Philly Phile | Eagles start tonight; still not sold on ’em

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It can be such, exciting and exhausting times, following the Eagles and being a desperately dedicated fan. You invest so much of yourself into the team, your heart, your soul, your time, your money, and you want to believe that this year, yes, this year, unlike any other, is THE YEAR.

Eagles at Atlanta. Tonight. Let the real craziness commence.

Oh, it’s been fun the last several months, with every culture-molding move made by Chip Kelly causing all kinds of reactions ranging from outrage to the totally trendy “all in” certainty.

It can be such fun, exciting and exhausting times, following the Eagles and being a desperately dedicated fan. You invest so much of yourself into the team, your heart, your soul, your time, your money, and you want to believe that this year, yes, this year, unlike any other, is THE YEAR.

For your sake, I, indeed, hope this year is that year.

I just don’t see it …

It’s not that the Eagles lost so much in who departed. Frankly, to me, it is obvious that LeSean McCoy’s days as an elite running back have passed, and, when you factor that against the underlying drama with him that has bubbled to the surface since his departure, him being taken out of the equation was the best piece of addition by subtraction Kelly has pulled off thus far.

But the injury history of all the offseason acquisitions the coach/GM brought into the fold scare me. DeMarco Murray. Ryan Matthews. Kiko Alonso. Sam Bradford. None of them has proven to be healthy long enough to have a major, positive impact beyond a single season in their careers. They, to me, are not pieces you build around. They are supplemental pieces, good players to fill holes for an abbreviated period before finding that long-term guy for whatever a position of need is.

Now, after all the emotional roller-coaster rides since the end of last season, after all the woe-are-we condemnations changing to pie-in-the-sky proclamations, we finally get to see what the 2015 NFL season holds for the Eagles.

Kickoff at 6:55.

IRONY PART 1: After all the hullabaloo made in week two of the preseason slate about Baltimore’s Terrell Suggs tackling Bradford below the waist, where the Eagles QB’s gimpy left knee just happens to reside, you had to figure some sort of karma payback may be in the mix for the Ravens’ star, especially since so many seemed to be wishing for it.

Well, in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s Baltimore-Denver game, it happened. Suggs tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg. Those most vehemently offended by his action against Bradford should take extra pleasure with the realization that this is Suggs’ second injury of the same kind, since he incurred the same fate to his left one back in 2012.

IRONY PART 2: Conversely, we have Nick Foles. Sent to St. Louis as part of the trade for Bradford, he has been forgotten by the majority of Eagles fans faster than a former flame ever really should be. Oh, 27 & 2, we hardly knew ye.

All Nicky Franchise has done since is gain a contract extension (that Bradford has not) and already lead the Rams past Seattle and its vaunted Legion of Boom defense. His numbers Sunday: 18 of 27 for 297 yards, and two TDs, one of ’em running. Umm, could a Chip move be an uh-oh?

- Jack Kerwin  |  ydkjack1@gmail.com

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