Can Eagles’ offense achieve something it hasn’t done in 75 years? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Last time the Eagles led the NFL in scoring, Tommy Thompson was the quarterback, Steve Van Buren the running back, Jack Ferrante and Pete Pihos the receivers, and they were unstoppable.
The 1949 Eagles averaged 30.3 points per game, most in the NFL. Two TDs came on defense and two in the return game, so the offense averaged 28.0 points per game. Either way you measure it, Greasy Neale’s group was the highest-scoring team in the NFL.
They haven’t been since.
The Eagles ranked second in scoring under Shane Steichen in the 2022 Super Bowl season with, and they’ve ranked third a few times – in 1990 in Randall Cunningham’s record-setting season, in 2010 under Michael Vick, in 2014 with Chip Kelly and in the 2017 championship season under Doug Pederson and Frank Reich.
But it’s been 75 years since they’ve had the highest-scoring offense in the NFL.
The only team that’s gone longer than the Eagles without leading the league in scoring is the Cards, who were most recently No. 1 in 1948 – the year they lost to the Eagles in the NFL Championship Game at Shibe Park.
Last year, even with what Nick Sirianni called a “stale” offense and a disastrous last month and a half of the season, they still ranked seventh in scoring at 25.5 points per year. As late as Week 13, they were 4th at 27.4 per game.
Which speaks volumes about some of the talent on the roster. Jason Kelce is gone, and that’s significant, but every other offensive starter is back.
Could this be the year the Eagles end three-quarters of a century of frustration and finish as the No. 1 offense in the league?
Why not?
The Eagles’ offense has no weaknesses.
Skill guys? A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are one of the top WR duos in the league, along with Miami’s Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and Tampa’s Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. And Jahan Dotson gives the Eagles a legit third WR for the first time since Jason Avant a decade ago. Jalen Hurts has been among the MVP leaders late in each of the last two seasons. Dallas Goedert is fifth in yards per target and sixth in yards per game among all NFL tight ends since 2019. And Saquon Barkley’s 99 scrimmage yards per game is 5th-highest in the league since his rookie year of 2018. And there aren’t many No. 2 running backs better than Kenny Gainwell.
Up front? There are questions marks. Without Kelce, the Eagles will have new starters at center with Cam Jurgens and right guard with Mekhi Becton. But they have multiple Pro Bowlers at right tackle with Lane Johnson and left guard with Landon Dickerson and a borderline all-pro at left tackle with Jordan Mailata. Jurgens was hand-picked by Kelce as his successor, and Becton was a top-12 pick just four years ago. And as long as Jeff Stoutland is running the operation, this o-line will be elite.
The biggest change on offense is the addition of Kellen Moore, who gives the Eagles an experienced play caller with a track record of success. In his four years in Dallas, the Cowboys ranked second to the Chiefs in total yards, yards per play and first downs and fourth in points.
Those Cowboys teams had a ton of talent, but so do these Eagles.
The key to everything is Hurts, who has played at an MVP level for much of the last two seasons, although he struggled late last year – like everyone else on the roster.
From the middle of 2021 through the middle of 2023, the Eagles were 27-2 when Hurts started, and he had 43 passing TDs, 26 rushing touchdowns and 16 interceptions in those 29 games. The last seven weeks last year the Eagles were 1-6, and Hurts had six passing TDs, four rushing TDs and five INTs.
Hurts is coming off a very impressive training camp, and a return to form will make this team very difficult to slow down.
Moore has promised a unit that’s more inventive, more varied, more unpredictable, more multiple than what we saw in 2023 under Brian Johnson, and with this talent, that could be a lethal combination.
A focus in training camp has been preparing his group to beat the blitz, something that killed the Eagles the second half of last year.
Will Moore be worth the few points per game the Eagles need to land on top of the NFL scoring heap for the first time since Harry S. Truman was President?
If the Eagles can reduce the turnovers and the defense can deliver the offense the ball in better field position and Hurts can recapture his magic of 2022, there’s no reason this can’t be a 30 points-per-game offense. In fact, it would be disappointing if they’re not.
There are some other very good offenses in the NFL. The Chiefs are always going to be explosive as long as Andy Reid is the coach and Patrick Mahomes the quarterback. The Cowboys, 49ers, Ravens, Lions and Bills are loaded on the offensive side of the ball. There are a bunch of impressive young quarterbacks who could take their teams to the next level.
But there’s only one team that has Hurts, Brown, Smith, Dotson, Goedert, Barkley, Gainwell, Mailata, Dickerson, Jurgens, Becton and Johnson.
Good luck stopping them.
