The Philadelphia Eagles looked like a potential dynasty 20 months ago.
They blasted Kansas City in Super Bowl LIX, delivering a big blow to the Chiefs’ dynasty. The Eagles were a dominant champion, winning 16 of their last 17 games in that title run. Their roster was considered the best in the NFL and it wasn’t even a debate. The Eagles were going to be a force for many years to come.
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Less than two calendar years later, it’s worth asking if the Eagles need to start a rebuild.
The current state of the Eagles is that they’re one of the NFL’s most unimpressive teams and the future is not as bright as everyone thought. With Jalen Hurts out due to a blood clot, Tanner McKee started and didn’t do much in a 25-14 loss to the Carolina Panthers. McKee had just 215 yards on 45 attempts.
Philadelphia’s defense tried to keep the Eagles in the game but ultimately gave up 401 yards and 25 points. The Eagles are 2-4. Their only wins were close calls against the Washington Commanders and Tennessee Titans, who have combined for two victories this season. Philadelphia has lost four in a row since, and the cracks are everywhere.
The injuries are the biggest problem, but that’s only part of the story. A roster that looked impeccable during that Super Bowl run is decaying rapidly. The offensive line is a shell of what it was, and losing right tackle Lane Johnson to retirement leaves a big hole. The receiving corps is mediocre without A.J. Brown. Saquon Barkley has been hurt but his numbers have fallen off since his incredible (and high volume) 2024 season and he’s 29 years old. The defense is fine but far from dominant. A trade by general manager Howie Roseman, sending two third-round draft picks for Jonathan Greenard after miscalculating the market on Jaelan Phillips in free agency, has been terrible since Greenard has been mostly injured. Greenard had one tackle this season before Sunday’s game and didn’t record a stat against the Panthers.
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Everything has to be on the table for the Eagles, who don’t know when Hurts will be coming off injured reserve. They could and probably should be major sellers at the trade deadline, and maybe even some stars like Barkley could be moved if the salary cap ramifications can be figured out.
Head coach Nick Sirianni has to be on the hot seat after last season’s disappointment and this season’s terrible start. Even the future of Hurts, who hasn’t played anywhere near an elite level after winning Super Bowl MVP, has to be at least discussed even though preseason hero McKee clearly isn’t the in-house answer. Hurts isn’t playing to the level of the five-year, $255 million deal he signed in 2023 and that has to get fixed. Changing offensive coordinators this past offseason didn’t work.
Carolina’s Devin Lloyd sacks Philadelphia’s Tanner McKee in the second half. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
(AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
There are no signs the Eagles are even a decent team this season. There are talented pieces to build around but the overall health of the roster is a concern. The coaching staff is going to be under fire the rest of the season if it doesn’t get better, and it probably won’t with McKee or whoever else the Eagles play at quarterback in Hurts’ absence. It will be hard to redo the roster and possibly the coaching staff so soon after a dominant Super Bowl season, but it might already be time for it in Philadelphia.
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Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 6 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
James Cook: Cook needed a positive game after losing two fumbles last week against the Los Angeles Rams. He came through.
Cook had 95 yards and a touchdown rushing, including the go-ahead score with 4:43 left after the Las Vegas Raiders had tied the game, and also 58 yards receiving in a 33-30 win over the Raiders.
Josh Allen is obviously the epicenter of the Bills offense but he needs some help. Cook provided it on Sunday. The Raiders were a tough opponent and they tied it 23-23 on a touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Tre Tucker with 8:07 left. On the following drive Cook had an 11-yard run, a 26-yard catch and a 3-yard touchdown. That helped get the Bills the win, and reminded everyone how valuable Cook is to the offense.
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Tennessee Titans, winless no more: The Titans looked like they were headed toward 0-6 when Cam Ward had a bad first half and they trailed 13-0 at halftime in Indianapolis.
