5 Necessary Changes the Eagles Must Make After Their Bye Week

Eight games remain in an Eagles season that resembles a Talking Heads song: "We’re on the road to nowhere." It will be more than two months since they last won a game when they return from their bye week to play the Steelers on Nov. 22.

Their last win was Sept. 20, when Jalen Hurts led the Eagles on a magnificent game-winning drive against the Titans.

This won’t help turn things around, but here are five things I’d like to see happen over the Eagles' final eight games once they come out of their bye week.

1. Feed Makai Lemon

Even when/if DeVonta Smith and Tay Wicks return from injury, the rookie should see a healthy number of targets. He has improved with each game played and is one of the bright spots on this horrid offense.

With Smith missing four of the team’s nine games, Lemon is now the Eagles’ leading receiver with 312 yards, two more than Smith has.

It’s a small sample size, but since Week 7, Lemons has had three straight games with at least six catches and 50-plus yards, joining Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the only three on that sort of streak.

2. Build a role for Eli Stowers

That Dallas Goedert wasn’t traded for something—anything—is curious. Maybe nobody wanted to give up anything for the veteran tight end.

Even more curious is why Johnny Mundt and Grant Calcaterra are still on the roster. Maybe Zach Ertz doesn’t have anything left, but wouldn’t fans rather see him out there threatening to break a franchise record for most catches in a career that has stood since 1983, when Harold Carmichael had 589? Ertz has 582.

Second week in a row we are seeing Eli Stowers (No. 87) give this kind of effort blocking a CB

Baby steps! pic.twitter.com/l5FhR3fGRI
— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) November 9, 2026

Even with Goedert still on the roster, Stowers needs more of a role. That the second-round pick only played seven snaps against the Giants in Week 9 is ridiculous.

Goedert played 57 snaps (81 percent). Come on, the odds are he won’t be back on a third straight one-year deal, so why shouldn’t Stowers cut into that kind of workload?

3. Play Ty Robinson more

The trade of Jordan Davis will likely make this happen. The defensive tackle has played just 61 defensive snaps in his second season, but has held up well in a rotational role. He needs to play more just to see what the Eagles have in him over the next two years of his rookie contract.

4. Give DT a shot

Zion Wilson spent the preseason with the Eagles but was waived on cutdown day despite recording nine tackles, two tackles for loss or no gain, and four QB pressures in three preseason games. He was signed to the practice squad on Oct. 13.

Wilson, who is 6'3" and 315 lbs, was denied another year of college when he tried to transfer from East Carolina to Virginia, so he entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent. In 2025, with East Carolina, he had seven sacks. It would make sense to either elevate him from the practice squad or just sign him to the roster to take Davis’s place.

5. Rest the rookies

Barring Joe Milton leading the Eagles to a win or two, play Cole Payton in the final two games. Heck, even if Milton wins a game or two, playing Payton should happen. It’s evaluation time, after all.

Same thing for outside linebacker Keyshawn James-Newby and safety Cole Wisniewski, who has one practice squad elevation remaining. Why play Marcus Epps? He’s not part of the future. James-Newby has done some decent things in limited opportunities.

Then there’s guard Micah Morris. Why not give him some reps, too? He’s a big guy at 6'5" and 335 lbs.

Let’s see what these players have.

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