Eagles Still Searching For Identity On Both Sides Of Ball

Injuries have hampered the search since the full team has only been together once, and that was in the season-opening win over the Green Bay Packers.

Sep 16, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) talks with head coach Nick Sirianni during a timeout in the first quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

PHILADELPHIA - Four games into the season, the Eagles are still trying to find out who they are. More specifically, what their identity is.

Jalen Hurts talked a bit about still being in search of it because they haven’t had their entire team together for more than one game this season, and that was the season-opening win over the Green Bay Packers on Sept. 6 in Brazil.

Since then, they have been without A.J. Brown for three games, and DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson for one game. The quarterback believes the team will win games once that identity is unearthed.

Until then…

“I think it’s challenging when you’ve had different moving pieces throughout,” said Hurts.

Perhaps the Eagles will take steps in that direction once they return from the bye week to host the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 13 (1 p.m.).

Exactly what an identity looks like was explained a bit by head coach Nick Sirianni on Monday.

“Identity is what you do well, right?” he said. “Identity is what you do well, what you do consistent, and what you hang your hat on. That changes year in, year out. What our identity was in '21, '22, '23, all those years had little differences in who you are.

“Same thing now. You figure that out as you go throughout the year. I'm not sure you see any team right now that says, ‘This is our identity.’ There are some, probably, but there are not a lot.”

On offense, the identity looks like a running team, which doesn’t seem much different than previous seasons, but this year they have one of the best in the NFL doing the running in Saquon Barkley.

The New York Giants castoff has collected over 100 yards from scrimmage in each of the first four games and has 520 of them. His 435 yards have him ranked third in the league behind Derrick Henry (480) and Jordan Mason (447), all three runners well ahead of the next back, Alvin Kamara, who has 362.

The Eagles’ two-pronged passing attack with Brown and Smith hasn’t taken flight yet due to both missing time with injury. In the past, though, part of their identity has been those two, who have gone over 1,000 yards each of the past two years together.

Sirianni said identity begins with the players first, and not the coaches, and an identity continually evolves as the season goes on.

“I know one thing that we can say our identity is as a football team that we talk a ton about is our team, our accountability, our detail, and our toughness that we're constantly trying to work on and become better at that at all times,” he said.

As for the defense, an identity appears far from emerging, especially after looking so good one week in New Orleans and so discombobulated the following week in Tampa.

More NFL: Eagles Struggling To Find Ways To Get Newcomer Receiver Involved