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While the Eagles were losing their third straight game to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football in Week 15, the Manning brothers hosted San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey as a special guest on the Manningcast.
The trio had fun discussing McCaffrey’s accolades, as he’s currently a candidate for the NFL MVP award. They also discussed what has led to the 49er’s success in 2023, but what has Eagles fans talking is the precision with which McCaffrey was able to predict the Eagles’ plays as the trio gave their commentary on Monday Night Football live. Peyton Manning was particularly impressed.
One of the best examples of McCaffrey’s spot-on commentary can be seen on Athletic contributor Nate Tice’s Twitter. Along with the video post, Tice said, “Peyton was pretty fired up by CMC nailing that play prediction.”
Fans & Analysts Scrutinizing Eagles’ Personnel Usage & Play Calling Even More
After seeing this, NFL Network’s Brian Baldinger made a post of his own further elaborating on how easy the Eagles’ offense is to predict. In his video, he even goes as far as picking on the use of tight end Jack Stoll, saying, “He’s been on the field for 340 plays this year. He’s got four catches. (They) ain’t throwing the ball to Jack Stoll.”
.@Eagles its WK 15. Guys at the end of the bar are calling out the plays…RunCMC is calling out the plays with the Mannings on ESPN. Lets get into the LAB and add a little creativity. #BaldysBreakdowns
McCaffrey’s display even prompted Jordie, a popular Philly Blogger and contributor for Barstool Sports to post an article with the name, “The Eagles Offensive Is So Predictable That Christian McCaffrey Is Able To Call It Out Almost Perfectly From His Couch.”
“That’s a running back on a team that played the Eagles two opponents ago. If he knows everything this team is about to run, you can only imagine how much the defense on the field knows everything that is coming.”
Before that, though, in the same article, Jordie wrote, “The Eagles are addicted to the QB draw on 3rd down in the red zone. If you asked 100 Eagles fans what play they were about to run there, I’m sure 93 of them would say QB draw. So it’s not like Christian McCaffrey is some sort of wunderkind football savant who has this uncanny ability to predict the future.”
With Arguably the NFL’s Best WR Duo & Best O-Line, the Eagles Shouldn’t Be Playing This Bad
This is what has Eagles fans so up in arms. The Eagles are a team that made it to the Super Bowl last year. Philadelphia has possibly the best wide receiver duo in the entire league. They have a running back who is currently in the top five for total yards on the season. The Pro Football Network even has them ranked as the best offensive line in the NFL.
Kendall Beck, a contributor for ESPN and several others said it this way, “D’Andre Swift. AJ Brown. DeVonta Smith. Dallas Goedert. 4 Pro Bowl O-Linemen. Arguably the best offensive personnel this league has to offer and it’s being completely wasted by a horrible coaching staff and a quarterback that can’t stop turning the ball over. Disgraceful.”
So, why hasn’t this offense been able to break 20 points for three straight games after starting the season 10-1?
After seeing McCaffrey break it down so easily, many fans are coming around to the idea that the NFL is catching up in their study of a Philly team that’s been unimaginative in its personnel usage as well as its play calling. Some fans, though, are even calling for offensive coordinator Brian Johnson to be fired.
Coach Sirianni Might Not Only Be Bad at Play Calling, He Might Be Bad at Picking Play Callers Too
Another wrinkle here to consider that calls into question head coach Nick Sirianni’s ability to assess play callers is how poor he himself was at it when he took over as head coach in 2021. In Dave Zangaro’s article for NBC Sports Philadelphia from back in June of 2022, he quotes Sirianni saying, “I felt like I needed to make a change in the sense of how to free me up to be a better head coach, and I had a good assistant to call the plays, and so that’s what I went with.”
Just as a reminder of how we got here, Shane Steichen was who took over play-calling for Sirianni in 2021, and the Eagles found steady success under the coaching pair. Steichen left before 2023 to take the head coaching job for the Colts, leaving a vacancy. Then quarterbacks coach, Brian Johnson, was sought after that same offseason to become an OC elsewhere before being promoted for the Eagles.
Despite Johnson’s steady climb and great record through the first 12 weeks of the season, along with his long-standing relationship with quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles could still be forced to reconsider this arrangement. Johnson’s early season success could’ve been a fluke.
It would seem Johnson would be the only one in hot water with a 10-4 record, but with what’s happened on the defensive side of the ball we can’t be so sure. The Eagles just had an out-of-the-norm coaching change midseason with the replacement of defensive coordinator Sean Desai with Matt Patricia.
With two games left to play in the season, this coaching staff still has a chance to win the NFC East. They can still make a run in the playoffs, but by all indications, they’re simultaneously on the verge of imploding.
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49ers RB Christian McCaffrey Easily Predicts Eagles Offense [WATCH]