Just a few short years ago, the Eagles were coming off the franchise's first Super Bowl victory. Expectations were high despite having a franchise quarterback recovering from a torn ACL. There's no doubt the Eagles have missed former offensive coordinator Frank Reich, but there is one recipe to success the team must come back to in 2020, the play-action pass game.
In 2019, 31 percent of the Birds pass plays were play action. Despite the team being 11th in rushing yards, they never took advantage of the strong running back tandem of Miles Sanders and Jordan Howard to keep safeties from cheating back. Several factors could have played into the lack of use of play-action pass. The team lacked a deep threat the majority of the season due to DeSean Jackson's injury. The team utilized practice players for much of the back half of the season as well.
With the team coming back healthy, we hope, in 2020, the Birds will look to get Carson Wentz back into form. It's only been two years since he put up a 115.0 passer rating, 79.1 completion percentage and 10.2 yards per attempt on play-action pass plays. The addition of Jalen Reagor and other speedsters on offense, and we could be looking at a breakout season for Wentz. Let's just hope Press Taylor and Rich Scangarello use the weapons and utilize Wentz in a way that he's shown success in the past.
