The Eagles’ passing game has stalled over the past two games, including Sunday’s win against the Carolina Panthers, where the offense managed a season-low 83 net passing yards. Frustration was evident from wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, who combined for eight catches, 80 yards, and a touchdown — far below expectations against the Panthers. Brown even mentioned that “passing” was the issue with the team’s offense and defensive end Brandon Graham mentioning a potential issue between Brown and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Despite the struggles, there is a former NFL receiver who is bullish on the Eagles offense turning around, believing the passing attack will rebound as soon as Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lincoln Financial Field.
Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, a current co-host of “Nightcap” with Shannon Sharpe has been in a similar situation. However, Johnson believes the Eagles will turn things around next Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lincoln Financial Field, and Brown and Smith will be the focal point of the offense.
“You know what’s going to happen next week?” Johnson said to Sharpe. “The (bleep) Eagles are going to go out there and they are going to have a field day in the passing game. It was Saquon’s day today.”
When he was with the Cincinnati Bengals, Johnson recalled moments when he and former Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh would enter a game and think they would go off against a team that they were better than heading into the game and coming out with significantly different results. Johnson also implored Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to find ways to get the ball in the hands of the two wide receivers as much as possible to quell and discord that could be surrounding the team.
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“Your Alphas need to touch the (bleep) rock,” Johnson said. “You have to make them feel like they are part of the offense. You have to make them feel like they are contributing to the success in helping the team win. That’s all.”
Although Johnson believes the offense turning things around quickly, the Eagles still have to find ways to get Hurts back to the quarterback he has shown he is capable of being, and it may require a few minor tweaks to get the passing attack going quickly. The situations in which Hurts has looked his best this season have been when the offense has used their no-huddle, up-tempo offense and when killing off time with their four-minute offense. The Eagles have tried many approaches in getting the offense going Hurts early, and using one of those two approaches could get Hurts going.
An aspect of the offense that has to stay in is the use of play-action, especially with the way running back Saquon Barkley has been running this season. According to Pro Football Focus, whether it is the usage of the traditional fake to Barkley, or the run-pass option (RPO) Hurts has run it 25.9% of his dropbacks, resulting in him completing 72.5% of his passes (66 of 91), for 858 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 116.5.
The hurry-up offense would allow Hurts to get in a rhythm, calling the protections at the line, quickly seeing what the defense is doing and making his decisions off of that. Using it could help drive down Hurts’ average time to throw, which, according to Next Gen Stats, is 3.12 seconds, the second-longest amount of time behind Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
If the Eagles want to get their passing game going against the Steelers, it will not be easy because they will need to keep four-time All-Pro linebacker T.J. Watt in check, preventing him becoming disruptive off the edge. Watt’s 9.5 sacks are tied for seventh in the league in sacks, and the Eagles could choose to limit his impact by rolling away from him, rolling Hurts out and utilizing the quick and intermediate routes that will allow him to not let Watt and the other Steelers defensive linemen to get upfield and hit Hurts.
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Chris Franklin may be reached atcfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.