Philadelphia Eagles: Team needs much more from Fletcher Cox

In a season full of issues for the Philadelphia Eagles, more attention should be paid to the play of All-Pro defensive tackle Fletcher Cox.

Carson Wentz has gotten the brunt of the fury from fans and media for the Philadelphia Eagles‘ disappointing season to date.

Other players have taken turns as lightning rods as well.

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But one key member of the Eagles has gotten off fairly lightly, despite disappointing results for much of the year: Fletcher Cox.

After being named to four straight Pro Bowls and reaching All-Pro status for the first time in 2018, this year has been a step backwards for the Eagles’ big man in the middle.

The numbers aren’t completely terrible, but the bar has been set, and this is not what the Eagles need from a player who it would not be crazy to say is on a Hall of Fame-trajectory. I even put him in the #5 slot among all Philadelphia professional athletes in the last decade.

That’s why it’s concerning to see him on pace for his fewest sacks and QB hits since 2014.

One argument that can be made in Cox’s favor is that he has had little to no help, and that’s true to an extent. In 2018, probably his best season to date, he received excellent support along the D-line from the likes of Chris Long and Michael Bennett.

But Long is climbing mountains in retirement, and Bennett is playing for about his 19th different team since the Eagles traded him, so Cox has had to deal with opposing offenses keying on him more than seemingly ever before.

You also have to wonder about the “chicken and the egg” scenario here.

Is the Eagles’ lack of QB pressure the reason that their secondary has been picked apart so much this year?

Or is the secondary so bad that opposing signal callers are never forced to hold the ball long enough for Cox and company to apply more pressure and send them to the turf?

As usual, it’s probably a little bit of both, and Cox has to be held at least partially accountable for that.

Quarterbacks are frequently measured simply by their ability to win games, even when they might not have all of the personnel they need surrounding them. The thinking goes that the best of the best will get it done, period. That’s exactly what Carson Wentz has had to deal with all season.

But shouldn’t the same methodology be applied to a supposedly elite defensive player like Cox to some degree? He doesn’t hold the ball on every play like a quarterback does, but he can’t continue to go for long stretches being completely neutralized as we’ve seen so frequently in 2019.

The best defensive linemen find ways to disrupt games and help their teams win. At the very least, they overwhelm opposing offenses so much that they open up golden opportunities for teammates even when they aren’t piling up the statistics themselves.

That hasn’t happened all too often for Cox this season.

Yet, like the entire team, there’s still time for Fletcher to turn things around in the final four games.

A strong finish this year may help put him back on track going forward as he continues his potential drive toward the Hall of Fame next year and beyond.