NFL offenses are changing at a rapid pace. The league-leading Philadelphia Eagles (10-2) are lagging well behind the trend, though.
Teams are using motion more than ever, according to ESPN’s Seth Wader, with the exception of the Eagles, who have the lowest snap motion percentage (24.8) and motion (9.6) among all teams. Contextually speaking, the Eagles’ motion rate in 2017 would have led the entire NFL, demonstrating just how quickly the league changed.
Motion alone won’t guarantee success because strategy and staff play a major role. For example, four of the NFL’s top 10 scoring offenses—the Miami Dolphins (2nd, 32.0), San Francisco 49ers (3rd, 29.3), Detroit Lions (6th, 27.3), and Baltimore Ravens (7th, 27.0)—have snap-motion percentages in the top 10. In the meantime, about the same number of teams are in the bottom 10, which includes the league’s highest-scoring team, the Dallas Cowboys (1st, 32.3), Buffalo Bills (5th, 27.3), and Eagles (4th, 27.4).
The Eagles are ranked eighth in yards per play (5.4), ninth in yards per game (361.7), and fourth in points per game going into Week 14. The offense’s inability to move seems to be less of a problem, then. Not so quickly.
The Eagles’ apparent reliance on Hurts, supported by an apparently predictable offense, has been exposed following a lopsided loss to the 49ers. Unlike most teams, the 49ers’ approach to Hurts and the Eagles was to contain the quarterback for Philadelphia rather than chase him around. With the Eagles unable to move very much, the 49ers were able to line up their pass rush with little modification, and it paid off in a 42-19 hammering in Week 13.
Their All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area that the 49ers “put the blueprint out there” to slow down the Eagles. Not every team has the same impact players on defense as the 49ers do.
If anything, the motion stats point to the Eagles’ lack of offensive originality, which rivals will eventually exploit. It’s far too late in the season—14 weeks in—to make significant roster changes. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to watch if the Eagles adopt a different strategy against the rival Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football” following the disaster against the 49ers.