critical to the team's success. With a thinner group of defensive ends than they have had in the past, the Eagles are expecting their defensive tackles to create more pressure up the middle, making life easier for the defensive ends. A less than 100% Cox, who is one of the best defensive players in the league when at his best, would severely impact that plan.
Outside of Cox, the Eagles are also hoping Barnett is able to somehow have a big year despite missing so much time. Unlike the other injured defensive players, Barnett doesn't have much experience in the NFL. He has played in just 21 games with only six starts. Although he has shown some potential, it would be hard for any player to have a breakout season after missing 10 games the season before and essentially the entire offseason after. After letting Michael Bennett and Chris Long go, and deciding not to make a move for Jadaveaon Clowney, however, the Eagles desperately need that to happen.
What could lead to ugly results early on is that most of the injured players are expected to play against Washington. Cox, Barnett, Bradham and McLeod will be out there. Darby almost certainly will as well. Having five defensive starters take their first 11-on-11 reps together in Week 1 is far from ideal, even against a bad Washington offense.
One positive for the Eagles is that they are very healthy on the offensive side of the ball. Only right guard Brandon Brooks has missed time a significant portion of the offseason. The other 10 starters, and almost all of the backups, have been working together and preparing for the regular season. There is no excuse for the offense to get off to a slow start, even if Wentz didn't play in the preseason as a precaution.
The defense, however, is in a very tough spot heading into the regular season.
You can find Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
