With the 2020 season fading fast, here are three positions the Philadelphia Eagles need to address this offseason.
While the Philadelphia Eagles entered this season with incredibly high expectations, reality is quickly setting in across the Delaware Valley that this is simply not the year for our beloved Birds. While frustrating, the silver lining in a season like this one is the fact that you can begin to identify the areas where the team needs to improve. Unfortunately, there are a number of positions that the Eagles could afford to upgrade this offseason.
Here are the three that seem to stick out the most:
Disclaimer: This list is in no particular order
3. Linebacker
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Look, it is no secret that for whatever reason, the Philadelphia Eagles do not value the linebacker position. This past year in the NFL Draft, they shocked everybody when they actually selected Davion Taylor, a linebacker in the third round (103rd overall.)
Even more surprising? Taylor has played FOURTEEN defensive snaps through the first ten weeks of the NFL season. Great return on a third round pick! But seriously, the Eagles complete negligence to the linebacker position is astounding.
Davion Taylor was the Birds’ first linebacker selected in the draft since the team took Nathan Gerry in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft. Gerry wasn’t even a linebacker coming out of college! Even though the teams plan was to bulk him up to play there, he was technically a safety in his college playing days. Taylor was also the first linebacker the team drafted in the third round or higher since Jordan Hicks back in 2015; and you have to go back even further, try Mychal Kendricks in 2012 to locate the last linebacker they took in either rounds 1 or 2. Yeah, not great!
The negligence of the position has finally caught up to the Eagles, as they have received just flat out awful play from their linebackers this season. The prime example of this is how the team decided to continuously run Nathan Gerry out there, playing well over 90% of the snaps each week until he was injured in Week 7. To put into perspective how bad he was, when dropping into coverage, quarterbacks were 27 for 32 when targeting Gerry for 257 yards, four touchdowns, and a passer rating of 139.7.
Granted, he has been out since Week 7, but he was awful nonetheless. Alex Singleton and T.J Edwards have filled in admirally, but they should not be counted on as two starting linebackers for a team that entered the season with aspirations of winning another Super Bowl. Simply put, linebacker should be right near the top of the list of positions to address this offseason for the Philadelphia Eagles front office.