I’m convinced tanking is only a problem when it’s associated with Philadelphia.
That’s the conclusion I came to the last couple of days after Doug Pederson’s decision to pull Jalen Hurts in the fourth quarter blew up Twitter. All over social media and TV, you’ve had analysts, sports personalities, and any fan imaginable chime in on the Philadelphia Eagles decision to bench Hurts for back-up Nate Sudfeld. This ultimately led to the suspicion of tanking as the Eagles ended up losing to the Washington Football Team, 20-14.
With the loss, the Eagles finished the 2020 season with a 4-11-1 record and clinched the sixth overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft. Meanwhile, Washington’s win secured the NFC East title for the Football Team while eliminating the New York Giants from playoff contention.
The Giants needed the Eagles to win in order to make the playoffs and once Hurts was pulled from the game for Sudfeld, several Giants players voiced their disproval with the move.
After the game, social media went wild as people were livid with the decision (mostly Giants fans), especially after Pederson said he was playing to win the game in the postgame press conference. People have gone on to say the Eagles were mocking the NFL and that the league should go as far to punishing them for their actions.
With so much slander going toward the Birds for this move, I feel the need to go on a little rant here. So, bear with me, this might be a lot.
First off, this game was meaningless for the Eagles. I feel like this is a concept that is somehow missed because the result of their game affected another team’s playoff implications. But at the end of the day, this was a Week 17 game for a team that was already out of the playoffs. Hence the reason that nine starters sat out the game to begin with. Teams rest players all the time in the last week of the season, this isn’t news.
Secondly, if you’re mad that the Eagles took out their starting quarterback, who already played a full three quarters in a meaningless Week 17 game, then why aren’t you mad at a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers. They benched Big Ben, along with several others like TJ Watt and Cam Heyward, for their last game against the Cleveland Browns. I get it, the Steelers are already in the playoffs so resting for the postseason is a bit different.
But in the end, not really.
There were playoff implications riding on that game as well as the Browns needed to win that game in order to clinch a playoff berth. If they lost, the Miami Dolphins would have gotten into the playoffs.
So, instead the Browns played against Mason Rudolph and several second-string Steelers with a playoff spot on the line while the Dolphins went up against a fully loaded Buffalo Bills team and got smacked. Sure, if Miami wanted to get in, they should have won their own game.
But where are we going to draw the line? If teams like the Chiefs and Steelers can rest their starters for the playoffs to avoid injury, why can’t teams already eliminated do the same?
And that’s what leads me to my next point. What if Jalen Hurts got hurt?
What if instead of taking out Hurts at the start of the fourth quarter, Doug Pederson left him in, and he tore his ACL. The entire narrative of this situation would be completely different, as Eagles fans and the media would be calling for Pederson’s job if that happened. An extra quarter from Hurts wouldn’t have changed the Eagles evaluation of him and their current quarterback controversy. The Eagles have every right to protect their players just like teams who clinched the playoffs do.
And miss me with this integrity of the game crap and “you play to win the game.” All the people that are saying this are either Giants fans who are upset they didn’t make the playoffs or talking heads that feel they need to show their morality side. Like seriously, all the people slandering the Eagles, saying “it’s about the principle” don’t give two shits about the ethics of football and are just trying to get brownie points from fans.
And to Joe Judge, who tried to subtly call out Doug Pederson about playing the game the right way.
Shut up.
You were a 6-10 team, went 1-3 in your last four games, and averaged 12 points per game in that span. Win one more game and we don’t have this conversation. This team acts like they deserve something when they were the 30th overall offense in the league. You’re relying on a 4-11-1 team, who has nothing to play for, to beat the division leader, who has everything to play for.
I could have told you the Eagles would have done something unconventional this game.
Oh wait, actually Doug Pederson did tell his players and the media that something like this would happen. According the Jason Kelce, Pederson expressed throughout the week that Sudfeld was going to get some playing time and “was told to be ready to play.”
