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Why the Conservative Eagles No Longer Need to Obsess Over Winning the Turnover Battle
By Nick Piccone
Published:
Since coming out of the bye in 2024, the Philadelphia Eagles’ strategy on offense has been pretty clear – don’t turn the ball over.
It’s easy to say, but much more difficult to put into practice. To the Birds’ credit, they did an incredible job taking care of the football after a horrendous beginning to a 2024 season that saw eight turnovers in their first four games (four interceptions, four lost fumbles) before their bye week. Afterward, the Eagles only coughed it up seven times total the rest of the regular season, going nine games without a single turnover. Jalen Hurts’ interception early in Super Bowl LIX would be their only playoff turnover.
There were many factors for why this happened. Lane Johnson said he went to Nick Sirianni and suggested they run the ball more. Whatever offensive philosophy they had planned for 2024 was now changed to run, run, run, which led Saquon Barkley to 2,005 yards. It also led the Eagles to the NFC East title. Barkley rushed for 199, 205, and 118 yards against the Packers, Rams, and Commanders, respectively, before amassing only 57 yards on the ground on 25 carries against the Chiefs. Jalen Hurts helped out with 72 yards on the ground in Super Bowl LIX and 221 yards in the air.
Hurts rushed 150 times for 630 yards in the 2024 regular season. Not only was he running more, but he was protecting the ball more during those rushes, as well. In 2025, that number dropped to 105 rushes for 421 yards.
Of course, Hurts was injured during a run against the Bears in 2022 and against the dirty Commanders in 2024. He’s gotten popped numerous times while rushing, and it was clear Hurts didn’t want to make that a big part of his game in 2025. Or, was it Sirianni that didn’t? Kevin Patullo? We might never know:
What’s clear is that the offensive philosophy didn’t change in 2025 when it probably should have. Many of us thought the bye week would bring about an offensive rebirth for the second half of the season, but it didn’t happen.
The offensive line was injured a good portion of the season. Barkley was not finding his usual lanes. Hurts was not finding his receivers open often, as the opposing defense could cover those routes with their eyes closed. The offense was shook and could never get on track. Now we’re left with trade questions surrounding A.J. Brown, no replacement for Dallas Goedert, and offensive line depth that hinges on the health of Johnson, Cam Jurgens, and Landon Dickerson.
It’s hard to ask for a different offensive philosophy when it won a championship the year prior. But football is all about adjustments, and it was clear that the league adjusted to the Eagles’ adjustments, leaving it up to the Eagles to once again adjust in 2025 and stay ahead of the curve.
They didn’t.
We watched Josh Allen turn the ball over four times against the Denver Broncos and come within centimeters of a victory if Brandin Cooks survives the ground with possession. C.J. Stroud threw four picks against the Patriots and the Texans were within one score heading into the fourth quarter in their divisional round match-up.
The Seattle Seahawks, who are hosting the NFC Championship Game, finished -3 this season in turnovers. The 49ers were -6 with the easiest schedule in the league and made it to the divisional round. The AFC Championship Game host Broncos finished the regular season -3 as well. The New York Football Giants, meanwhile, finished the season -2. Two teams that were eliminated this past weekend, the Bears and Texans, were +22 and +17 respectively, first and second in the league.
The Eagles were seventh in the league at +6 and finished +2 in the San Francisco playoff game while putting up 19 points at home and losing anyway.
It does seem like during the Eagles’ three-game losing streak to the Cowboys, Bears, and Chargers, that they were trying different things offensively. But they blew a 21-0 lead in Dallas after their different stuff worked too well, lost to the Bears despite A.J. Brown’s 132 receiving yards, and lost to the Chargers in overtime as Hurts had his worst game of the season.
