It’s heartbreaking: A very talented Philadelphia Eagles player has announced his sudden retirement, sending a powerful statement and bidding the team and supporters a heartfelt farewell.
The Eagles’ season is over after they were defeated 32-9 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night in the playoff wild-card round.
After 13 seasons, Jason Kelce informed his teammates that he intended to retire from the Eagles. Wednesdays were getting to him, Kelce admitted to columnist Marcus Hayes, but there’s more to his upcoming retirement than that. His teammates on the Birds say he’s left a lasting impression on the community and the game.
The future of Nick Sirianni is uncertain. Although the Eagles coach claimed he isn’t considering his future, Jalen Hurts’ ambivalent support of Sirianni could be the last straw.
Eagles grades: James Bradberry’s decline, Jalen Hurts’ crushing safety, and more. The Bucs were a team effort to defeat, and Sirianni is just one of the Birds’ many issues.
Following the conclusion of the Eagles’ season, these are the teams they will face in 2024, as well as four players they may select in the first round of the current NFL Draft.
Following Monday night’s game, Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson said of Jason Kelce, “I don’t think we’ll see another like him for a long time.”
Let’s examine some significant numbers and statistics from the Super Bowl LII champion center’s career while we wait for him to make an official retirement announcement.
During his time with the Eagles, Kelce started 156 straight regular-season games, a franchise record. In Week 6 of this season, against the New York Jets, he broke Jon Runyan’s previous record of 144 straight regular-season starts (2000–08). Trailing only Atlanta Falcons tackle Jake Matthews (162) in the league’s longest active streak is Kelce. Since Casey Wiegmann’s 175 starts with the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos from 2001 to 2011, this is the longest streak by a center.
As an offensive lineman, Kelce has participated in the most regular season games (193) of any player in Eagles history. With 195 games played, only defensive end Brandon Graham has played more. Kelce’s 193 games in the NFL rank him 18th all-time among centers, per Stathead.
Linebacker Haason Reddick of the Philadelphia Eagles leaves the field following a touchdown by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the fourth quarter.
Staff photographer Yong Kim
TAMPA, Florida: Standing near the entrance of the visiting team’s locker room late on Monday night at Raymond James Stadium, the emblem of the Eagles’ disastrous defensive decline and of Matt Patricia’s flawless fusion of poor planning with subpar player performance attempted to make sense of it all.
Haason Reddick held his tongue and his hands on his hips. During the Eagles’ first 13 games of the season, he had racked up 11 quarterback sacks. However, Patricia took over the defensive calls and began dropping him into coverage. Reddick is a quarterback-sacrificial operator.
He scored 16 in the regular season of 2022 and an additional 3½ in the postseason. However, Reddick did not record a single sack in the five games Patricia oversaw the Eagles defense.
During four of those contests, he failed to record even one quarterback hit. Furthermore, Reddick did not officially record a “pass defended” despite Patricia asking him to cover opposing tight ends, slot receivers, or running backs seven times, including during that disappointing New Year’s Eve loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
The Eagles deserve credit for taking one of the best pass rushers in the NFL—possibly the most feared player on their team—and making him go silent.
This season, Patricia arrived here with that Belichick pedigree, having worked under the man who, more than anyone else, understood how to maximize a player’s strengths and minimize his weaknesses.
However, Patricia was never able to remove the pencil from his ear and devise some strategies that could allow Reddick to move from his outside linebacker position and take some clear shots at the opposing quarterback. Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni continued to allow Patricia to continue with this coaching misbehavior.
