Alas, the 2020 Philadelphia Eagles season is upon us.

The Flyers are done, the Sixers are done, and the Birds are once again on top, sitting above the Phillies and Union on the unofficial Philadelphia sporting depth chart.

Admittedly, there wasn’t much juice for the Birds throughout the summer, and that can perhaps be attributed to the funky schedule we ended up with due to COVID-19. With no minicamp, no preseason games, and limited media availability, the typical Eagles news cycle was less like Face the Nation and more like a Hatfield city council meeting. Add in the saturation of Flyers and Sixers games taking place in July and August and the Birds found themselves in an atypically-crowded sports market.

But with the season beginning on Sunday, the excitement should be there. You should start to feel a tingly sensation in the arms and legs, as the temperature drops and pumpkin spice permeates the air. Eagles football is back, and here are ten things to look forward to and ten things to worry about when the Birds kick off against Washington on Sunday.

10 things to look forward to

  1. Darius Slay should be the best cornerback the Eagles have had in years. They have not have a bona fide, #1, lockdown type of corner on this team in a very long time.
  2. Miles Sanders has a chance to put up huge numbers in his sophomore season. I think all of the Carson Wentz and injury talk from 2019 really overshadowed the campaign Sanders put up, when he went for 1,327 scrimmage yards as a rookie.
  3. Surgically-repaired DeSean Jackson can be a huge difference maker if he can stay healthy. We all know what he did to the Redskins in week one last season.
  4. Nine of the Eagles’ ten draft picks from April made the team. We knew this was a roster that needed to get younger, and even though there might be a learning curve for a lot of these guys, an infusion of fresh blood was overdue.
  5. Greg Ward is a good slot receiver and he should be starting the season in that position. That’s a positive story after his late-season surge in 2019.
  6. The Eagles’ new offensive setup, without a proper coordinator, is intriguing and mirrors the approach taken by Kyle Shanahan and a number of college teams. Swapping out Mike Groh for Rich Scangarello and making some promotions from within should help get the offense going again.
  7. Javon Hargrave was a beast for the Steelers and when he gets healthy, the combo of him and Fletcher Cox will be nasty. The Eagles’ defensive line is always a strength and always fun to watch.
  8. Similarly, Jalen Reagor is not fully healthy, but he really does have explosive playmaking ability, and I’m telling you straight-up that he had very poor quarterback play during his 2nd and 3rd seasons at TCU. We should all be excited for his return.
  9. For all of the disappointment over Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox really was a solid draft pick and he’ll finally have the opportunity to play a defined position, as he starts on the outside opposite of Slay.
  10. The division still kind of stinks. Dallas has a lot of talent but continues to underachieve, and all three NFC East opponents are breaking in new coaches, coaches who didn’t get to have a proper preseason because of COVID-19. The Birds should be ahead of the curve here.

 

10 things to worry about

  1. When Carson Wentz throws his first bad pass, 50% of Philadelphia will be calling for Jalen Hurts. We may have moved beyond the “Foles vs. Wentz” thing, but Carson will always have his detractors and they will simply call for the #2 quarterback to replace him, whomever that may be.
  2. Jalen Reagor and Jalen Hurts were your #1 and #2 picks in the draft, but the former is injured and the latter won’t play Sunday unless Wentz gets injured, or they do some Taysom Hill-esque gadgety bullshit.
  3. The injury situation is already depressing, with 40% of the offensive line out for the season. Will Parks is on IR and more than a dozen guys had some sort of issue that caused them to miss practice time this summer.
  4. Jason Peters, now playing left tackle, will inevitably leave the field at some point. He played 75% of the snaps last year and 80% of the snaps in the season prior.
  5. The receiver situation still looks iffy. Alshon Jeffery isn’t available. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside is an unknown. John Hightower looks promising, but he’s a rookie. Zach Ertz is going to have to be vintage Zach Ertz in the early part of the season.
  6. If the receiver situation is “iffy,” then the linebacking situation is a HUGE question mark. It’s easily the most concerning unit on the entire team, though if you’re looking for a silver lining, the Eagles typically sit in nickel for most of the game, so you’re only going to need two of these guys to step up and grab starting jobs. The third LB won’t log as many snaps.
  7. Jalen Mills to safety is interesting, but he’s got huge shoes to fill in Malcolm Jenkins. Beyond him, K’Von Wallace is a rookie, Parks is injured, and then you’ve got Marcus Epps and Rudy Ford rounding out the depth chart.
  8. Josina Anderson is no longer at ESPN but could potentially land a new gig and bless us with more anonymously-sourced locker room drama.
  9. The Cowboys and some other southern/central teams might have a home field advantage because those states are allowing a portion of fans to actually be in the stadiums. In Philadelphia, local government put the kibosh on fans, meaning the Birds are playing in an empty Lincoln Financial Field.
  10. With football starting, you’re going to have to listen to friends, family, and your co-workers talk about their fantasy lineup again. For 10 straight weeks.

 

That’s about it. Let’s get it back to the Eagles full-time as we prepare for the WASHINGTON FOOTBALL TEAM on Sunday afternoon. Birds win the game 27-17 behind a big game from Zach Ertz and a Darius Slay pick-six.