Believe it or not but the Philadelphia Eagles have not always been a juggernaut with a team able to compete for a Super Bowl. Who would’ve guessed that the last team to win a Super Bowl in the NFC East had some rocky years. Here we’ll take a look back at some of the most catastrophic teams in their long history. Before you think this will be too negative enjoy this highlight. By the way, buckle in it’s the longest article yet.
There’s plenty of different metrics to use when debating the worst team. You can go by something simple like win loss ratio, point differential, or expectations going into the season. I’ll give some examples of each and then you can make a choice yourself. This isn’t a cop out I’ll give my thoughts but it’s incredibly bias, as most sports media is even if they don’t admit it.
1933 Eagles: picture this, you’re living in Philadelphia three years after the cheesesteak came out. You spent all day Saturday smoking cigs indoors and getting your child’s bed ready with the most leaded paint you can imagine. It’s Sunday and you’re about to sit down and watch the newly created Philadelphia Eagles play this new confusing sport called football. Turns out, like most expansion teams, you stink. You lose to the New York Giants 0-56 in your very first game. Yup by inflation numbers you lost by around 200 points. Hey at least next week you only lose by 25, but still score 0 points.
Now why would I say this is one of the worst teams? Because of the hope, that’s what kills you. A brand new team begins and anything could happen. That includes going 3-5-1 with a -81 point differential. You begin to wonder if this sets the tone for your franchise. Sadly, this team doesn’t have a winning record for a full decade. In other words, that child you painted the bedroom for (assuming they didn’t die of lead poisoning) hit double digits. They were ready for a career in the mines before a winning season. Lucky for the kid, they win two championships before they’re tenured at the mines by sixteen. Guess it is darkest before the dawn.
1972 Eagles: Are you wondering how I’m going to talk about 1972? Well if you are I can skip a prelude and just jump straight in. It’s very fitting that The Exorcist came out this year. It must have felt like the Eagles were possessed given how bad the team played that year.
This team can be summarized quickly by mentioning the -207 point differential and a 2-11-1 record. The lowlights include starting 0-5, losing 10-62 to the Giants, and tying the St. Louis Cardinals 6-6. Looking at the team, you see Harold Carmichael but he only started two games. You also see they had three (3) different quarterbacks. This never leads to much success.
2012 Eagles: imagine this scenario, it’s 2012 and you survived the Mayan calendar predictions. Yeah turns out relying on data thousands of year old doesn’t pan out. Fill out the comments about a round earth being wrong (Please don’t). Unfortunately, you learn it may have been about the Eagles. The most successful team run of the Super Bowl era. They won zero Super Bowls during this run while all of your divisional rivals have at least two. Just a sad ending to a team that made four straight conference finals and walked away with nothing. We’ll analyze why it’s one of the worst teams.
It represents an end of an era that coincides with my childhood innocence. Growing up I always had hope the Eagles and Andy Reid would one day complete the seemingly impossible. It’s also completely anecdotal so let’s get some real facts. Still it was the worst season for a coach that’s easily a hall of famer. But at the same time, it ended up working out for both teams. Analytically, it’s the third worst point differential in Eagles history at -164 and a 4-12 record.
2015 Eagles: Think back to 2015. Everywhere you go, you hear Uptown Funk and it hasn’t started to get annoying yet. Harambe is still alive and well for at least the year. We’re also close to finding out what finally happened with the Malaysian flight. Spoiler but we did not learn anything of substance. Things aren’t all great, Chip Kelly obtained full executive power and immediately removed fan-favorite Desean Jackson the previous year. Howie Roseman had been relegated to just a figurehead.
You may wonder why I would include this team. They finished second in the division and one game below .500 (7-9) and didn’t have a horrendous point differential (-53). The problem was learning that Chip Kelly’s offense was not sustainable. The Eagles made a lot of risky moves going into this season so it was a make or break season. The biggest move was trading Lesean McCoy for Kiko Alonso. They replaced McCoy with Demarco Murray who was a horrendous fit. This can be easily proven by this highlight of Demarco Murray sliding for the first down. The move that shocked me more was when they released (no trade or contract issue just released) Evan Mathis. If you forgot, Mathis was a back to back first team All-Pro. For a city that always prides themselves on strong trench play, I think this is the worst move made by Kelly.
What do I think was the worst team? I already said it but it was the Andy Reid 2012 team. The whole year felt like things had to change but there were no good options. The franchise was about to embark on a tumultuous journey into uncertainty. Still if they had managed to win one Super Bowl, imagine how different things would have been. Let me know your thoughts and if you think I missed a team. As always, go birds!
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