Eagles' Kellen Moore at center field, game action and more

The Eagles won against the Browns on Sunday, but it wasn’t exactly a stellar offensive performance.

They scored 20 points on 372 yards of offense in a narrow 20-16 win.

When the Eagles brought Nick Sirianni back for the 2024 season, they did so with the hopes that Kellen Moore would be able to refresh an offense that had become far too static toward the end of 2023. And during training camp it looked like this was going to happen.

But it was hard to watch the Eagles’ offense on Sunday and not think that it looked a lot like the offense we saw last year. Sure, the Eagles won and AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith gave them big plays, but the whole hope was that they didn’t just have to rely on their star power to save them.

At his press conference on Tuesday, Moore was asked several questions about elements of the offense that appeared to be missing on Sunday:

middle of the field

One of the more interesting points that came up in this ESPN story about the relationship between Jalen Hurts and Sirianni was that Hurts “believed the Eagles relied too heavily on vertical routes and did not utilize short-to-intermediate throws, particularly to the middle of the field.” Pitch.” where (AJ) Brown was successful in his career.”

Take a look at Hurts’ passing chart from Sunday:

Yes, not much in midfield.

According to ProFootballFocus, only six of Hurts’ 25 attempts on Sunday were from midfield, and only one of those was in the mid/deep area.

“I think against Cleveland, because of the way their coverages were going, they pushed the middle a little bit and had some isolations on the outside that were a little more one-on-one,” Moore said. “We were able to find one-on-one opportunities within the tempo offensive. And so our guys invested a lot of money. You feel comfortable with it. You’re doing an excellent job with it. Would we like to attack the middle of the field over time? Absolutely. And we will continue to find spaces for it.”

Under the middle

The Eagles are never going to be a strong under-center team, but they didn’t play much of it at all on Sunday. In fact, here’s a breakdown according to NFL Next Gen Stats:

Shotgun: 46
Under center: 7
Pistol: 5

“I think there’s an element of game plan and flow to it,” Moore explained. “There are times when the lower middle can be very beneficial for us. We’re trying to put ourselves in the best position to be successful on offense, and with Jalen’s ability to run, there are some components that come with the gun and the pistol that kind of eliminate that threat in some of these cases keep alive. But that’s something we want to put some time and effort into this offseason, and we’ll continue to find different spaces to do that.”

Play action

The play-action usage obviously has something to do with the Eagles’ lack of under-center snaps, but according to PFF, they only had two play-action dropbacks on Sunday. Two!

This is extreme even for Hurts and the Eagles offense. This season they had 10, 6, 13 and 6 play-action dropbacks in the first four weeks of the season.

It’s worth noting that the 34-yard pass to Grant Calcaterra came from the play. One of the biggest plays of the game and they didn’t really capitalize on it.

So what is there?

“Really based on the tempo operation and based on specific looks,” Moore said. “I think, again, we felt like we had some indicators based on appearance that we could use to attack them in specific ways, and in those situations there was a little more emphasis on resetting. We would love to see the play-action numbers increase and we will continue to find ways to do that.”

Movement before snapping

The use (or lack thereof) of pre-snap moves during the Sirianni era was a big issue in Philadelphia. It’s not that using exercise will solve all of their problems, but there’s a reason NFL offenses use it, and the Eagles were last in the NFL in that category in 2023. When they used exercise on Sunday, it seemed to work, but she didn’t get much use out of it.

Based on training camp and the first few weeks of the season, it seemed like movement was a big part of the Eagles’ offense, but it has since dried up.

Here’s a look at the Eagles’ movement rates according to NFL Next Gen Stats in their five games this season:

Week 1: 48/74 (64.9%)
Week 2: 44/68 (64.7%)
Week 3: 34/67 (50.7%)
Week 4: 22/56 (39.3%)
Week 6: 27/62 (43.5%)

“I think it’s because of our plan to put ourselves in the best position to be successful,” Moore said. “In this game we used the ball a lot more. Because of the way they were structured, we felt very comfortable playing on the ball a little bit and being able to control the play a little more at the line of scrimmage.

“And some games will be different. Of course we felt like it was a good thing for us. We were able to make a few plays with the ball where you could get a certain look, and so we felt very comfortable with that one. We like exercise, absolutely. There is definitely a place for it and so we will continue to find spaces for it.”

Eagles’ Kellen Moore at center field, game action and more – NBC Sports Philadelphia

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