Do NOT Read This!!!

      When I was ready to lower the boom against a team or a specific player, I would often picture myself driving into work that morning and hearing this my own squealing voice describe how dismal the prospects were for the Phillies or Eagles or Sixers or Flyers. Ugh. Who wants to hear that?

      But now I’m retired. Now I can express my feeling with no fear of losing ratings – and maybe even my job. That’s why I’m advising everyone who found my website to skip over what follows here. I present it now more as a reference point than a true prediction.

     In late October or early November, I will invite you to look back at what I am writing two days before the start of another Eagles season. Because I think I have a clear view of the 2024 team that you are hearing and reading almost nowhere else.

     The Eagles are going to disappoint their loyal fans like few teams that have preceded this one. They are a contender for the Super Bowl only through the rose-colored glasses of a sports media in Philadelphia that has never been softer.

     No, the Birds will not be going to the playoffs this season.

     Unless the league expands the post-season to include 5-12 teams.

     That’s right. The Eagles will win five games this season.

     They will lose the opener in Brazil on Friday nightdecisively. And then they will keep losing. Just the way they ended last season.

     For me at least, forecasting this Eagles season is a matter of simple logic. How can a team that was among the worst in the NFL the last seven games of last season become such a darling of the prognosticators again this year?

    There are several important questions that will determine the fate of the 2024 Eagles. The answers reveal the real story of this ridiculously overrated team.

     Have the Eagles fixed their broken pass defense?

     Remember, the were the worst team against the pass in the NFL the last two months of the regular season. They got burned repeatedly, with no apparent fixes. The long routes were a festival of penalties, the intermediate routes were basically unattended and the swing passes and other short stuff were lethal.

     Now, with the best defensive player, Haason Reddick, gone in a salary dispute and the reborn Fletcher Cox retired from the middle of the line, the Eagles are supposed to be much better?

     How? The line is more suspect than ever. The one major addition, DE Bryce Huff, is not even an every-down player. The linebackers are nondescript, as usual. And the defensive backs are either too old or too young.

     Have the Eagles figured out how to pick up the blitz yet?

     Fans forget that, with weeks to prepare, coach Nick Sirianni still managed to coach an offense that allowed 10 unmolested attacks by blitzers on Hurts in the 32-9 playoff loss to Tampa. Did the coach grow a brain since then?

     No, Sirianni saved his job by handing the offense over to coordinator Kellen Moore, a distinct upgrade but not nearly enough of one. After all, this is Moore’s third different team in seven years. He lasted all of one season in San Diego last year.

     The real issue here is that everyone saw how overwhelmed Hurts became when blitzed in the final games last season — and that was with a Hall of Fame center and world-class leader, Jason Kelce, snapping him the ball.

     Now we’re supposed to believe the blitz pickup will be much better without Kelce?

     Sorry, I don’t.

     Who is really making the big decisions on the Eagles?

     This is the biggest question of all because it addresses all of the problems that cropped up last year.

     I believe the awful coordinators who helped sink the Eagles were the choices of owner Jeff Lurie and GM Howie Roseman, and not their yes-man, Nick Sirianni.

     Lurie is about as popular an owner as the city has ever had, despite his tendency to pontificate and meddle. Roseman is, by all measures, a good accumulator of talent.

     But what are they really trying to accomplish here? They forced out their only Super Bowl-champion coach, Doug Pederson, after five years because he wanted to pick his own assistants. Then they picked a novice to take over.

     And now they have kept Sirianni for a fourth season even though he had zero answers for a team in freefall last year.

     Are Lurie and Roseman trying to win, or are they just trying to surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear? I think we all know the answer to that question.

    So there you have it. The Eagles are not going to win 11 or 12 or 13, like most of the bootlicking media types believe. They are the team you saw the last part of the 2023 season.

     This is going to be a very disappointing year.

     Mark my words and check back in a couple of months.

     I really hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.