Dan Orlovsky hasn’t been shy about the Eagles’ struggles. But he still believes they can be contenders.
The former NFL QB will call Monday night’s Eagles-Chargers game on ESPN’s “Monsters, Inc.”-themed alternate broadcast.
After losing back-to-back games to the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears, the 8-4 Eagles have been under scrutiny from national media, including ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky, who thrashed the Eagles’ offense in advance of their Monday Night Football matchup with the 8-4 Los Angeles Chargers.
“They don’t do one thing well offensively,” Orlovsky said on Thursday morning’s edition of Get Up. “If I had to use the words and give you adjectives to describe this offense over the course of the season: predictable, boring, stale, self-inflicting, uncreative, and unexplosive.”
Orlovsky has been studying the Eagles more closely this week, as he will be on the call of ESPN’s Monsters, Inc.-themed alternate broadcast, the network’s third animated Funday Football (ESPN2/Disney+). A few hours after ripping the Eagles on air, Orlovsky spoke with The Inquirer and raised many of the same concerns he did on Get Up about the Eagles’ offense, which has been struggling in Kevin Patullo’s first season as coordinator.
“They’re not what they were last year on offense,” Orlovsky said. “Last year, they were historically great when it came to running the football. That’s not reality. Their tailback was historically great. He just hasn’t had the same impact.”
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The Eagles’ rushing attack, spearheaded by Saquon Barkley, ranks 22nd in rushing yards through the first 12 games of the season. Last year, the team ranked second in rushing yards and Barkley became the ninth NFL running back to record 2,000 yards in a season.
Orlovsky says the key difference between last year’s offense and this year’s is the play of the offensive line.
“If you aren’t good up front, it’s really hard to consistently be good,” Orlovsky said. “Their offensive line has to play better.”
The Eagles have been without Lane Johnson for their last two games, as the two-time All-Pro tackle is recovering from a Lisfranc injury in his foot suffered in the team’s Week 11 win over Detroit.
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But the Eagles’ struggles on the ground predate Johnson’s absence. The Eagles have rushed for more than 100 yards in five games this season and recorded more than 150 yards just twice. In 2024, the Eagles eclipsed 150-plus yards on the ground in 11 regular season games.
The inability to pick up yards on the ground on first down leads to longer yardage on second and third downs. The Eagles are converting 34.5% of their third-down plays, which is the fifth-worst conversion rate in the league.
“If you struggle as an offense on first down, it makes second down much harder, and then therefore third down much harder,” Orlovsky said. “Until they play better as an offensive line and play better offensively on first down, that’s not going to get fixed.”
With five games left in the regular season, the Eagles hold a 1½ game lead over the 6-5-1 Cowboys in the NFC East. If the Eagles can hang onto their divisional lead and earn a playoff spot, Orlovsky says the team needs to be able to “control the game” to be considered as a contender to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
“[If] they can dictate to a defense what they want to do, then there’s no question,” Orlovsky said. “The group isn’t all that different than what it was last year.”
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The struggles on offense, including down years from Barkley and Jalen Hurts, loom large over the final five games of the regular season. The talent remains largely the same, but 12 games into the season, Orlovsky doesn’t see the current version of the Eagles as a team with an identity.
“There’s a lot more question marks about their offense and why they’re struggling in comparison to what it was last year,” Orlovsky said. “But, they still are a talented group, and I think that they’re trying to figure out who they are.”