10 Eagles predictions heading into the 2024 NFL season

With the start of the Philadelphia Eagles' season kicking off Thursday night, let's make predictions about how things will go in 2025, as the Birds defend their Super Bowl title.

1) Jalen Hurts will continue to get better, and also understand his role

"Our job as a football team, as players, and as coaches, is to win every game," Nick Sirianni said on Tuesday. "I've talked about this with Jalen. Jalen, I love how selfless he is. He's been so efficient as a quarterback, taking care of the football, efficiently going where the right place is with the football. Then there's judgment on the outside of, ‘Well, he didn't throw for this many yards or didn't throw for this many touchdowns.’ I don't care. He was efficient with the football, and he did everything he needed to do for us to win the game. That doesn't just apply with your star football player in Jalen Hurts. That also applies for the rest of the team."

After the bye last season, and including the playoffs, Hurts accounted for 36 total TDs and 2 INTs. It's pretty hard to be more efficient than that. Hurts' job first and foremost will be ball security, and he understands that. He'll have fewer than 10 turnovers in 2025.

2) Saquon Barkley won't have 475+ touches again in 2025, but the Eagles also won't back off using him when they need him

Including the playoffs, Barkley got an astronomical 482 touches in 2024. That was the third-highest number of touches in a single season since 2000. It is unrealistic to expect Barkley to play at the level he played at last year long term if the Eagles continue to put that kind of mileage on him.

I believe that they intend on trying to give him more rest this year than they did last year. I also believe that when they get into the heat of the battle, they're not going to take him out of games that are still competitive. Oh, and because they have a harder schedule this year than they did last year, they're going to be in more competitive games.

So if you think a healthy Barkley is going to be closer to 300 touches this season, than, say, 400 touches, I wouldn't count on that. He is likely to be used heavily again in 2025.

3) Expect upticks in A.J. Brown's and DeVonta Smith's collective production

Brown topped 1,400 yards in each of his first two seasons in Philly, but he was under 1,100 yards in 2024:

A.J. Brown Rec Yards YPC TD 2022 88 1496 17.0 11 2023 106 1456 13.7 7 2024 67 1079 16.1 7

The 2024 season was something of a "down year" for Brown as he missed four games, and the passing game took a back seat to the Eagles' rushing attack. Still, he remains a top-5 type of receiver. (In my opinion, he's No. 3 after Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson.)

Smith also missed four games in 2024, and he had the lowest receiving yardage total of his career:

DeVonta Smith Rec Yards YPC TD 2021 64 916 14.3 5 2022 95 1196 12.6 7 2023 81 1066 13.2 7 2024 68 833 12.3 8

Obviously, he provided the dagger in the Super Bowl, catching a 46-yard TD that made the score 34-0 and all but put the Chiefs away.

I imagine that opposing defenses are going to load up against the run in 2025, like the Chiefs did in the Super Bowl. Obviously that didn't work out so well for them, but the guess here is that most teams will determine that making Hurts beat them through the air will give them the better chance to win, even if he and the Eagles' passing offense have proven they can put points on the board in bulk.

Brown's and Smith's numbers were hurt by Barkley's magical 2024 season, but I believe they'll benefit from it in 2025.

4) We'll start to see Jalen Carter become the next Lane Johnson

Lane Johnson has been the best offensive lineman in the NFL over the last 8-10 years, but there were seasons in which he would laughably not even make that dumb NFL Top 100 list. I believe Jalen Carter's career is heading in that same general direction, where his play on the field isn't rewarded with the appropriate level of accolades. Carter landed at 43rd in that Top 100 list this year. There are not 42 players better than him. I mean, guys like Dion Dawkins, Budda Baker, and Josh Jacobs were ahead of him. GTFOH.

Carter was the best player on the best defense in the NFL last season, constantly getting double-teamed and freeing up his defensive line teammates to eat against other favorable one-on-one matchups elsewhere. His stats aren't otherworldly, but make no mistake, he is the first person opposing offensive coordinators will have on their mind when game planning against this Eagles defense.

I don't expect Carter to have like 12 sacks this season, because he's going to get extreme attention from opposing offensive lines. But much like Johnson, Carter makes everyone look better, and the Eagles would be kinda screwed without him.

Since this is a "prediction" post, I'll predict that Carter has under 8 sacks, but is yet again still one of the most valuable defenders in the league anyway.

