Philadelphia Eagles bold predictions for 2024 NFL season
After taking a pretty serious tumble from their 2022 heights over the course of the 2023 season, with the team struggling to overcome the losses of both offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, the Philadelphia Eagles find themselves at a crossroads heading into the 2024 NFL season.
If the team plays well, capitalizing on their wealth of talent, deep roster, and sizable pool of assets from which to make a mid-season trade, they could be right back in the Super Bowl and thus, continue to build on one of the more formidable foundations in the NFL right now.
But if they struggle? Well, Nick Sirianni will probably lose his job, more than a few veteran stalwarts may follow him out the door, and Howie Roseman will have to effectively start from square one, building a new ecosystem to capitalize on Jalen Hurt’s prime.
A challenging proposition? You bet, but hey, there’s little reason to feel doom and gloom in Eagles country, as the team has the potential to be one of the best in the NFL once more, even if that success could ultimately lead to more problems down the line.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
1. Saquon Barkley will play 16 regular season games
If there’s one reason why the New York Giants didn’t re-sign Saquon Barkley to remain their franchise player, it’s his injury history.
Sure, GM Joe Schoen mentioned his age, and how he wanted to allocate assets to other positions during his borderline-disastrous time on the offseason edition of Hard Knocks, but when it comes right down to it, most teams will pay up a little extra for a player of Barkley’s caliber when they will almost certainly get that money back on endorsements, jersey sales, and public appearance fees.
Giving an eight-figure-per-year contract to a running back who isn’t consistently available, however, is the easiest way for a GM like Schoen to lose their job, and as a result, Barkley is now a member of the Eagles, where he has the potential to take Philly’s run game to heights previously unimaginable even at the height of the Michael Vick-LeSean McCoy era.
Bold prediction number 1? Barkley plays 16 games during the 2024 regular season, with his lone absence coming in Week 18 to keep him fresh for the playoffs.
Why? Easy, because unlike in New York, the Eagles really don’t need Barkley to be “the guy,” as they have a proven backup in Kenneth Gainwell, who can do just about anything in the offense as a proper backup and a very exciting rookie option in Will Shipley who has earned nothing but rave reviews for his efforts so far this summer. While it may feel antithetical to sign a running back to a massive contract only to play him less than his former team, if the Eagles want to get the most out of Barkley at the end of his contract, they need to optimize his snaps right out of the gate in order to get him producing efficiently, as opposed to an attrition march to 1,000 yards.
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2. Kellen Moore will land a head coaching job in 2025
Unless things take a horrible turn that makes 2023 look like a successful season, it’s safe to assume that Kellen Moore will have the Eagles’ offense humming in 2024.
He has a true blue franchise quarterback who has been an MVP contender – at least for a time – in each of the last two seasons, a top-5 running back, and arguably the best 1-2-3 wide receiver punch in the entire NFL, with intriguing young players like Johnny Wilsona and Britain Covey who could turn heads as surprising pass-catching options coming off of the proverbial bench.
Factor in a massive offensive line with four returning starters and a former top-11 pick added to sure up the right guard position, and there’s almost no excuse for Moore not to deliver Philadelphia its first top-5 offense since 2022.
What happened in 2022? Oh yeah, the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl.
But in the NFL, when a team finds great success, the vultures start to circle. And when a team’s head coach isn’t also the architect of their offense, which Nick Sirianni isn’t, it can lead to situations like 2023, where the wrong person is selected to replace a bright offensive mind, with disappointing results quickly following.
If the Eagles offense looks incredible in 2024, with the trio of AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Jahan Dotson looking elite, the run game looking unstoppable, and Hurts right back in the hunt for MVP honors, there will undoubtedly be some team – if not multiple teams – that will want in on that action and will offer Moore a chance to run his own team as a head coach.
Now granted, there have been a few offensive coordinators who have bypassed head coaching gigs to stick with what’s working, as Bobby Sloak decided to stay with the Houston Texans as their offensive coordinator when he could have taken a head coaching gig this cycle but if his team succeeds again in 2024, it’s safe to assume he will be gone next spring all the same. If the Eagles succeed, Moore will be an in-demand head coach somewhere, and if that opportunity doesn’t come in Philadelphia, it will surely be available elsewhere.
The post Philadelphia Eagles bold predictions for 2024 NFL season appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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