The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

When the season started, there was not much excitement around the Philadelphia Eagles. Outside of the buzz surrounding rookie wide receiver Devonta Smith, everyone assumed it would be a rebuilding year. The team was getting a full season of Jalen Hurts, after the small sample size of four games last season. New head coach Nick Sirianni took the reigns after Doug Pederson was let go following a disappointing season. It would have been a surprise if the team even won four games this year.

After the first seven weeks, it was a safe bet that the season was over. Their record stood at 2-5 after coming off a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and fans were screaming for Sirianni to start running the ball, as Miles Sanders had been getting minimal touches up to that point. A few days later while speaking to the media, Sirianni gave a speech that became a meme among Eagles fans across social media. He claimed to have shown a picture of a flower during a team meeting that week, saying that the results were not there but there was “growth under the soil.” It seemed awkward at first but it sparked a run for the rest of the season.

The following matchup saw them post their largest win of the season, a 44-6 annihilation of the Detroit Lions. After splitting their games in the month of November, an undefeated month of December put the Eagles in a win or go home situation in week 17 against the Washington Football Team. With the season on the line, safety Rodney McLeod secured a game-winning and essentially playoff-clinching interception of Taylor Heinicke in the end zone. With a dominant win by the Green Bay Packers later that night, everyone who wrote off Sirianni, Hurts, and the rest of the squad was now watching them enter the playoffs.

Unfortunately, the season did not the way the team wanted, with a swift defeat at the hands of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card game. There were a lot of positive takeaways once the dust settled, however. In a rebuilding year, the team made the playoffs, Devonta Smith broke the Eagles rookie record for receiving yards, and Jalen Hurts made the pro bowl for the first time in his young, blossoming career. With three first-round picks in this year’s upcoming draft, there are still many holes that need to be addressed. An aging defensive line with Brandon Graham coming off an ACL tear, an ineffective Fletcher Cox, and an underwhelming Derek Barnett need to be replenished immediately. The front seven is also incomplete with a lack of talented linebackers, which the front office has ignored for years. A rising star like Smith needs a solid wide receiver to pair up with as well. How General Manager Howie Roseman plans to address those issues remains to be seen, but as far as expectations go the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles will look to reload and build upon 2021’s wild card appearance.