Philadelphia Eagles' Dominant Preseason Showcases Talent, Depth

Philadelphia Eagles 115, opponents 53.

How dominant has the Eagles’ preseason been? They’ve scored more than twice as many points as their opponents through three games. During the first half alone—when starters and key backups are most likely to be on the field—the Eagles have been five times better than the competition, leading by an astounding score of 86-17.

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	TOTAL
Eagles	52	34	9	20	115
Opponents	3	14	13	23	53

Yes, preseason football is “meaningless.” Starters and key players are held out for various reasons. Teams don’t game-plan for one another. The playbooks are as vanilla as they get.

Wins and losses and even the difference on the scoreboard are almost completely irrelevant.

But when a team is doing what the Eagles are doing this summer, you can’t help but take notice. Nobody should leap to the conclusion that they’re going to steamroll the NFL like this all year long, but preseason or not, there’s also no denying that Philadelphia’s roster looks extremely deep and talented.

In every phase of the game, at that.

We already knew head coach Chip Kelly’s offense was one of the most prolific in the league, and sure enough, it hasn’t disappointed. The Eagles rank second in the NFL in passing, first in rushing, first in total yards and No. 1 in scoring—the lead the last category by 11 points per game.

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Kelly’s elite special teams unit has picked up right where it left off from last season as well, particularly the punt return unit, which has produced touchdowns of 92 and 68 yards.

The coverage units are getting the job done, too, as Philadelphia has limited opponents to 21.2 yards per kick return, while punts have gone for a net average of 41.3 yards—good for third and seventh in the league, respectively.

Yet where the Eagles finally appear to be firing on all cylinders for the first time in Kelly’s three seasons on the sidelines is on defense.

In addition to holding opponents to 17 total points in the first half of three games, the unit has been much more opportunistic, leading all clubs with eight turnovers during the preseason—two fumble recoveries and a league-high six interceptions.

It’s an especially strong sign for Philadelphia’s secondary, which has ranked dead last and second-last against the pass in the past two seasons. After surrendering 18 completions of 40-plus yards in 2014, the Eagles have allowed just one through three games thus far.

Again, we’re all aware these are only exhibition games.

The Eagles didn’t even see much work from the two best quarterbacks on their slate. Andrew Luck played only a series-and-a-half for the Indianapolis Colts in the opener, and Aaron Rodgers didn’t take the field at all for the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night.

It’s impossible to project how Philly’s defensive backfield would fare against MVP-caliber signal-callers, particularly if they prepared as if the outcome mattered.

Similarly, while the Eagles’ special teams continued to assert their will, they did so against teams that may still be figuring out the back end of their roster and aren’t sure yet who will comprise those units. Kelly focuses on special teams like no other coach in the league, be it via practice time or player acquisitions, so it’s only logical that his groups are ahead of others at this stage of the year.

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Furthermore, opposing defenses aren’t preparing for Kelly’s uptempo offensive attack, which especially strains backups.

The Eagles practice that way every single day and employ the strategy nearly all the time on Sundays, so it may seem normal to the trained observer. For backups and camp bodies especially, it has to be nearly impossible to keep up with the pace.

Still, no matter how many caveats are made about the preseason, it’s obvious the Eagles have an extremely talented roster from top to bottom.

Whether it’s starters versus starters, backups versus backups, camp bodies versus camp bodies, it’s all been hot knife meets butter thus far.

Kelly clearly feels this is his deepest roster yet, per PhiladelphiaEagles.com:

"

I think we have more depth, so I believe we'll cut some players that will make other rosters. I'm hoping. That's our goal for all of our players and we tell them that on day one, I want them to play in the NFL. Hopefully it's on our team, if it's not on our team, it's on another team. But it is going to be difficult and we'll have to sit down long and hard after this Packer game and when it's difficult to get to 75, I think from a coaching standpoint that's a good thing, but there is still a human factor that gets involved with cutting somebody, and that part is not a lot of fun.

"

“Definitely more difficult this year than it was in the last two years,” Kelly said about having to make cuts.

It’s hard to argue based on what we’ve seen. What we don’t know is how good the Eagles will be when they trim down to 53 men and have to face opponents who are actively trying their hardest to avoid embarrassment.

One thing seems clear, though: The rest of the NFL appears to have a serious challenge on its hands.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of NFL.com.