A year after the Philadelphia Eagles satisfied a citywide desire to run-the-ball!, the franchise’s sixth play-caller in six seasons is once again sorting out where the run game fits within his system.
Kevin Patullo knew the questions were coming. The Eagles’ 21-17 Sunday loss to the Denver Broncos contained the perplexity that has in the past provoked fans to picket outside the NovaCare Complex’s gates. After explosive pass plays secured a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter, the Eagles spun their wheels within a pass-oriented approach until the Broncos overtook them. Saquon Barkley, whom the Eagles in March made the highest-paid running back in history, totaled one carry in the second half.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni used the word “obviously” when saying after the game that they “want to run the ball more than we were able to today, or what we did today.” Patullo partly attributed the disparity to run-pass option plays that bent toward the pass based on how the Broncos defended them. Still, of Philadelphia’s eight first-down plays in the second half, seven were designed dropbacks. Patullo acknowledged that the disparity also partly originated from the game plans they prepared.
“I think each game presents something different a little bit,” Patullo said. “You can sneak runs here and there and we’ve been really successful in certain areas throwing the ball recently, if you look through the games comes kind of situational stuff, which has been different this year, which is good. It’s added some diversity to our offense, so I think each game is kind of dependent on certain things.”
It is not surprising that the Eagles opened this season with an emphasis on their passing game. Reigning Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts was entering his fourth season with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith as targets, tight end Dallas Goedert returned on a restructured contract, and the Eagles could also rely on Jahan Dotson in his second year in the system to riposte the countermoves by opponents who’d presumably aim to stop Barkley.
What is surprising is that the Eagles have experienced defenses playing them with a higher rate of two-high safety coverage structures, and they have either been inefficient at exploiting those structures with their rushing attack or reluctant to turn to the ground game in such situations.
Let’s begin with a wide-angle lens. The Eagles are averaging their fewest yards per rush (3.5), yards before contact per rush (1.24) and yards after contact per rush (2.27) since Sirianni was hired in 2021, according to TruMedia. With Thursday night’s matchup against the New York Giants ahead, and to put the issue in terms of the sort of offense Barkley left behind, the 2023 Giants recorded higher averages in each category (4.1, 1.51, 2.62). The Eagles’ averages through five games this year are also lower than last year’s five-game start (4.7, 2.15, 2.53).
The slow start is foreboding. Philadelphia’s success on the ground at this time last year justified the 2024 team’s adjustment during its Week 5 bye toward the run-heavy approach that helped fuel its Super Bowl run. The 2025 Eagles don’t yet have the numbers to suggest that leaning more on the run will serve them well. Barkley only has eight fewer rushes than he had through five games last year, but he is averaging 2.1 fewer yards per rush and 1.28 fewer yards before contact.
“Obviously, I would love (for) everything (to be) firing at a high level,” Barkley said Tuesday. “But there’s a long-term goal for this, too, and you just want to continue to build. And even when you think you’re firing at a high level, there’s always something you can improve on. And right now we know, we’re identifying what we need to improve on, what we need to be better at. We just got to go fix it.”
Barkley’s 0.98 average yards before contact is particularly alarming. It is tied for the lowest average of his career (min. 20 rushes). It ranks 23rd among the 36 NFL running backs who have started in a game this season. It belongs to a statistic that generally indicates which side is controlling the line of scrimmage. The low average calls into question not only the system and its approach, but the performance of Philadelphia’s offensive line — a consideration that, without merit, borders blasphemy against what’s long been one of the league’s best units.
The team’s shortened week appeared to limit fresh perspective on any potential problems up front. None of the starting offensive linemen were available in the locker room after Sunday’s game (the majority of players were either absent or visibly getting treatment to kick off a four-night turnaround), nor were they in the locker room during Tuesday’s 45-minute media availability. But starters like left tackle Jordan Mailata have in the past been self-critical after games, saying their level of play hasn’t met their standard.
Coach Nick Sirianni said injuries to the offensive line have not caused the Eagles to turn away from running the ball. (Denny Medley / Imagn Images)
An offensive line in which right guard Tyler Steen is the only newcomer has also managed injuries. Right tackle Lane Johnson has started in all five games, but left a Week 3 win over the Los Angeles Rams after sustaining a neck injury on the first drive. Left guard Landon Dickerson was ruled out at halftime in Sunday’s game with a left ankle injury. Center Cam Jurgens has played every snap this season but underwent offseason back surgery. But even when the offensive line has been at full strength, Barkley has averaged 3.8 yards per carry. His career-low average was 3.7 in 2021 (min. 20 snaps).
