‘4 Downs’ with Rich: the Philadelphia Eagles’ Biggest Questions ahead of the ‘26 NFL Season

Four downs on the Philadelphia Eagles, your NFC East division champs, and the first one is the same problem it has been for half a decade.

First down: yet another new play caller. This is the fifth straight year the Eagles have a new one, and it is not just a team issue, it is a Jalen Hurts issue. Go back to the day he walked onto campus at Alabama and the only coordinator he has ever had in back-to-back years is Shane Steichen in 2021 and 2022. That is the whole list. Every other year, the play caller leaves to run a team somewhere, so congratulations in advance to Sean Mannion. Every year a new set of eyes, and the same question, which is whether Philadelphia can catch the jet stream it caught two years ago on the way to the Super Bowl. The reports are encouraging. Hurts is faster, slimmer, maybe under center more, whatever that turns out to mean. The tush push is still there. Nobody knows how any of it works until it is on tape.

Second down: the defense. Everyone is talking about getting the 2024 offense back, but the defense dropped off last year too. Jihaad Campbell might have the green dot now that Nakobe Dean has landed in Las Vegas. Riq Woolen joins a secondary that already has Cooper DeJean. Up front there are two massive tackles in a freshly paid Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, and Zach Baun is another green dot candidate. Vic Fangio is pleading the fifth and having fun, which is what he does. The talent is big and fast. The results have to follow.

Third down: A.J. Brown is gone, so can the Eagles actually operate without drama? Or is drama the oxygen in that building? Every year adversity hits, somebody says something, and invariably it traced back to Brown reading a book at his locker or starting a week of coverage about his relationship with the quarterback. Brown has said he would say things just to stir it up because that is what the team needed. Now he is gone, and the head coach either has his finger squarely on the pulse or he is playing whack-a-mole with leaks.

Fourth down: it is Jalen Hurts all the time, time and again. He has played some of his best football in the biggest games this franchise has played, and it still does not seem to count. He is either the problem, never healthy enough, or he is the perfect quarterback for this city. He will never turn a four-alarm fire into a five-alarm fire. He will give you something that sounds like it came out of a fortune cookie and then go be intensely prepared.

TJ is not an Eagles guy and could not have been clearer about the disconnect. He does not understand the narrative, does not understand why Hurts is not considered one of the best quarterbacks in football, and pointed out that when Hurts makes a top 10 list he is at the bottom of it. "The best player in both Super Bowls," TJ said. Probably should have two Super Bowl MVP awards.

Rich had Hurts eighth on his own top 10, which at least got him on the list. Jeremy Fowler's did not include him at all.

The rest of the story lines are real too. Saquon Barkley bouncing back matters, because half of 2,000 yards is a falloff. The offensive line has to stay healthy. Somebody has to take over for Brown, and while DeVonta Smith is a legitimate No. 1, the depth behind him runs through Quez Watkins and Makai Lemon.

Still, it is Jalen Hurts, all the time and time again.