5) New offensive coordinator? Who cares?

Hurts is entering his sixth NFL season. He will have his fifth offensive coordinator in those six years:

• 2020: Press Taylor (passing game coordinator)

• 2021: Shane Steichen

• 2022: Shane Steichen

• 2023: Brian Johnson

• 2024: Kellen Moore

• 2025: Kevin Patullo

Interestingly, the two coordinators the Eagles hired from the outside (Steichen and Moore) had enough success with the Eagles that they were able to land head coaching jobs with other teams. The two coordinators they promoted from within the organization (Taylor and Johnson) were fired after one season as the coordinator. Patullo was hired from within.

Doesn't matter. The Eagles have extreme continuity on the offensive side of the ball, both in terms of players, and the rest of the coaching staff.

But also, it's not as if the offense was really humming from a scripted play perspective under Kellen Moore, especially the first couple months of the season. Remember in 2024 when the Eagles didn't score in the first quarter of a game until Week 9? 13 possessions, 59 plays, 175 yards (2.97 yards per play), 5 three-and-outs, 3 turnovers. 0 points.

My prediction is that Patullo won't be a negative story in 2025.

6) The CB2 won't sink the Eagles' season

The Eagles' biggest concern spot is at CB2, where nobody throughout training camp rose up and definitively claimed that job. It's likely that Adoree' Jackson will start there. We'll see. He'll give up some completions, but relatively speaking, that's a concern area that pales in comparison to literally every other team's biggest concern. The Eagles' other two corners are budding stars in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean; and when he is able to, Vic Fangio will have Mitchell follow the opponents' alpha receivers.

Is it an area of concern? Absolutely. Is it a spot that Fangio can help mask because he's an outstanding defensive coordinator who has seen everything? Also yes.

7) The bigger concern is the pass rush from the edges

Jalen Carter is usually going to eat up multiple blockers on the interior, but that also means that the Eagles need Nolan Smith, Jaylx Hunt, and their backup trio of Josh Uche, Azeez Ojulari, and Ogbo Okoronkwo to take advantage of one-on-one matchups on the outside. Smith made a major leap in his second season last year, and Hunt contributed as a rookie when many thought 2024 would be a redshirt season.

But they also need to re-prove themselves, and Smith was hampered for the entirety of camp with a concussion and a nagging left arm injury.

8) The Eagles will have a Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist for the third straight season

In 2023 Carter finished second in DROY voting; Mitchell finished second and DeJean finished fourth in 2024.

In 2025, Jihaad Campbell will be a finalist for that award. Campbell's blend of size and athleticism is obvious, but he also works hard and wants to be great. He's rarely going to come off the field as a rookie, and he's going to make a lot of plays.

9) The Eagles will break a two-decade streak of NFC East champs being unable to repeat

The last time a team repeated as NFC East division winners was when the Eagles did it in 2004. In each of the last 20 seasons, we've seen the previous year's division champion dethroned.

Year NFC East champion 2004 Eagles 2005 Giants 2006 Eagles 2007 Cowboys 2008 Giants 2009 Cowboys 2010 Eagles 2011 Giants 2012 Commanders 2013 Eagles 2014 Cowboys 2015 Commanders 2016 Cowboys 2017 Eagles 2018 Cowboys 2019 Eagles 2020 Commanders 2021 Cowboys 2022 Eagles 2023 Cowboys 2024 Eagles 2025 ???

The Eagles are favorites to win the NFC East again in 2025, but so were most of the teams above that had a chance to repeat, but didn't.

Still, the Giants' roster stinks, the Cowboys are a hot mess, and there's all kinds of evidence that the Commanders will likely slide after an unexpectedly successful 2024 season.

Also, it's really not much of a feat to repeat as divisional champs in the NFL. All four division winners in the AFC were repeat champs last year, as were the Lions and Buccaneers in the NFC. This nonsensical streak has to end at some point, and this feels like the year.

10) The Eagles will also repeat as Super Bowl champs

In case you missed our NFL season predictions, I have the Eagles repeating as Super Bowl champs.

Would I take "the field" over the Eagles in their pursuit of the franchise's third Lombardi Trophy? Of course!

But, the Eagles still have the best roster in the NFL, and they play in the easier conference. They have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl than any other team in the NFL, in my opinion. So, you know, I picked them.

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