So, I’m not buying the players being surprised by the move. Like Kelce said, the optics of when he was put in the game was surprising, but this was a known decision that all the players had knowledge of going in.
Also, putting in Sudfeld didn’t guarantee a win for Washington. Pederson didn’t tell Sudfeld to throw a pick and fumble a snap. The dude just played bad.
Like I said, it was already stated going into the week that Sudfeld was going to get some action in the final game of the season. It wasn’t really determined when it was going to happen, but at some point, he was getting in.
Unfortunately for Nate and the Eagles, the score got in the way.
This game wasn’t supposed to be close. We were already sitting nine starters. My guess is the hope was to be losing by a wide margin at halftime and then Sudfeld would have went in for the second half.
But instead the score was 17-14 at half so Doug kept Jalen in. After a whole quarter of not doing anything (2-8 for 7 yards passing in the third), Doug pulled the plug on Jalen to put Nate in.
The fact that it was a one score game rubbed people the wrong way and I can see that. But again, it all comes back to this game meaning absolutely nothing for the Eagles so they really can do whatever the hell they want.
Finally, I don’t know if people get this, but the difference between the sixth and ninth pick is huge not only for the Eagles but in the NFL as a whole.
Look at the past five years of NFL drafts and look at the disparity among picks 6 and 9. For the most part, it’s night and day. If you have a guy in the draft that you are solely focused on, it’s smart for you to do everything in your power to get him. And I believe that’s what the Eagles saw.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Eagles are focusing on Alabama’s Devonta Smith or LSU’s Ja’marr Chase in the draft. Both are game changing, can’t-miss wide receiver talents that the Eagles could desperately use on their offense.
If that’s the case, there’s no way either of them would have been there at nine. Look at the order:
Either Chase or Smith is going to go top-five to either the Miami Dolphins at three or the Cincinnati Bengals at five. That leaves one of them falling to us at six.
If were at nine however, I see the Detroit Lions snatching up the remaining of the two, as both starting wide receivers, Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr., are unrestricted free agents this offseason.
Also, if you dive deeper into these picks, you’ll see the discrepancy in value between the two. According to Jimmy Johnson’s Draft Value Chart, the difference between the sixth and ninth pick is the 68th overall pick in the draft. So essentially those three spots are equivalent to an early third-round pick. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty valuable considering the draft capital team’s normally give up when trying to trade up in the draft.
Look at the Chicago Bears and what they gave up in 2017 to move up from three to two to get Mitch Trubisky.
- 2017 first-round pick
- 2017 third-round pick
- 2017 fourth-round pick
- 2018 third-round pick
Or look at the Eagles and what they gave up to move up to draft Wentz.
- 2016 first-round pick,
- 2016 third-round pick
- 2016 fourth-round pick
- 2017 first-round pick
- 2018 second-round pick
It’s a steep price just to move up a couple spots in the draft, especially toward the top. Securing that sixth pick instead of the ninth is ridiculously valuable.
So in the end, did the Eagles lose on purpose?
No.
But did putting in Sudfeld make the team less competitive?
Sure. That’s no secret. Jalen Hurts is better than Nate Sudfeld, everyone knows that.
Did the Eagles know that if they won the game, they would move from six to nine in the draft?
Absolutely. Everybody on the team and the front office knew that, like this isn’t something twitter GM’s found out on their own.
The decision to play Sudfeld indirectly knocked out two birds with one stone, as they were able to get him some reps while also getting a better chance staying at the sixth pick.
Do I feel bad that they did that?
Not at all.
The Eagles did what was in the best interest of their football team, no one else’s. They shouldn’t have to worry about what their actions could mean for another team’s success. The move definitely could have caused some locker room discomfort but when Hurts or Wentz is throwing TD’s to Chase or Smith next year, this will all be forgotten.
I find this situation so easy to understand, and the fact that the Eagles did exactly what was the easiest move for the future of their franchise is what has people so upset.
(Hey, that’s what the NFL gets for flexing the Birds to primetime on Sunday Night Football. After watching this year, we could have told you it would have been a disaster.)
