Philadelphia Eagles: In-house complaints over “tanking” falling on deaf ears

Dear Philadelphia Eagles: Win more than 4 games and you don’t have to tank.

Heading into Sunday’s Week 17 matchup against the Washington Football Team, the objective for the Philadelphia Eagles was pretty darn simple. Rest most of your starters, get one last look at some of the team’s younger talent, and ultimately ensure a loss. Losing the matchup would see Philadelphia get the sixth overall pick in the 2021 draft, as opposed to slipping down to #9 with a meaningless win.

By throwing Nate Sudfeld out there late in the ballgame, Doug Pederson and the Eagles were able to ensure said defeat (despite Washington’s best efforts to blow the game themselves). Pretty much everyone in the world took fault with this approach from Philadelphia (more on that here), however I was especially confused when players on the actual Philadelphia Eagles roster started chirping up about the decision to “tank.”

Rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts (who finished the game with a 25.4 passer rating BTW) seemed visibly frustrated on the bench, Miles Sanders criticized the move on SportsRadio 94WIP Tuesday morning, rookie safety K’Von Wallace took to Twitter to air his grievances, and according to Jeff McLane of the Inquirer two members of the defense had to be “held back” from confronting Doug in the fourth quarter on Sunday.

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On a fundamental level – I get it. Players play to win the game, and a lot of guys are battling for their jobs out there. It’s frustrating for players to watch their coach “punt” the season away, draft position withstanding.

However (and this is a BIG however), a great way to ensure that your coach doesn’t “tank” towards the end of the season is by simply winning more football games earlier in the year. What a concept!

While the circumstances surrounding the Eagles were objectively *bad* this year (poor roster, poor coaching, poor QB play), the team – as a whole – played below expectations. The wide receiver production was abysmal, the offensive line couldn’t stay healthy, Miles Sanders himself had some drop/fumbling issues, the secondary (outside of Slay) couldn’t keep it together, and the LB room was one of the worst in the league.

Even the defensive line, a unit that looked elite for a majority of the season, disappeared entirely at times.

While the Eagles tanking plan against Washington has ascended to that of a national storyline, nobody was complaining about Philly being bad when they lost to the Football Team in Week 1, or when they tied Cincinnati… or even when they got blown out 37-17 by an Andy Dalton led Cowboys squad with the season on the line.

Ultimately speaking, this isn’t some sort of “hit piece” designed to criticize the Eagles players (I think we’ve all accepted the fact that they just weren’t a good team this year). However, it comes across as silly when a four win squad is publicly criticizing their coach/front office for prioritizing the future moving forward.

Don’t want the team to care about their draft position at the end of the season? The easy solution is to simply win more games next year.