But the Titans rallied as the Colts fell apart. A blocked punt that was scooped up for a touchdown gave the Titans the lead in the fourth quarter, and even after the Colts answered to tie it, the Titans put together a drive for a go-ahead field goal. Their defense got two stops after that, including one on a Hail Mary on the final play, and they held on to a 26-20 win.
It has been a rough few seasons for the Titans, and a bad start to this season. But they got a win. And all the questions about how long it might take for them to collect their first win are over.
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Jerry Jeudy and the first-place Browns: Jeudy has been mostly a forgotten man for the Cleveland Browns, with an influx of young receiving talent. But he made the biggest play of Sunday’s win over the Baltimore Ravens.
With the game tied 10-10 and less than a minute to go, Jeudy got open in the middle of the field and gained 33 yards to the Ravens’ 29-yard line. Andre Szmyt hit the game-winner as time expired and the Browns had a 13-10 win.
Jeudy had just eight catches for 81 yards this season before Sunday, but had four grabs for 69 yards against the Ravens, including the play that led to the win.
The Browns keep collecting wins in the final minutes, and find themselves 4-2. That puts them in first place for the moment since they have the tiebreaker over the 4-2 Steelers and Ravens, who had little offensive punch without Lamar Jackson (ankle) on Sunday.
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It will be hard for the Browns to maintain this pace because close wins like they’ve had aren’t guaranteed to continue. But it’s a great start to the season in Cleveland.
Drake Maye: Remember when Maye was in a slump to start the season? That’s over.
Maye threw three more touchdowns with no interceptions and the New England Patriots beat the New York Jets 26-19 to improve to 4-2. Maye has 10 passing touchdowns the past three weeks as the Patriots have gone from a very early season disappointment to one of the hottest teams in the NFL.
A.J. Brown had a quiet return to the lineup with 27 receiving yards and some drops, but just having him back is a boost to a New England offense that had already started to gain momentum.
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Maye was criticized heavily for his start, which came after a poor postseason. But he’s back to his near-MVP level the past few weeks.
DK Metcalf and Germie Bernard: The Pittsburgh Steelers were terrible for three quarters against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But they rallied, with Aaron Rodgers hitting his top two receivers over and over again.
Metcalf had 11 catches for 93 yards, including a huge 16-yard gain on third-and-13 to start overtime. Bernard, a rookie, also had 11 catches for 87 yards and he scored the go-ahead touchdown in overtime. The Steelers got a stop after that on a fourth-down sack by Jalen Ramsey, who had a huge game with four tackles for loss and two sacks, and Pittsburgh had a 26-19 win after trailing 16-3 to start the fourth quarter.
Bernard, a second-round draft pick, had 80 yards last week and is emerging as a trusted target for Rodgers. Metcalf is the Steelers’ most talented receiver and that showed Sunday.
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The Steelers are 4-2 and while they’re flawed, perhaps the passing game will continue to get better with those top two receivers playing well.
C.J. Stroud: When the Houston Texans were 0-4 and Stroud wasn’t playing well without Nico Collins, a lot of questions were starting to pile up about what Houston would do with its quarterback in terms of a long-term extension.
Stroud and the Texans are turning around those questions. They’ve won two straight after a thrilling 34-31 victory in London over the Jacksonville Jaguars. They’re two games behind Jacksonville in the division, but they’re alive.
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Stroud played one of his best games since his rookie season. He had 312 yards and three touchdowns and completed a couple of passes to help Houston get in field-goal range for Ka’imi Fairbairn, who hit a 49-yarder as time expired to win it.
Stroud was hot all game against a good Jaguars defense. A lot has changed with him and his team in two weeks.
LOSERS
Los Angeles Rams: Losing to the Buffalo Bills, one of the best teams in football, isn’t that bad. Losing at home to the Arizona Cardinals to fall to 2-4 is a sign that nothing is right with the Rams. The Rams didn’t give up a touchdown but six field goals beat them in an 18-16 loss.
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And plenty of the malaise was due to unforced errors.
