The Eagles have grown soft, and a big reason for this late-season collapse could be found in the departures of Javon Hargrave, T.J. Edwards, Marcus Epps, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, among others.
Hargrave took his talents to San Francisco, and with the 49ers now the No. 1 seed in the 2024 playoffs, the talented defensive tackle has had an up-close approach to the inner workings of coaching staff and game week programs.
During a sitdown with Coach_YAC, Hargrave described the Eagles’ love for sports science and compared San Francisco’s approach to Pat Riley’s grind-it-out style with the Miami Heat.
Javon Hargrave on the difference in practice style between Philly & San Francisco:
“It’s extremely hard at practice here, more demanding… I think it’s more so like the Golden State coaching & Miami Heat (comparison) — over here it’s the Miami Heat, over there it’s Golden State… pic.twitter.com/FrUcTp9PVu
— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) January 8, 2024
Hargrave compared the Eagles’ weekly “relaxed, chill” approach to that of the Golden State Warriors.
Check this shit out… He was on Cam’s podcast and talking about how laid back shit was in Philly as the season went on pic.twitter.com/gaGEAumaDu
— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) January 8, 2024
In the Eagle’s defense, the new approach to practice started when Nick Sirianni got the job, and came after three or four years of Philadelphia leading the NFL in soft tissue injuries and having late-season breakdowns in personnel with players consistently on the injury report.
The comments are an indictment of a laid-back approach and a talented team’s ability to turn it on when the lights come on.
The late-season meltdown could change practice habits and do away with the late-season Wednesday walk-throughs.