How the 2018 Eagles compared to the NFL average

Now that the Philadelphia Eagles’ season is over, let’s take a look at how the 2018 team performed compared to the NFL average and see where improvement is needed.

The Eagles need to get better in the turnover department next season. Their 17 takeaways ranked tied for 22nd and their 23 giveaways ranked tied for 20th.

The Eagles’ 2018 offense was average-ish, which is just not good enough in today’s NFL. It’s more than a mere coincidence that the top four scoring teams were all playing in the Conference Championship games. Simply put, the Eagles need to score a lot more points in 2019.

Philadelphia’s ineffective ground game also sticks out like a sore thumb here. The Eagles need to upgrade their running back talent this offseason.

This is what a “bend but don’t break” defense looks like. The Eagles allowed teams to move the ball on them too easily but Jim Schwartz’s unit performed well in critical areas such as third down (believe it or not!) and the red zone.

The Eagles’ defense has room to improve, especially when it comes to forcing more takeaways and generating more sacks. Overall, though, the 2018 defense was a pretty solid unit, especially when you account for all the injuries they had to deal with. The calls to fire Schwartz are undeserved.

Corey Clement (13) and DeAndre Carter (10) handled the majority of Eagles kick returns in 2018. Clement (25.6) was better than Carter (20.4) but neither player was particularly threatening to take it to the house. It’d be nice to see the Eagles try to find a returner with a little more juice.

If Darren Sproles isn’t back for 2018, it’s unclear who will even return punts for the Eagles. If he DOES come back, a healthy Sproles might be more effective in this area than he was in 2018.

Dave Fipp’s special teams coverage units were solid enough in 2018.

The 2018 Eagles actually ended up as one of the most overall average teams ever charted by Football Outsiders’ metrics.

PFF’s metrics indicate the Eagles’ run blocking was very much not the problem with the running game being bad. They also have love for Schwartz’s defense.