Inside the meeting that helped turn the Eagles' season around — and put Saquon to use

PHILADELPHIA — Eagles coach Nick Sirianni had just retreated to his office on a Monday afternoon in late September following a team meeting when three imposing figures appeared in the doorway.

His team had just fallen to 2-2 thanks to a 33-16 loss to the Bucs in Tampa Bay — the site of their lopsided playoff loss in January that completed a 1-6 collapse, expedited the firing of coordinators Brian Johnson and Sean Desai and brought Sirianni’s standing into question.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts went 18-of-30 for 158 yards with a touchdown in the rematch. He was sacked six times and was charged with a pair of fumbles, losing one of them for his seventh turnover of the season — second most in the league, behind only the Tennessee Titans‘ Will Levis. The ground game never got established with Tampa jumping out to a 24-0 lead, yet Saquon Barkley still managed to rack up 84 yards on 10 carries.

It was on that sour note that players were set to dispatch from the NovaCare Complex for their bye week respite. But three of them — offensive linemen Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson — first had to get something off their chests.

“Hey, can we talk?” one asked as they appeared at Sirianni’s door, per Mailata.

“Yeah, come sit down,” Sirianni replied.

The 6-foot-8, 365-pound Mailata made his way inside — along with the 6-6, 325-pound Johnson and 6-6, 332-pound Dickerson — and situated themselves on a couple of small couches inside Sirianni’s office. They proceeded to make their pitch for why the Eagles should shift toward a more run-oriented, offensive line-dependent attack.

“It was just reminding him, ‘You have weapons in the air, on the ground and you have a hell of an O-line,'” Mailata said. “We wanted to lead with, ‘Hey, before Saquon got here, you had us. Now you have us and Saquon. So use it.'”

That conversation helped set the tone for a bye week of change for the Eagles. They are running the ball 40.8 times per game (up from 30 rushes before the bye) and are averaging 194 yards on the ground — well above the No. 2 team over that span, the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are averaging 160 yards per game on the ground. Philadelphia’s designed run rate of 59% since Week 6 is highest in the NFL — up from 40% from Weeks 1-4 (18th highest in NFL).

Most importantly, the Eagles (7-2) are a perfect 5-0 since becoming more ground dependent, setting up a clash for first place in the NFC East with the Washington Commanders (8-3) Thursday night (8:15 pm ET, Prime Video).

“I want to f—ing win. Simple as that,” Dickerson said when asked why he felt it was important to speak up.

Barkley has been the primary beneficiary of the adjustment. An early Offensive Player of the Year candidate, he ranks second in the NFL in rushing yards (991) and rush yards per game (110.1) behind Derrick Henry. With a league-best 24 runs of 10-plus yards, Barkley has ripped off one highlight play after another — none more dazzling than his reverse hurdle over a Jacksonville Jaguars defender in Week 9 that further elevated his star status.

“As a player and as the running back, to have the offensive line go to the coach and say this is something that we want to expand on means a lot,” Barkley said. “It shows the trust they have in me and the trust that we have in each other because you can’t do it without the guys up front. And we have the best offensive line in my opinion.”

They’re right up there. The Eagles’ O-line group featuring (from left to right) Mailata, Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Mekhi Becton and Johnson ranks second in ESPN’s pass block win rate (69%) and 11th in run block win rate (72%)

More opportunity for Barkley naturally means less for Hurts and his receivers. Hurts averaged 39 dropbacks over the first four weeks compared with 26 per game in the past five. But his efficiency has shot up. He has had only two turnovers since, both coming against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

Hurts, by all accounts, has taken the changes in stride.

“[Hurts] likes winning,” Barkley said. “We all like winning. So whatever way it takes to win, that’s what we’re willing to do.

“I’m still training and keeping my body ready and whenever the team continues to need me to continue to take over a game and lean on the run game and lean on the offensive line, I’m willing to do [so]. At the same time, I know there’s going to be weeks where we’ll have to throw the ball. We’ve got A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert and Jalen Hurts. … And that’s the beauty of this team: When you have so many talented people and so many stars on this team, when they’re all about winning football games, it makes it easier.”

It’s not like Hurts hasn’t had a hand in shaping the offensive vision. While many of the players took a break for the bye week, Hurts and Sirianni had myriad conversations about the direction of the football team.

Hurts said it was “one of the most efficient bye weeks” he has had since coming into the league as a second-round pick in 2020, and noted how he and Sirianni “were able to come together in harmony and have the same goal in mind, trying to get this thing right” — an indication of how far they had come following a rocky 2023 season.

Hurts has pushed for the offense to be more multiple. One of ways that has manifested is in under-center usage. The Eagles had 17 carries for 19 rush yards from under center in their first four games, the fewest in the NFL. They have 61 carries for 295 rush yards over their past five games — an increase in usage from 11% to 26%, via ESPN Research. Their 4.8 yards per rush from under center is the fourth best in the NFL over that time.

Play-action effectiveness has ticked up along with the commitment to the run. Hurts is averaging 15.8 yards per attempt on play-action since Week 6, the best in the NFL over that span.

“I spent a lot of time with Jalen, obviously, during that bye week and just talking through things. Jalen had so much good insight, and then you always listen to your players as far as they are the ones out there seeing it and feeling it,” Sirianni said when asked about his meeting with the linemen.

“And so I think it’s just good feedback. That’s just good organizational football, is to be communicating with everyone to get everyone on the same page. Yeah, I thought it was great. Great, productive meetings.”

The session with Johnson, Mailata and Dickerson was about 20-30 minutes. The speaking time was pretty evenly split among the three of them, Mailata said, with Sirianni doing most of the listening while also sharing his own thoughts.

“He really acknowledged us,” Mailata said. “We felt heard.”

Added Johnson: “He’s very responsive and he’s very back and forth. He’s not going to dismiss you. … That’s why I think Nick is so great. He listens and we make changes and we adapt.”

Johnson’s role as leader has grown since center Jason Kelce retired this offseason. The five-time Pro Bowler has been candid about issues on offense as they’ve come up, and as a 12-year vet, he has the experience and clout to offer solutions. That’s being applied behind the scenes, as well.

“If I get tired of seeing something or something needs to change, I’ll voice my opinion,” he said. “That’s what I like about playing here: Nothing’s ever gone in one ear and out the other or kind of seen as a nuisance.”

To illustrate their point to Sirianni, the linemen pointed back to 2021, Sirianni’s first year on the job. The Eagles had stumbled out to a 2-5 start, but their fortunes changed when they leaned into the ground game more, starting against the Detroit Lions during a 44-6 rout in Week 9. They went on to win seven of 10 to make the playoffs.

“Any time you can limit just dropback passing, that’s so beneficial for a team. That’s another play of less stress,” said Mailata. “When you’re running the ball and you run play-actions, it confuses the defense, and now you’re putting the stress and the onus on them. It was just kind of, we’re tired of being stressed. But in a nicer [way]. We went up there and were like, ‘Come on, help us out here.’

“We stated some examples of games when we’ve used [the ground-heavy approach] and Coach was like, ‘Yeah, OK. Go back to our roots.'”