Ron Jaworski knows a thing or two about the Eagles. Not only did he play quarterback here for a number of years, but he also keeps tabs on the organization.
Yesterday, he did a conference call with reporters and previewed the upcoming NFL season. As expected, Jaworski had a few opinions on the so-called “Dream Team.”
“When you look at Philadelphia, you know, they have an incredible assembly of talent on their team right now,” Jaworski said. “However, that being said, they’ve also had incredible changes on their coaching staff. You know, a new defensive coordinator in Juan Castillo, a new offensive line coach in Howard Mudd, a new defensive line coach in Jim Washburn, a new linebacker coach in Mike Caldwell, new secondary coach in Mike Zordich, and it takes time for a team to develop that chemistry that’s so important.”
When some analysts talk I promptly block it out as noise or switch the channel. Jaws, however, does his homework and knows his subject matter. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the above comments echo what I have been saying for the past few weeks.
A simple translation is, the Eagles are arrogant. They chose the shortest offseason in NFL history to make drastic and sweeping changes across their roster and coaching staff. Right now, the offensive line is very suspect. I still have the Eagles winning the NFC East — my official predictions should be finished and posted tomorrow — but it won’t be a cake-walk. At all.
Anyway, back to Jaws. He didn’t name specific teams — other than Houston, who he thinks may be the best team in the AFC — but the ex-Eagle is betting on the teams that stood pat.
“The Eagles have spent over $200 million in this offseason procuring talent, but we just don’t know how quickly that talent can come together or if it ever comes together. So there’s certainly a lot of unknowns,” Jaworski said. “Even if you have talent, can they play well as a team in the consummate team game?”
“I quite honestly would be very surprised. I know the term Dream Team has been thrown out there. I know at least the guys I know on the Eagles, that organization, kind of despise that word,” Jaworski said. “I think it’s going to be difficult to get off to a fast start. And we’ve spoken earlier this year about teams that have stability in the coaching staff and with players, I think, are the teams that are the teams to beat this year.”
Follow @mike_greger on Twitter for the full transcript.
