Breaking down what has gone most right in the Eagles 2024 season

When the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Carolina Panthers in Week 14, their winning streak extended to nine games, which ties the franchise record. That’s pretty impressive given where they were 365 days prior. 

That was the Friday after the Eagles lost to the 49ers. Big Dom DiSandro was ejected, the entire defense was exposed (Sean Desai would be demoted eight days later), and it was the beginning of a winter from hell. A whole lot has gone right for the team to put that in the rearview mirror and get to where they are now.

The Eagles bolstered the offense and turned defensive weaknesses into strengths.

The 2024 Eagles will be remembered for a lot of things by a lot of people, but the one thing that Giants fans and Eagles fans will remember the most is that this was the year Saquon actually reached his full potential. 

Saquon Barkley is worth every penny

When the Eagles signed Saquon Barkley in free agency, a lot of the thoughts were, ‘Okay, that’s sick. He’s awesome, he’s going to be playing behind the best offensive line he’s ever played behind, and he’s going to make the offense a lot more fun to watch… but $12.5 million a year is a whole lot to pay a 27-year old running back going into his seventh season.’ Boy, was that last part wrong. 

You could argue that he’s underpaid and you would win that argument. He came to a new team and immediately became the best in the world at his job. It could not have gone better so far. 

It’s also nice to see him escape the metaphorical prison he was in with the Giants. He didn’t do a whole lot of winning there, and that’s all he wants to do now that he’s on a team that can win.

He’s everything the Eagles paid for and more, and he couldn’t have done what he’s done so far without the absolute units who block for him.

The offensive line has not taken a step backward without Jason Kelce

A big question going into the season was about how the offensive line would look without future Hall-of-Famer Jason Kelce. This was the first time offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland managed a unit without Kelce; Was Kelce the key to Stoutland University's success? Could the Brotherly Shove work without Jason? Jalen will have to call protections now, is that going to work? 

It turns out that everything’s totally chill. Cam Jurgens slid over from right guard to center and Mekhi Becton is working perfectly at right guard. Stout’s still the best offensive line coach in the NFL. The Brotherly Shove is as successful as ever. Jalen’s doing a good job learning and calling protections.

We had become so used to the offensive line (while healthy) consistently being awesome and having a floor of the fifth-best line in the league. The fact that they lost the player who was the anchor, leader, and linchpin of the group, only to still be a top-three offensive line is ridiculous. 

They’re giving Jalen a million years to throw and are a HUGE part of why Saquon is the franchise single-season rushing yards record holder/ league rushing yards leader/ future Offensive Player of the Year/ potential MVP. 

Jeff Stoutland is a demigod. NFL Films just did a feature on him. It’s only eight minutes long; you have the time to watch it and you’ll want to.

The rookies are awesome

The Eagles drafted nine players in the 2024 draft. Five of those players (Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Jalyx Hunt, Will Shipley, and Johnny Wilson) have played meaningful snaps. The three players that have been standouts are Q, Cooper, and Jalyx.

Jalyx Hunt (third-round, pick 94) has been playing much, much more than anyone probably thought he would in his rookie season. He was billed as a developmental player who went from being a safety at Cornell to a defensive lineman at Houston Christian. The thought was that he’d have to take some time to become a usable player. That’s not the case.

Per Next Gen Stats, in the 11 games before Bryce Huff went on IR, he played 6.5% of the defensive snaps, on average. In the three games since Huff went on IR, he’s been playing 47.8% of the defensive snaps.

He’s playing well, and he hasn’t been a liability. He’s only played a total of 137 snaps and he has 1.5 sacks, four quarterback pressures, and a pressure rate of 6%. For context, Josh Sweat has a pressure rate of 10.5%.

If Cooper DeJean (second-round, pick 40) was the Eagles' first-round pick and they didn’t get Quinyon Mitchell, you would be ecstatic given how well he’s doing. 

He started at Nickel Corner after the bye week and immediately was a mega upgrade over Avonte Maddox. Also Per Next Gen Stats, he’s played 219 coverage snaps in the slot without allowing a touchdown which is the fourth-most in the league, and he’s only allowing 4.9 yards per target. 

That’s all small bananas compared to what he does to the structure of the defense. He has the body of a linebacker which has allowed the Eagles to play with nickel personnel at a really high clip (633 snaps, 81% of their defensive snaps). Despite only playing three snaps in the first four games combined, he’s played 471 defensive snaps which is the ninth most of anyone on the team.

The dude rocks and he’s super fun to watch. It’s been a minute since the Eagles have had a player with a long vowel sound in their name, and it’s cool that when he can comes in return punts (because he does that too), the crowd yells “COOOOOOOP.” Those are the intangibles that don’t show up in the stats.

And then there’s Quinyon Mitchell (first-round, pick 22). Howie Roseman had never drafted a defensive back in the 15 drafts where he was the Eagles general manager. As a matter of fact, the last time the Eagles drafted a defensive back in the first round was Lito Sheppard in 2002.

When Q got picked, it was going against everything Howie had been doing recently, especially since his previous four first-round picks were from the Universities of Alabama and Georgia (Southeastern Conference), and Q was from Toledo (Mid-American Conference). 

None of that matters, because Q is nails. He’s been a starter for the entire season, played the most snaps of anyone on defense, and has played the most consistent of pretty much anyone on the entire team (maybe Lane Johnson or Saquon could be in the running).

He’s a true lock-down corner and it doesn’t matter who lines up across from him. Quarterbacks don’t go his way and for a good reason. Unfortunately, he might be a victim of his success in that regard because he’s not getting many opportunities for interceptions. Not only would those be beneficial to the team, but also towards his standings for Defensive Rookie of the Year.

As of Friday morning (December 13, 2024), DraftKings has him at +115 to win the award, behind only the Rams’ Jared Verse. Who, by the way, did not explode off the screen in the Thursday night game against the 49ers. That means that these very well could be the last two days where you could put a bet on Quinyon at plus money. 

These rookies, especially Q and Coop, have come in and immediately started producing at ridiculously high levels at positions where the team was producing at ridiculously low levels in 2023. It’s hard to imagine this going better than it’s going.

Vic Fangio was worth the wait

If Jonathon Gannon hadn’t botched the way that he left the Eagles to take the Arizona Cardinals head coaching job after the 2022 season, it’s “a fair assumption” that Fangio would’ve been the Eagles defensive coordinator last year. Instead, it was Sean Desai running a bastardized version of the Fangio scheme.

But this year… with the real thing? It’s been immaculate.

The idea was that Fangio would run a defense that would raise the floor; at worst it’d be a middling defense rather than the absolute worst. Instead, it’s the best in the NFL. It’s allowing the least amount of yards per game, the least amount of yards per play, the second last amount of touchdowns, and the least amount of passing yards per play.

The defense runs wildly smoothly and allows players to be their best, specifically Zack Baun. After being a depth edge rusher for the Saints for four years, he came to the Eagles to be an off-ball linebacker. Fangio’s defense has allowed him to play at an All-Pro level.

All of these changes have gone as well as you could hope for. The way Saquon, the offensive line, and the defensive rookies have played is bonkers, and Fangio has shown that his defense isn’t just a gimmick.

Howie Roseman saw the weaknesses in 2023 and said, ‘Let’s not do that again. Let’s pull a switcheroo and make those the strongest parts of the team,’ and then he backed it up with great decisions. The Eagles went from a late-season-laughing stock to the most dominant, steady, and game-wrecking team in less than a year because the biggest changes have gone perfectly.