The single greatest motivator in professional sports is not pride or love of the game or legacy. This is money.
Second biggest motivator: winning.
When it comes to the Eagles, most of their offensive players have satisfied their hunger for both.
They’ve won the Super Bowl. They have been paid. And now, facing a tough schedule, playing with the leftovers of three postseason runs, and everyone getting a year older, they look like a shadow of what they should be.
The Eagles do not rank in the top half of the NFL’s teams in offensive attack, passing attack or scoring. This, despite allocating just under $130 million of their salary cap to the offense, is more than double the allocation on defense.
Why? Easy.
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After the Eagles scored zero points in the final 41 minutes and took a 21–0 lead on Dallas, running back Saquon Barkley had this to say:
“They wanted it a little more.”
He hit the nail on the head, and he hit it as hard as any hole he’s hit all season.
The Eagles are lacking something this season, especially on their offense. They lack desire. They lack motivation.
What they do not lack is money.
They’re 8-3, which isn’t a bad thing, until you dig deeper and understand why they’re 8-3. They suffered three losses because they played a flat entire game against the Giants on October 9 and because they did not show up in the second half on the road vs. Dallas (Denver, the other loss, is actually a very good team).
Since the Eagles host an 8-3 Bears team desperate for relevancy on Friday, this is an upset.
They’re sniffing themselves, and we’ve seen it before.
Just like the 2017 team won Super Bowl LII with Doug Pederson, the Super Bowl LIX winner and Nick Sirianni are basking in the glow of the title. It’s hard to blame them because it’s hard to win it all, and when you’re set for life, and you’re wearing a $50,000 ring, it’s a little harder to catch that backside block or eliminate a temptation.
This is the difference between dynasties and conquerors. Dynasties place their blocks and finish their routes. Dynasties seek greatness for their own sake and are not burdened with a million-dollar pocketbook.
Barkley, wide receiver AJ Brown, left tackle Jordan Mailata, left guard Landon Dickerson, right tackle Lane Johnson and quarterback Jalen Hurts are playing on their most lucrative contracts. Some got new money after the Super Bowl win. Nobody is playing at their expected level.
The exception: wide receiver DeVonta Smith, who is on track to have an excellent season.
Meanwhile, on defense, linebacker Nakobe Dean, defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, and corners Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper Dejean are playing like demons. This is not by chance, all are playing on fraudulent deals and are due to big increases. The exception here: sixth-year linebacker Zach Baun, who had a career season and again became elite. At any rate, after a poor start, the addition of talent in mid-season via trade, a retirement and a return from injury, the defense that cost the team the title last season is dominant again.
Meanwhile, the offense has yet to deliver consistent halves of efficiency against a good team. Former Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins suggested to ESPN.com’s Tim McManus this week why the Eagles are looking flat: “You just won a Super Bowl. So even if you go back to the starting line, in your mind, you’re a Super Bowl-caliber team, and you feel like you’re almost entitled to get there, even if you don’t talk about it, you can say the right things internally.”
He had not learned to deal with harsh truths.
“A lot of times, you lie to yourself. … Everyone in the game tells you how good you are and why they expect you to do something. And then the season comes, and you realize this season has nothing to do with last year,” Jenkins said. “I think the faster teams come to terms with the fact that they’re starting from scratch and not taking (anything) for granted — I think those are the teams that can repeat, that can create dynasties, and that can stand the test of time.”
One of the best barometers of efficiency is the penalty count. The Eagles committed 103 penalties for 793 yards last season, which ranked 11th-fewest and fifth-fewest, respectively. His 37 pre-snap penalties are tied for seventh-fewest.
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This season, he ranks 26th in total penalties against, 27th in total yards against and 25th in pre-snap penalties against. It’s getting worse: They had 14 penalties in Dallas, the most since Sirianni took over in 2021.
They’re a skilled, experienced team, but they’re playing like a rebuilding group of kids.
Jenkins is one of the most qualified people on the planet to make his point.
He was one of the hardest-working, toughest, most resilient Eagles in history and for that, he will be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame on Friday, assuming these comments don’t put him in Jeffrey Lurie’s doghouse. Jenkins played six seasons in Philly, went to three Pro Bowls, was the team’s unquestioned leader, and, most importantly, he won Super Bowls with both the Saints and Eagles. Jenkins knows what a Super Bowl hangover looks like.
Sirianni rejected Barclay’s claim.
“I felt like, when I watched the tape, I saw a lot of effort being put in on both sides of the ball,” Sirianni said.
Wonder who else was skyrocketing during that film session… or a few others this season.
Don’t forget: Nick got paid too.
Sirianni and his abstract principles – great, rigorous, expansive, together, floral power without the greatness of others – are not able to overcome this aggressive malaise. It may be more this time.
The Birds have a wide receiver in Brown who, considering his words, actions and social media posts, is clearly more interested in polishing his Hall of Fame prospects than simply winning.
They have a running back in Barkley who has stopped digging right holes and started looking for the sideline — but at least he’s got a Wawa sandwich named after him. However, consider that Reggie Jackson hit 223 more homers after the “Reggie” bar came out. Saquon hasn’t hit a homer yet this year.
The offensive line, once a pack of rhinos bent on destroying linebackers on the second level, can no longer keep Barkley clean at the line of scrimmage.
These are all issues of effort, not implementation.
As Jenkins said, the Eagles probably don’t realize it. He gave no indication before Barkley’s confession on Sunday.
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The possibility is that the efforts will also be similar. Injuries may have more to do with it than they are letting on.
Barkley missed training camp due to a recently resurfaced groin injury. Brown missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury, which also cost him Week 8. Dickerson has suffered three injuries so far, and Johnson suffered two before he was ruled out indefinitely with a foot sprain two weeks ago. Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens missed two games due to various ailments, and, after having back surgery in the offseason, he was nowhere near 100% all year.
Despite this, they are not moving the ball.
They can’t afford to be this kind of team with a quarterback who is as limited as Hurts, whose abysmal arm strength, slow release, and tough processing are only marginally balanced by his speed, power, toughness, accuracy, and leadership. The rest of the offense will have to operate at an extremely high level – catching those blocks, completing those routes, hitting those holes – to compensate for Hurts’ limitations.
There is also a possibility that the reason for this is fatigue. Between Super Bowls after 2022 and 2024 and playoff games after 2023, the Birds have played nearly two months more football than every other team except Kansas City.
And the chief also looks quite ragged.
To the Eagles’ credit, most of the offensive players who got paid last year were paid before winning the Super Bowl. When the monetary incentives disappeared, winning was enough to stoke their fire.
However, now they have won.
What, if anything, adds fuel to their fire today?
The Eagles entered Week 13 with an 8–3 record, clinching first place in the NFC East and remaining among the conference’s top contenders. They are looking to bounce back from last week’s disappointing loss to the Cowboys. Join The Inquirer’s Olivia Reiner and Jeff McLane on GameDay Central for expert analysis, insider information and live updates. listen Live,
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