Behind Enemy Lines: Philadelphia Eagles

Sports Illustrated's Raider Maven goes behind enemy lines to get the latest information on the Las Vegas Raiders' upcoming opponents for the 2021 NFL season straight from the source covering them.

In Week 7, the Philadelphia Eagles will be traveling to Las Vegas to take on the Raiders.

An Eagles team is entering a new season with lots of questions and no answers.

"The state of the Eagles, there are a lot of unknowns, there are a lot of question marks and that's what they're gonna have to figure out this season, they're gonna have to turn some of these question marks into answers," Ed Kracz said.

Kracz, the publisher of Sports Illustrated's Eagle Maven, recently joined Raider Maven's Editor and Publisher Hondo Carpenter on the radio. Carpenter was co-hosting with Clay Baker on the "Pritch & Clay" morning show on Raider Nation Radio (LINK TO LISTEN LIVE).

A franchise that won the Super Bowl three years ago is now on the brink of becoming one of the worst teams in the league.

For 2021, the Eagles have seemed to transition to a much younger team among the coaching staff and roster. New head coach Nick Sirianni has inherited a team filled with young talent and a lot of draft capital to build around for the future.

The Eagles are hoping to evolve the offense, bringing a familiar face to the Raiders. Shane Steichen was named the Eagles' offensive coordinator during the offseason after spending the previous seven years with the Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers, where he worked alongside Sirianni.

We saw the development of rookie quarterback Justin Herbert last season, and the Eagles plan to see the same results with their starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts.

"Sirianni will tell you that it's an open competition but listen, this is Jalen Hurts' job and it will be his job unless he really really stumbles and doesn't live up to what they hope he can be after they took him in the second-round back in the 2020 draft," Kracz said.

As far as starting quarterbacks in the NFC East, the Eagles might have the worst starting quarterback position but feel confident to have the best backup plan with Joe Flacco.

If Hurts struggles early or gets injured, expect Flacco to step in and do the job.

The offense under Doug Peterson had many two-tight end sets, with Zach Ertz and Dallas Goddard; however, Sirianni looks to change this offseason.

"There's a couple things in play with Jalen Hurts and Shane Steichen certainly, one of those I think the Eagles are going to want to play a lot of three wide receiver sets to get a little more speed on the field," Kracz said.

The Eagles plan to play the conventional three-receiver sets, but the change will come under new quarterback coach Brian Johnson. He was the offensive coordinator at the University of Florida.

"Johnson brings in some of these college concepts that Nick Sirianni has talked about. They want to try to implement some of some things from the college level that NFL defenses haven't seen and try to get at the cutting edge of some of these things so it's going to be interesting to see how they deploy Jalen Hurts when they use his legs, you know he's obviously a very skilled runner, as a quarterback," Kracz said.

The defense looks solid and entirely the same in most positions from a year ago. Adding depth at the cornerback position only made this Eagles defense its biggest strength.

The ceiling for the Eagles, according to Kracz, is nine wins, 10 if you're a very optimistic fan. A lot has to happen offensively if the Eagles plan to be up there.

But a more realistic goal is the floor; the Eagles will finish the NFL season with five to six wins.

The setbacks will come in early in the season, but they should pick things up in November and December.

Luckily the Raiders will face the Eagles early in the season, taking advantage of their early offensive struggles and inexperience.

As the Eagles figure things out, it will be interesting to see how Steichen, Brian Johnson, and Sirianni use Hurts in this offense.

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