Blake Grupe was signed to be the Rams’ new kicker after they cut Harrison Mevis following the loss to the Bills. Grupe got hurt in the first quarter trying to be a hero and fly in to make a tackle on a kickoff. He was done for the day.
The Rams had a fourth-and-1 and with all the offensive weapons the Rams have, they gave it to tight end Davis Allen. Allen was stuffed for no gain.
Stafford took some huge hits. Part of the reason was that left tackle Alaric Jackson was serving a suspension for punching Bills linebacker Bradley Chubb after last Monday night’s game.
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And then to cap it off, after the Rams scored and took a lead with 47 seconds left, cornerback Josh Wallace was called for a very questionable unnecessary roughness for a hit on Cardinals receiver Jalen Brooks, and that 15-yard penalty put Arizona into field goal range. Chad Ryland hit the game winner as time expired.
The Rams had huge expectations before the season. Now they’re two games under .500 with plenty of questions going forward.
Jim Harbaugh: Harbaugh has never had a losing season as an NFL head coach. That’s going to change this season.
The last time Harbaugh had a losing season (not counting a 2-4 record in the COVID-affected 2020 season) came back in 2008, his second season at Stanford. The Cardinal went 5-7 that season, 18 years ago.
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Harbaugh is a very good coach but he’s having an awful, miserable season. The Los Angeles Chargers started the season playing poorly, then injuries hit and Harbaugh’s team became completely unwatchable. On Sunday they suffered through their sixth straight loss to begin the season. The Kansas City Chiefs weren’t perfect but were never in danger of losing as they pulled away for the 22-6 win.
Harbaugh isn’t without blame. His hire of offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel has not worked out. Injuries are a big reason for the Chargers’ issues lately but nothing this season has looked good. The Chargers are in for a long last 11 games as they play out the string, and Harbaugh inevitably takes his first losing season since 2008 at Stanford, which was one season before Andrew Luck arrived on campus.
Jameis Winston: The clock is going to run out on Winston and the New York Giants, who entered Sunday a fluky 3-1-1.
Winston will be blamed for the 34-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints. When Winston threw a bad interception over the middle, which led to a Saints touchdown and a 34-10 deficit, it was time to pull Winston.
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J.J. McCarthy came in and threw an interception right away, but he also led the Giants to 17 fourth-quarter points. The Giants had the ball in the final minute with a chance to at least tie it. But McCarthy threw incomplete on fourth down in the final seconds in the defeat. McCarthy threw for an astonishing 243 yards in the fourth quarter.
After Sunday, it would be a surprise if McCarthy doesn’t start for the Giants in Week 7 at the Houston Texans.
The Giants are still in first place, but that’s because the NFC East is the worst division in the NFL so far this season. Winston’s inconsistency has always been extreme, and while he has some good moments he also plays like he did Sunday when he had 152 yards and two interceptions before being benched.
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The Giants don’t have a great quarterback option to save their season with Jaxson Dart done for the year, but McCarthy’s performance Sunday was interesting. It’s probably enough to earn him the Giants’ next start.
Atlanta Falcons’ hot streak: We’ll fondly recall those two weeks when the Falcons looked like a reborn team with Michael Penix Jr. returning at quarterback.
Atlanta doesn’t look like much of a threat anymore. Sure, the Falcons rallied to make it interesting in the fourth quarter, after a bad start, but Bears cornerback Kyler Gordon got his third sack of the game, causing a fumble that Chicago recovered, when Atlanta had the ball down only eight points in the fourth quarter. That put the finishing touches on a 31-23 Bears win.
A big turning point came late in the first half when rookie Zachariah Branch muffed a punt on his own 10-yard line late in the first half. The Bears scored right after that to take a 21-7 lead into halftime. Branch would lose a fumble in the second half too.
While there were signs of life against Chicago, after the Bears let up with a 31-7 lead, the overall performance wasn’t nearly good enough. Atlanta’s defense was picked apart for three quarters and its offense did little to answer until the fourth quarter.
The Falcons are 2-4 after Sunday. They’re not the threat they looked like for a couple weeks.