Sirianni said the offensive line’s health has not deterred the Eagles from choosing to run the ball. So, the on-field product (and everything that contributes to it) has resulted in a run game that is curiously less reliable than it is constructed to be.
Let’s switch to a narrower lens. The Eagles, like last year, remain an 11 personnel-oriented offense. But opponents are defending that package differently this season. When playing 11 personnel, the Eagles are seeing Cover 1 at a significantly lower percentage this season (9.7) than last season (25.8). They’re also seeing more Cover 4 this season (20.0) than last season (10.9). In other words, this year, the Eagles’ opponents are more often presenting four deep defenders against their three wide receiver sets instead of deploying a single-high safety and arranging the remaining defenders to play closer to the line of scrimmage.
Less Cover 1 also typically means less man coverage. According to TruMedia, the Eagles didn’t see Cover 1 when in 11 personnel until Week 3 against the Rams. The Eagles jumped at the opportunity to exploit the uptick in man coverage with a passing game that relishes it: Hurts threw three touchdown passes and Brown recorded a season-high six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Similar conditions occurred on Sunday against the Denver Broncos. Denver used Cover 1 to defend 11 personnel at a higher percentage (20.5) than Los Angeles did (17.3). It helps explain why the Eagles abandoned the run game in the second half while chasing explosive passes they’d already secured.
“They was playing man-to-man,” Brown said then. “It was simple. It was what we wanted and they gave it to us.”
The flip side of those conditions identifies the run-game problem. The Eagles’ opponents are not crowding the box against 11 personnel as often this season — six-man boxes (42.3 percent in 2024, 50.8 in 2025), seven-man boxes (30.6, 25.9), eight-man boxes (6.7, 4.9) — yet the Eagles are running the ball 33.5 percent out of 11 personnel when they ran the ball 43.9 percent in that package last year.
Cover 4 can appear to present favorable conditions for the Eagles to run the ball. But if the two high safeties are aggressively charging forward to fill lanes when they (correctly) read run, the structure can still be an effective run-stopper. The Eagles are running the ball at a significantly lower percentage against Cover 4 this season (54.o) than they did in 2024 (66.1).
Split statistics bring Philadelphia’s reluctance to run the ball further into focus.
The Eagles have not opened with last year’s run-oriented approach. Although they see a higher rate of Cover 4 on first downs in which they deploy 11 personnel (21.9 percent) than they did in 2024 (12.6), the Eagles’ first-down run percentage is lower out of 11 personnel (48.4) than it was in 2024 (60.6). Even within their more run-oriented 12 personnel package, the Eagles’ first-down run percentage is lower this season (63.6) than it was last year (75.6).
Asked about the factors when deciding whether to run or pass on first down, Patullo said, “There are multiple things.”
“It’s in-game a little bit,” Patullo said. “‘Okay, maybe I threw it on the first one, then I’ve got to run it,’ or it’s also previous games. Field position kind of has a play into it, too. What kind of personnel we’re in offensively, what kind of personnel they’re in defensively. So, it’s a constant kind of working through whether it’s far as an analytical thing, whether it’s far as just a coaching feel thing, there’s a back and forth where you got to just work through it to make sure you’re covering different areas. You’re not just all into one and into the other.”
This season’s pass-oriented approach has not maintained last season’s efficiency. Philadelphia’s 20th-ranked EPA per play on first downs this year (0.0) is lower than its seventh-ranked number last year (0.04).
That drop in first-down efficiency has contributed to the Eagles facing longer distances on later downs. On third downs, they find themselves in trouble more often than last year in to-gain distances of both 7-10 yards (25.8 percent in 2024, 28.8 in 2025) and 11-19 yards (17.8, 22.7). And, as the Eagles dig deeper into their already established pass-oriented approach on a pass-oriented down, their third-down conversion rate is also lower in 2025 (37.9) than it was in 2024 (41.7).
“When we get drives going, we get drives started, we’re really good,” Barkley said. “When we don’t, we’re really bad. So we just gotta find a way to be more consistent in that area. And that’s starting out with our detail, being more detailed, making sure we’re all on the same page and making the play work.”
