The Sports Guru

Projected Record

9-7, 3rd Place NFC East

Projected Schedule W/L
@Houston (W)
NY Giants (W)
@San Francisco (W)
Green Bay (W)
Dallas (W)
@New Orleans (W)
@Tampa Bay (L)
Jacksonville (W)
Washington (W)
Tennessee (W)
@Indianapolis (L)
Carolina (L)
@Washington (L)
@NY Giants (L)
@Dallas (L)
Atlanta (L)

The three-reing circus that is Terrell Owens is no longer in Philadelphia. The aftermath still lingers. A divided locker room, a quarterback trying to return from injury and insult. In only a 1/2 season, T.O. was able to destroy what the Eagles and Coach Andy Reid spent 6 years developing. A winning attitude. A team-first approach. A cohesive locker room. Now T.O. is off to Dallas and Donovan McNabb is left to pick up the pieces and reclaim his spot as the leader of the Eagles. He has said all the right things, his teammates have said all the right things. Whether there is truth in their words is another story.

Team Strengths – Donovan McNabb is a great quarterback and one of the toughest players at any position in the NFL. Playing most of last season with a painful sports hernia, McNabb was able to put up some decent numbers without alot of help. Brian Westbrook is a Marshall Faulk-type player that can burn you on the ground and through the air. The Eagles fortified their defensive line with the selection of Broderick Bunkley. Along with DE Jevon Kearse the Eagles will have a stout D-Line. Brian Dawkins is one of the top safeties in the game and teams with Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard to form a very good secondary.

Team Weaknesses - AS was the case before T.O., the Eagles fall short at wide receiver. They are very high on Reggie Brown, who as a rookie last season showed flashes after T.O. was suspended. The Eagles also add two rrokies to the mix, Jason Avant from Michigan and undrafted Hank Baskett who has been getting rave reviews from the Eagles coaching staff. In my Top and Bottom 5 Head Coaches column I expressed my disdain for Andy Reid and his game planning and management. The Eagles need to run more and control the clock. Reid prefers the short passing game as his run game. It hasn’t worked yet, and won’t this season.


Best Case Scenario – Donovan McNabb comes back completely healthy. Brian Westbrook plays all 16 games and AndY Reid discovers there are running plays in his playbook. The Defense is going to need to dominate until the young offense gets their feet under them. The Eagles need to use a friendly schedule the first half of the season to propel them. They play each of their division rivals at home withing the first 9 weeks. Things get much tougher at the end of the season, so winning all three of those games is crucial.

Worst Case Scenario – If the Eagles get off to a poor start, or McNabb struggles things could get dicey. There is no doubt that McNabb lost someof that locker room during the T.O. fiasco. The Key to the Eagles is Westbrook, so any significant time wothout him could be a huge problem. If the defense struggles, and the young receivers don’t step up early it could be a long season in Philly.

My Opinion – The Eagles play a very intersting schedule in 2006. After road games to places like Houston and San Francisco in the 1st half they’ll have to go to each of their division rivals in the second half, all in a row. A tough road indeed. In each of thse games the Eagles are going to need to rely on their running game to control the ball and the clock. Unfortunitely, Andy Reid doesn’t play football that way. It is going to take time for the receivers to gel, but weak opponents will allow the Eagles to start strong, but whether they can hold on during a brutal finish is the true question. My guess, they fall short.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 11:11 am and is filed under Broncos/NFL, 2006 NFL Preview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.