Adrian Fedkiw
The Philadelphia Eagles finished their 2016 campaign at 7-9 following a 27-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday afternoon, but they also concluded the season with a point differential of plus-36.
That’s good enough for the ninth-best margin in the NFL.
So which mark better illustrates how far they are from being a playoff contender? Eagles head coach Doug Pederson believes the Eagles are “extremely close.”
“We’re very close. We’re very close. And when you talk to coaches around the league, they see it. They see it on the outside. Even though the win-loss and everything is not in our favor, I think we lost six games this year by a touchdown or less, and we’ve just got to learn to finish those games. We’ve got to learn to make more plays and finish those games, but I think we’re extremely close, extremely close to being a team that can compete each year for not only the NFC East but for the postseason.”
Pederson also referenced that six losses were “close” and by seven points or fewer.
“You can look at a couple of games. Obviously the Detroit game, if you can finish that one, that’s a great one to look back on. Even the Giants game the first time we had an opportunity at the end. That’s another one. Obviously the Cowboys, we had the lead in the [fourth quarter]. There’s two or three games that just kind of pop up that if the outcome is different, our season is different, but that’s the way this thing goes. You still have to coach and you have to play and you’ve got to learn to finish, and I think that’s one thing that our team has learned this year is how to finish. You can really see, I think, the end of the year here, the last month, how well these guys have really come together and played, and there’s no quit and they love to compete. They love each other, and it showed here down the stretch.”
I’m not as confident in the team being close to being a contender than Pederson is. There’s a lot of holes to fill, the Birds need at least two wide receivers, a running back, depth at tackle and a couple cornerbacks. It might take more than one NFL Draft to fill all those holes and Philadelphia is coming off an offseason in which Howie Roseman spent more money than any other team in the NFL.
Unless Carson Wentz develops ridiculously quick and is able to mask a lot of the deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball, I don’t think the Eagles are extremely close.