Are Injuries The Culprit For Derailing The Eagles 2018 Season?
In his third season with the Eagles, Doug Pederson is entering Week 12 with a losing record for the first time in his short tenure as an NFL Head Coach. Injuries have been a theme of the season with 10 players currently on the Injured Reserve list after Tim Jernigan spent the first half of the season on IR along with Carson Wentz missing the first two games and Darren Sproles only appearing in one game this season. At 4-6 the Eagles hopes of making another Super Bowl run have been overrun by an under-performing offense and a defense that has been overwhelmed by injuries.
Philadelphia Daily News Sports Columnist Marcus Hayes joined Rich Quinones on Wednesday discussing how the Eagles injury issues have put Doug Pederson in a rough predicament this season:
"(Bill) Belichick has never had to face the kind of injury issues in consecutive years the way Doug (Pederson) has had to face. Belichick has never had one position decimated the way the Eagles’ defensive back position was decimated and thin to begin with....I’m not sure you can put that on him and Jim Schwartz asks his defensive backs to make plays once the quarterback is pressured and hit and moved off his spot. Again, Doug doesn’t coach defense and Haloti Ngata, he’s not the answer. Michael Bennett has been pretty good, Chris Long has been absent, Brandon Graham was hurt and the other thing is, the number one pick from last year, Derek Barnett has been hurt.....Look at all the resources they’ve spent, you go down to the offensive line and look at the money and draft picks they’ve spent on the offensive and defensive lines. They have the second highest paid Center, two of the top five highest paid tackles on offense, they have one of the top 10 highest paid at Right Guard on offense in Brandon Brooks - You have (Fletcher Cox) a 100 million dollar defensive tackle, you have (Brandon Graham) a 10 million dollar defensive end on one side - Those two units have to be your best units and they’re not....The team has eroded at this point, even an ordinary play by them makes the rest of this team so much worse.”
Hear what Hayes had to say about the impact of the departures of Frank Reich and John DeFilippo, Mike Groh's controversial comments, the Markelle Fultz situation, and more