Eagles Can’t Let Bad Division, Injuries Cloud Judgment
The Philadelphia Eagles have lost four consecutive games to drop to 2-4. Despite the team’s slow start, the Eagles remain just one game out of first place in the NFC East, in the win column. Philadelphia’s roster has also been decimated by injuries in 2026. Yet Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman can’t let a bad division and injuries cloud their judgment moving forward.
Following a disappointing offensive performance last season, the Eagles went all-in on a new-look offense in 2026. Philadelphia wanted to embrace the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan-esque scheme with first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion running the show. The shift required some reshuffling among the coaching staff, which eventually led to the team parting ways with legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland.
While the offensive overhaul seemed necessary at the time, it has proven to be an absolute nightmare through the first six weeks of the regular season. It seems like Mannion is in way over his head and his lack of experience, combined with Philadelphia’s injury situation has created quite a mess. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni lacks the offensive mind to save Mannion and things are quickly getting out of control.
Despite the Eagles bringing in other offensive minds like Josh Grizzard and Jerrod Johnson this offseason, it seems like Mannion has been resistant to change behind the scenes. Bo Wulf of the PHLY Eagles Podcast shared an interesting nugget earlier last week. “I have heard some rumblings that some people think Mannion is being a little bit too bullheaded in trying to run the offense he wants to run and not necessarily adjusting to the talent that he has,” Wulf said.
That’s a massive problem and something that Lurie or Roseman might have to step-in and address if Sirianni refuses to do so. Although it’s worth noting that Sirianni said that everything is on the table following Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Panthers. “To do the same thing over and over again and not get the results, that’d be foolish,” Sirianni said. “Everything’s on the table of what we need to do to be able to put points on the board.”
It’s going to be interesting to see how Sirianni handles this situation moving forward. Will he hand the play calling duties to Grizzard? Will he possibly take over the play calling duties himself? We’ll see. But to just sit back and let Mannion continue to run under center play action and all of these looks that clearly aren’t working would be a massive mistake. While he has gotten away with doing so in the past, I don’t believe that Sirianni can get away with it again.
There are some that will point to the team’s injuries on offense as a key contributing factor to their struggles. Yet Philadelphia’s offense also struggled when healthy earlier in the regular season. I can’t stop thinking about what Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson did with third-string quarterback Case Keenum starting against the Eagles in Week 3. That was the perfect example of a head coach finding solutions on offense and putting his players in position to succeed — something that Sirianni has been unable to do this season.
Lurie and Roseman aren’t blind. They see how the Eagles have fallen apart offensively whenever the team doesn’t have a proven offensive coordinator. At a certain point, that has to fall on Sirianni. Despite his winning percentage as a head coach and overall success, this endless cycle of offensive mediocrity simply isn’t sustainable. It eventually creeps down to the players and that’s exactly what we’re seeing unfold in 2026.
Following Sunday’s loss to the Panthers, Eagles left tackle and first-year team captain Jordan Mailata publicly questioned the “want to” of his teammates. If Sirianni is going to be a CEO head coach, he can’t afford to have one of the leaders on his team questioning the effort and mindset of his teammates. In my opinion, that shows that there is a deeper problem in Philadelphia and it all starts with Sirianni at the top of the food chain.
Through the first six weeks of the regular season, all of the signs are there of a dysfunctional team. The Eagles rank near the bottom of the NFL in nearly every statistical category on offense. Philadelphia’s defense is also starting to struggle as the offense is unable to sustain a single drive. The Eagles are starting to burst at the seams and it should lead to an offseason of massive changes in the City of Brotherly Love.
Yet given all of the team’s injuries and how bad the NFC East is, there’s a chance that Phil Swift might pop up and spray some Flex Seal in the form of a division title to mask all of Philadelphia’s problems. Lurie and Roseman need to be smart enough to identify the root of the team’s issues and completely revamp the coaching staff in 2027. They’ve invested far too much money into this roster to consistently have it held back by a head coach that struggles to find answers.
Roseman has armed himself with plenty of resources to use over the next two offseasons, especially in the 2028 NFL Draft. Despite the team’s prior success with Sirianni leading the charge, they can’t afford to usher in a new era with him at the helm. The Eagles will have plenty of difficult decisions to make over the next year or two — but the answer to one of those questions has become abundantly clear through the first six weeks of the regular season.