PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As the 2020 Eagles' season comes to an end, players and coaches are trying to figure out what went wrong.
The Eagles will be the only NFC East team not in contention on Sunday, the final day of the regular season. It has been a difficult year for Doug Pederson and his players, who enter their season finale with a record of 4-10-1.
Pederson was asked to assess what may have been the reason for the disappointing season. While every team was forced to deal with challenges related to the pandemic, Pederson admitted an additional set of challenges was not having everyone in the building ahead of the season.
"I know all 32 teams had the same off-season structure," he acknowledged. "We all had to abide by the same rules and do the same things. Speaking about our guys on our team, we love the off-season — that's where we can build. I think every team can say they can build their foundation toward the season and then, of course, getting into training camp."
The Eagles did not have the opportunity for off-season team building. Coronavirus restrictions continued through the fall, and more time was spent meeting through the power of technology.
Pederson doesn't use the situation as an excuse for the Eagles' problems this year, nor the team's large number of injuries. He said he just wants to find a way to keep his team healthier heading into 2021.
"I'm not going to sit here and make any excuses either," he continued. "We've got four wins to our belt, and it's not good enough. That's the disappointing side of this whole thing. I look back on it and I look at the injuries, and that's something we've got to talk about in the off-season. We've got to discuss that and see if I need to change up practice or if I need to maybe practice harder or be more physical in training camp."
As for the players, there is still one more game left in 2020. Their season will end Sunday night regardless of the outcome.
Some fans actually wouldn't mind seeing the Eagles lose a game, which is meaningless in the standings. A loss would give the Eagles a higher draft pick in 2021, but Brandon Graham said the players will be doing all they can to end the season on a high note.
"We've (got) to end this thing off with a good taste in our mouth, at least," said Graham. "I understand it's a business at the end of the day, but when we're on that field, we're putting our career and life on the line each and every time."
There will be changes in the off-season and likely a shake-up of the roster. Graham hopes he and his teammates will learn from their mistakes in 2020 and get back in contention in 2021.
"We as players got to take it on ourselves to know that we've got to go out there and we've got to execute," Graham said. "We've got to learn from situations like this, seasons like this going into next year."
