Anything goes these days when it comes to national morning talk shows and the NFL, but one of ESPN's main segment topics on the Philadelphia Eagles was something else on Tuesday.
Scrolled in bold letters across the bottom of the screen was the headline topic: Are Eagles on the verge of a collapse?
C’mon. Let’s try to stay in reality here.
The Eagles enter Thursday Night Football this week against the last-place New York Giants with a 4-1 record. They’ve already knocked off the Chiefs, Rams and Buccaneers — all 2024 playoff qualifiers — and haven’t come close to stringing their best four quarters of football together yet.
The local and national unrest is obviously not surprising. The Eagles haven’t looked like the Eagles on offense, which is disappointing for a team returning 10 starters from the group that hung 40 points on Kansas City in Super Bowl LIX.
I understand that Eagles’ fans are upset but some of the overreactions that I’m seeing from a fanbase that hasn’t witnessed a loss in nearly a full calendar year are wild.
— Anthony DiBona (@DiBonaNFL) October 6, 2025
“Fire Nick Sirianni!”
“Fire Kevin Patullo!”
“Trade A.J. Brown!”
I mean…what the hell are we doing here?
But had some odd circumstances gone the Eagles’ way during last week’s fourth quarter against Denver — like the ticky-tac illegal shift penalty that negated a 30-yard connection from Jalen Hurts to DaVonta Smith on a key fourth down late in the final quarter — the Eagles could easily be 5-0 right now, despite their inconsistencies to start the year.
Philly’s tension points right now are clear. New offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo might be in over his head. Injuries along the offensive line might be way worse than the players at letting on.
Then, there’s the dark cloud of the 2023 season hanging over the heads of Eagles fans, who saw their squad play subpar football all the way to a 10-1 record that year before completely falling apart.
National talk shows have a show to do today, so analysts are naturally going to pick away at the Eagles and their always entertaining group of outspoken and personable superstars.
The notion that we’ve somehow morphed back into the middle of the 2023 regular season because of the new play caller is... ridiculous.
Patullo is obviously part of the problem. He’s clearly still developing a rapport with Hurts, and for a first-time play caller, that’s not going to happen overnight.
The Eagles aren’t running the Nick Patullo offense, though. They’re running the Nick Sirianni offense, and Philly has either inserted a new player caller, or made a change midseason, in literally every year that Hurts has been the starting quarterback.
This is just the annual process for Philadelphia over the first quarter of the regular season. The offense didn’t look perfect at the start of 2024, either, and the group eventually cooked up the right recipe and got rolling. after the bye week.
The 2023 season remains the obvious outlier, but that nightmare was officially buried during last year’s championship parade through South Philly. Comparing this current interaction of the Eagles, coming off a Super Bowl championship with 20 wins in 22 games, to that dysfunctional group two years ago is sports talk better suited for Planet Zippy.
Sirianni, Patullo and the Eagles deserve the questions they’re currently facing on a daily basis. They’re too good on offense to be performing this poorly.
But the play caller in Philly will never sink the ship. Players win football games, and the Eagles have the best collection of offensive talent in the NFL.
They’re going to sort things out, and when they do, these early-October media segments will look even more hilarious.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!