The Eagles escaped Week 1 with a 24-22 victory over the Washington Commanders, but Donovan McNabb was not impressed by how they got there.
The former franchise quarterback called the offense “pedestrian” during Tuesday’s debut of Eagles Collective and outlined how new offensive coordinator Sean Mannion can better tailor the unit to quarterback Jalen Hurts’ strengths.
McNabb joined The Athletic’s Zach Berman and digital creator Thomas Mott for the first episode of Hog Media Agency’s weekly roundtable show. The trio discussed Hurts’ relationship with Mannion, the Eagles’ decision to rest their starters during the preseason, and what to expect Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.
The Birds scored 24 points in their season-opening win, but the offense struggled to sustain drives while playing behind the sticks. The Eagles averaged 10 yards to go on second down, and an injured Landon Dickerson struggled to protect Hurts. Dickerson was officially placed on injured reserve on Tuesday.
“If it wasn’t for some of those downfield throws that Jalen Hurts made, then the crowd would have started to get restless,” McNabb said. “This offense, to me, was not exciting.”
Hurts helped compensate for the Eagles’ blocking problems by completing 14 of 25 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns while adding 46 rushing yards. McNabb cautioned against treating all of Hurts’ scrambles as successful offensive plays, however, because several followed a protection breakdown.
“A lot of those plays that Jalen was making with his legs were due to lack of blocking,” McNabb said. “There were great opportunities for Saquon [Barkley] to be able to create more explosive plays in the run game if our big guys up front could cover up a body.”
McNabb wants Mannion to incorporate more quick passes and running-back screens, particularly when defenses begin dropping deeper to prevent explosive plays. He believes those adjustments could create more open-field opportunities for Barkley while easing the pressure on Hurts and the offensive line.
“When you utilize your quick game and utilize your intermediate passing game, and then you continue to run the football, defenses have to figure out how they’re going to attack you,” McNabb said. “That screen game to the halfback becomes major.”
But McNabb believes Mannion’s larger responsibility is constructing an offense around Hurts rather than asking the quarterback to conform entirely to a new system. When Berman asked how much an offense should be tailored to its franchise quarterback, McNabb proposed a 70-30 split.
“You build your schemes around your athletes,” McNabb said. “When you have a franchise guy, you build that offense around his ability and his strengths. What you do is try to enhance his weaknesses by giving him that confidence.”
That responsibility is especially important because Mannion is Hurts’ latest in a long line of play-callers. McNabb said the turnover at offensive coordinator has made it difficult for Hurts to develop lasting comfort within one system.
“I feel bad for Jalen, to be honest with you, because there’s no comfort level,” McNabb said. “You can’t get comfortable with an offense when you’re hiring and firing a new coordinator.”
McNabb also attributed some of the uneven performance to the organization’s decision to rest its starters throughout the preseason. The Eagles instead relied on joint practices to prepare their first-team players for the regular season, an approach Berman said the organization believes provides competitive repetitions with less injury risk.
McNabb was unconvinced.
“You’ve got to go through game situations,” McNabb said. “You [didn’t] sign up for flag football. This ain’t seven-on-seven. This ain’t touch.”
Despite his concerns, McNabb expects the offense to improve Sunday against Tennessee. He predicted Barkley would rush for 105-110 yards, and the Eagles would finish with approximately 400 yards of total offense, including 185 on the ground.
“I think this is when we start to find ways to get the ball in our athletes’ hands with the quick game, quick and intermediate game,” McNabb said. “We’ll still see things that we could change and clean up, but it won’t be as bad as last week.”
McNabb predicted a 28-10 Eagles victory, while Berman picked Philadelphia to win, 24-10, and Mott forecast a 31-17 triumph.
