If you're scared, get a dog.
If you already have a dog, well, then take a deep breath and stop worrying about the Eagles offense.
The rhetoric and non-stop worry is overwhelming on the WIP airwaves and social media. Every slightly negative or less-than-special camp report about the Eagles offense, passing game and Jalen Hurts elicits fear about this team's ability to score enough points to reach its potential.
While I do believe training camp statistics and reports are valuable, worrying about this Eagles offense is fruitless. When the lights go on in September, I'm expecting a top-10 scoring offense to emerge due to increased talent, outstanding depth and the foundation of an attack that was better than perception makes it feel in 2021.
Here's why, starting with some context of a camp performance that's probably been more steady than explosive.
I was at open practice at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday evening. The atmosphere was outstanding. The offense, given the circumstances, was solid. Hurts' excellent touchdown throw to A.J. Brown was the highlight of the night. The first-team offense eschewed more deep shots in exchange for throws over the middle (a point of emphasis that could rectify Hurts' tendency to shy away from this area again), quarterback scrambles, and designed runs. Despite using a fourth-string left tackle and not having DeVonta Smith, the first team offense had good moments against an impressive first-team defense.
Until yesterday, the offense was reportedly spending most passing plays with short and intermediate routes. Deep passes were few and far between. I'm fine with that for three distinct reasons: A.J. Brown, last year's reality and the misconception on how passing games really operate in today's game.
Let's start with Brown. We're not talking about a young Randy Moss here, poised to streak 50 yards down the field and raise his arm for a jump ball. Brown is built from the Anquan Boldin cloth. Hit him seven-to-10 yards from the line of scrimmage and watch him rumble through defense backs for big chunk gains. This star wide receiver doesn't need deep throws to create big plays. The Eagles offense (and by extension Hurts) are poised to be better just by Brown's presence as a playmaker.
If there's one thing the Eagles shouldn't wonder about Hurts, it's a willingness to throw the ball down the field. Last year, Hurts' intended air yards per pass attempt was 9.0. That ranked fourth in the NFL. Think about Hurts' best throws in his time as this team's starting quarterback. Deep throws to Jalen Reagor and Greg Ward when he took over in Green Bay in 2020. A deep post to DeSean Jackson in Dallas a few weeks later. Last year, hitting Quez Watkins up the sideline in stride vs. the 49ers for the biggest gain of the season. Big-time throws (one caught, one dropped) 40-plus yards down the field in Denver. The scramble and throw down the field vs. Washington when the playoffs were clinched. None were dinks and dunks. All were significant downfield throws. This camp should be about Hurts breaking his tendency of going to his right and focus on throwing (in rhythm) up the seam to tight end Dallas Goedert and across the middle to Brown. Both are happening, and represent something far more important than the three-or-so deep shots this offense might take per game.
Plus, the Eagles aren't operating off a year in which the offense was bad. That's become a common refrain or way of thinking, but it doesn't align with what actually happened. You may not have loved the style of last year's offense, but calling it ineffective is simply not true. For all the hand wringing about how this team approached offense, it worked. The Eagles created big plays. They scored points (25.5 per game, 12th in the NFL). Don't believe me? Look at where the team (without Brown and with Jalen Reagor playing a big role) ranked in key areas.
The Eagles were tied for 10th in yards per play, averaging the exact same number (5.7) as the Joe Burrow-led Bengals. The Eagles ranked 12th in the NFL in points per play (.404), meaning the Eagles had an easier time scoring (on a per play basis) than Kyle Shanahan's 49ers and Derek Carr's Raiders. No team in the NFL had more explosive plays (20-plus yard passes, 10-plus yard runs) than the Eagles. And if you want to suggest that, perhaps, running the ball impacted the numbers in a misleading way, consider that the Eagles generated more explosive pass plays than the Justin Herbert-driven Chargers offense.
None of this should suggest the team was without flaws, including Hurts. Improvement is needed, both from the third-year quarterback and the roster around him. Time will tell on Hurts, but the roster (from Brown, to Zach Pascal as the No. 4 option, to increased offensive line depth) is more equipped to increase efficiency, not necessarily create more explosive plays.
Then there's the reality of today's game, which should be clear to all of us after watching Jonathan Gannon's defense last season. Deep throws are becoming a relic with defenses playing two deep safeties on so many plays. Throwing to freak athletes and allowing them to use space is now how smart passing offenses exploit these tendencies. The best way I can describe why worrying about how many times this Eagles offense "goes deep" in training isn't necessary: Patrick Mahomes, while putting up 378 yards passing and 42 points in one of the great shootouts in NFL playoff history, didn't attempt a single pass over 20 yards.
The Eagles offense was pretty good in 2021. That offense returns a third-year quarterback more familiar with the system, added a star pass catcher and hasn't had a full complement of left tackles or wide receivers in the first few weeks of camp. Worrying is natural in this city, especially when a season of expectations awaits. But the play-by-play worry about how this offense looks in training camp will be one of those things we think back and chuckle about when points are on the board this fall.
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