It cannot be a coincidence that since Kevin Patullo was fired as offensive coordinator of the Eagles on January 13 (he then somehow managed to get himself hired as the passing game coordinator at Miami despite the fact that Philadelphia ranked 23rd in net passing yards per game in 2025) and replaced by Sean Mannion 16 days later, the team's offensive philosophy seems to have undergone a dramatic change, proven by the moves that the team has been making in free agency.
After allowing Jahan Dotson, who ran a rather pedestrian (by today's standards) 4.43 in the 40-yard dash at the 2020 combine, to depart for Atlanta in free agency, the Eagles signed Marquise Brown, who blazed a 4.27 on his Pro Day at Oklahoma (where Jalen Hurts finished his college career) a year earlier, to replace Dotson. At Philadelphia, he may end up replacing A.J. Brown (no relation), who has been the subject of numerous trade rumors, many of them having him not leaving town until after June 1, when it will be more advantageous to the Eagles for salary-cap reasons.
(Wonder if there will be a similar policy in baseball, where the owners are apparently going to stop at nothing to install a cap in that sport come December?)
But Philly's quest for speed has not ended there — or on that side of the ball, for that matter.
Philadelphia ranked 21st in the NFL in yards allowed per completion a year ago (with 11.25), so the Eagles signed cornerback Riq Woolen, late of the Super Bowl champion Seahawks. Woolen, who at 6'4" bears an uncanny resemblance to Joe Lavender from half a century ago, has a 4.26 on his resume. The Eagles also moved on at free safety, letting Reed Blankenship (4.55) leave for Houston in favor of slotting Andrew Mukuba (4.45) at that position (and they may draft another safety next month).
As Terry Bradshaw likes to point out, speed, especially at the wide receiver position, gives an offense what he refers to as "blitz control" — and in recent years, Hurts has been getting sacked far more often than a quarterback with his mobility should be getting sacked, particularly considering the talent that can be found along their offensive line (Hurts has gotten sacked on 7.68% of his dropbacks; by contrast, Josh Allen has gotten sacked on only 5.65% of his dropbacks — both are career stats and include postseason games).
While the Eagles figure to go early and often on the offensive line in next month's draft, they are definitely doing the right thing when it comes to using free agency to upgrade what Jimmy the Greek liked to call "team speed."
With the Giants having hired ring-wearer John Harbaugh to be their new head coach, Dallas being "America's Team" as always, and the Commanders out to prove that it was 2025 and not 2024 that was their outlier season, don't bet on the NFC East being the NFL's worst division again in 2026 (the division as a whole went 15-28-1 in out-of-division games a season ago; even the NFC South, where all four teams finished with losing records, was 18-26).
Also, the NFC East played the toughest combined schedule of any division in the entire NFL in 2025; but the division's 2026 schedule is nowhere near as grueling, which should contribute to a better overall finish, even if the division's teams do not improve.
Last season proved that the Eagles cannot continue to be a redux of Marv Levy's Wing-T Chiefs of the late '70s (Levy, by the way, is still alive and turned 100 last August) — and so far this offseason, they appear to be getting the message.
Of course, at least one of their early picks figures to be spent on an "edge rusher" (even though they signed the rangy Joe Tryon-Shoyinka from Tampa Bay yesterday) — although the problem, to the extent that it even exists, can be solved by switching back to the 4-3 defensive alignment (Jonathan Gannon got 70 sacks using that formation — and then, like many coordinators, Gannon didn't make it as a head coach — and for their part, the Eagles had only 42 sacks in 2025).
Gannon is now Green Bay's defensive coordinator. That didn't take very long (Gannon was hired four weeks after the Cardinals fired him as their head coach).
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