Albert O. won’t be leaving the nest for at least one more year.
News travels fast, especially when we’re discussing a team as popular as the Philadelphia Eagles. There’s always that other component though. Nothing’s official until it is.
We’ve been discussing these coaching hires for quite some time now, a few weeks at least, but those hires weren’t official until everyone put pen to paper and signed the dotted lines. They did so on February’s final Friday, and now we can shift our full attention to the coming NFL Scouting Combine and the process of constructing next season’s roster.
This past Thursday, news began circulating that the Birds had added another building block. A day later, that news became official. Albert Okwuegbunam, one of Philly’s impending 2024 free agents, signed a one-year extension. That seemingly came out of nowhere, but it got us thinking.
Here are three conclusions we’re ready to draw now that the Eagles have officially announced Albert Okwuegbunam’s extension.
Albert O. is a six-foot-five, 258-pounder that Philly added by way of a trade with the Denver Broncos on August 29th. The Eagles gave up a 2025 sixth-round selection as part of the deal while acquiring a 2025 seventh-round draft choice for themselves. His stats didn’t wow anyone: four in-game appearances, 57 snaps on offense, one target, zero catches.
Less Jack Stoll… More Albert Okwuegbunam in the passing game
You may have heard this at some point during the offseason, but just in case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s the skinny. The Birds have a new offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, and something tells us we’re going to see more imagination (and schemes where tight ends are going to be asked the CATCH the ball).
That isn’t to say Jack Stoll can’t catch, but we all know that isn’t why he’s on the roster. Expect to see Stoll in on obvious running plays at the goal-line or in short-yardage.
This is further evidence of how bad Eagles offensive playcalling last season.
There was zero motion. There were screen passes thrown when there was no blitz. The Eagles were, in a word, boring on offense.
Moore is here to fix that (and kill the unimaginative nature of Nick Sirianni’s scheme). We’ve seen Albert O. produce in the past. He’ll do so again with Moore as his O.C. and provide more damning evidence of how bad the play-calling was last year.
Dallas Goedert has some help… finally.
We’ve unfortunately had to watch extended stretches of football over these past two seasons where Philly was forced to walk into battle without Dallas Goedert. He’s missed five regular-season games over the past two seasons, and how do we say this nicely? The Eagles got nothing from their tight ends without him.
Believe in Albert Okwuegbunam. We can’t say that enough. He isn’t the level of player that Dallas Goedert is, but he does provide Philly with another weapon in the passing game, particularly on third down and in the red zone. Forget what you saw last season. This is a wise move by the Birds, one that could lead to a few more extended drives by their offense
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