We Made It! The 2015 NFL Season is Here!
By Sean Lerman
– WBCB 1490 Sports Director
Ah, what a glorious day it is in the city of Philadelphia! The preseason officially came to an end for the Eagles last night as they fell to the New York Jets 24-to-18.
Now, the regular season is just 10 days away. The Eagles take on the Falcons in Atlanta week one at 7:10 PM. The game can be heard live on 1490 WBCB.
I don’t know about you, but I am very ready for this regular season to get here. I’m not 100% sure why, but this offseason felt longer than any other I can remember. Maybe it’s because there were so many changes to the roster, maybe it’s because of the Chip Kelly hype train, or maybe it’s because we spent half of the offseason wasting time talking about whether or not the Eagles were maybe going to trade for Marcus Mariota.
In any case, I am very excited for the season to begin. Despite the hype, we still don’t really know what Sam Bradford can do. I don’t trust anyone who tells me that they’re positive he’s going to have an amazing year if he stays healthy. On the flip side, the haters who say that Bradford won’t have any success this year are just as wrong.
The fact is, there is absolutely zero black-and-white with this team right now. There are possibly five players on the team that I look at and say I can pretty much pencil them in for a certain level of production.
Other than that, we’re operating in a ton of gray area with this team. It’s a little scary. There is a lot that could potentially go wrong this season, a lot of what-ifs, and a lot of injury history.
However, there is a whole heaping pile of awesome that could happen this year too. Bradford might be capable of a 4,000 yard, 28-touchdown season. DeMarco Murray could average 5.5 yards per carry. Jordan Matthews could break out into a star receiver while Nelson Agholor does the kinds of things that Matthews did last year.
On the defensive side of the ball, I think we’re going to see a team that gives up its fair share of points, but there is a ton of potential for some explosive turnover-causing havoc. I think that’s one of the reasons that I’m so excited for this team. Generally, a positive turnover rate directly correlates with a team’s success on the field. So if the offense can take care of the ball while the defense forces a ton of turnovers, it could be a very good year for the Philadelphia Eagles.
There is just so much that could go right for the team this year, and yes, there are some things that can go wrong too. In fact, I can virtually guarantee that multiple things will go wrong. It’s just a matter of how important those things end up being.
What’s great about the start of the season is that we finally get to know. We’ve all spent the last eight months predicting and guessing. But now? Now it’s real. Now we get to see Chip Kelly with his guys in year three of his system.
The preseason was nice, we got a taste of what will come this year. We got to peek behind the curtain just a little bit and see what the team is going to look lie.
September 14th in Atlanta, that curtain is getting yanked all the way open. No more surprises. We’ll really get to see what type of team Chip Kelly has put together.
I don’t know about you, but I’m very ready.
Sean Lerman is the sports director at 1490 AM WBCB. You can find his blog updated weekly right here on wbcb1490.com or follow him on twitter @seanlerman.