I’ve been a fan of the conservative offensive philosophy, but after this season I think it’s clear it’s an unsustainable model with the offensive talent on the roster. Whether A.J. Brown is here or not in the fall is irrelevant. His complaining in the media and on social media was rooted in truth, but it was clearly not enough for Kevin Patullo and Sirianni to shift their conservative approach, not only after getting a lead, but on third down especially. The tush push not being as crisp this season might have played into it a little bit, but every game was maddening to watch after momentum was killed by the Eagles themselves. It almost felt like they were self-sabotaging by calling some of those plays when they had the lead. It became cowardly, and as defending Super Bowl Champions, it became embarrassing to watch.
The huge issue I had with this is that the Eagles had a defense that could withstand turnovers here and there. They wouldn’t make or break the game if the offensive philosophy was different enough that opposing defense didn’t know exactly what was coming. It’s not 2023. Vic Fangio’s defense is actually good. If their philosophy is to control time of possession and keep the D fresh, they probably shouldn’t have felt comfortable enough to punt on third and long two minutes after the drive begins.
Hell, Hurts was turning the ball over at an alarming rate in the beginning of 2024 and the defense was still getting acclimated to Fangio’s scheme while still getting healthy. In 2025, the Eagles went from a run-heavy team to a let’s-hope-our-defense-bails-us-out-again team, and that’s without giving your highest-paid playmakers opportunities to make plays. By the time Brown was targeted heavily in games, he was mentally checked out. The drops in the 49ers game notwithstanding, the guy never looked locked in even on plays where he was the primary read. That’s why the noise this offseason is loud that they could move on from him, cap casualties be damned.
In today’s NFL, turnovers are not as dangerous as they once were. There are more creative minds than ever on both sides of the ball, so is the best way to move forward to continue playing scared and “taking what the defense gives us” or making the defense adjust to what you’re doing on offense? It’s not like it’s some new concept either way. It worked in 2024 because players were executing and Hurts was using his legs more. If he’s not willing to run, the offense needs to dip into creativity and figure out better routes that defenses aren’t accustomed to seeing on a weekly basis. If it’s truly a collaborative effort, why does it look like nobody’s on the same page on the field? Relying on talent clearly didn’t work out this year. The league changes year after year. What worked last year might not work this year. What worked last week might not work this week.
I’m not suggesting the Eagles need to turn into a pass-heavy offense. At the very least, they need to give defenses looks that they haven’t seen on film. That’s a start. Keeping defenses guessing is the mark of a good offense, and even if the Eagles want to continue the predictable model and just hope players execute, it’s a lot harder to execute against an opposing player that knows exactly what’s coming vs. a defensive player having to think about more than one thing at a time. We saw a most vanilla offense that had people convinced was a plan to not show any teams anything on film that could be used as a competitive advantage.
If Sirianni is comfortable enough to call a draw on third and long, there’s no reason why he can’t ask Hurts to throw a bomb here and there, and if it’s picked off, tip your cap. It usually will result in the same change in field position as a punt would have. Are we really worried about Hurts’ touchdown-to-interception ratio at this point? There are plenty of quarterbacks in the league that would take his stats and a championship over their own. Just don’t tell their fans that.
There’s always an opportunity to grow. The players seem to love Sirianni, so I don’t think he’s going anywhere any time soon. You’d hope that whoever becomes offensive coordinator for this team will have a better feel for the game than the previous one. And, of course, that’s an extension of Sirianni. He’s made some wild calls in his tenure as Eagles head coach that left us scratching our heads multiple times. So it’s not just on the OC. You’d hope by now Sirianni would have learned a few lessons, but an embarrassing loss against the depleted 49ers at home shows there certainly weren’t enough. But a championship always buys time. I just hope it’s time the Eagles can afford.
Nick Piccone has covered Philly sports and events for over 14 years with various outlets, including PhillyVoice and Philly Influencer. In 2015, he co-launched the Straight Shooters Wrestling Podcast. He's also a producer for Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia and the Villanova Sports Radio Network. He grew up in South Philadelphia and South Jersey, and is a graduate of Neumann University. Contact: picconenick@gmail.com