Eagles
The Eagles continued their downward spiral to a great draft pick. They lost to the Giants in uninspiring fashion. While I’m sure a lot of people have either half or fully tuned-out recent games, there is an obvious trend. The Eagles miss Jeff Stoutland. Instead of breaking down the game, we’re going to take some time to appreciate Jeff Stoutland. Unfortunately it’s going to be by looking at how bad things have gotten.
If you’re unaware of who Jeff Stoutland is, he’s a big reason the Eagles had such great success on the offensive line for over a decade. He joined the team in 2013 leaving the Alabama college football team. Since he joined the team they’ve produced multiple all-pro offensive lineman, a 2,000 yard rusher, and, oh yeah, two Super Bowl victories. Not bad. He even had rumors to get a formal Offensive Coordinator job with Alabama and turned it down. Stoutland liked being here and thrived in his role as evidenced by this quote.
Let’s address the obvious before we dive into the data. This offensive line is beyond battered. Only two of the five lineman have played the whole season. One retired, one was traded, and the other spent time on Inured Reserve. Even with that, the line has no cohesion. Let’s watch this clip by Brian Baldinger in the clip below. Miss assignments, poor scheming, no hot reads on a blitz. It’s all bad and I think it comes down to coaching.
Still let’s break down some numbers to further accentuate it. The 2026 Eagles have given up 30 sacks already (seven in the last game alone). For context, they’re on pace for 56.67 sacks for the entire year. While it isn’t possible to have .67 of a sack, this Eagles team may find a way or just round up. If you’re wondering if this is a high number, they had 45 in 2024 and 35 in 2025. So there’s a chance that they pass the sack total for all of last year in their next game. And to show how bad the pass protections been, let’s watch Joe Milton get pummeled for a sack fumble. This is a free rusher that the team allows to wallop their new quarterback.
Next let’s take a look at the run game, which has been just as bad as the pass protection. Using our three-year sample size, you can see they went from averaging 4.9 to 4.2 to 3.7 yards per rush over the last three years. Losing over a full yard per rush is an insane drop off. Even if you exclude the Super Bowl season with a 2K rusher, last years was significantly better.
2026:
2025:
2024:
So where does this leave the Eagles now? Well Jeff Stoutland is still out there. He’s now using those talents to podcast. This a very common path for former coaches and players, but that means he’s not coaching elsewhere. I understand when you bring in a new coaching staff, you let them bring in more guys fit to their system. That said, you also have to understand you sometimes make a mistake. Nothing is stopping them from going back out there and rehiring Jeff Stoutland. It’s very rare to have a positional coach be a well-known name in the league. The Eagles and Jeff Stoutland had this relationship and is a great option for trying to right the ship for 2027 and return to the beautiful place.
Sources: Brian Baldinger on X, NFL on X, quote: https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/why-its-a-big-deal-that-jeff-stoutland-returned-to-eagles-in-2021/184837/, stats: pro-football-reference.com, chase_Senior on Instagram
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Hello, I’m a greater Philadelphia native writing mostly about the Eagles and the rest of the NFL. Articles aren’t … More about Kyle Lavin
Categorized:Eagles
