The Eagles’ quarterback push play has undergone a major change this year, given the retirement of center Jason Kelce. How will the trademark short-yardage strategy change without Kelce around?
“Jason is one piece of that puzzle,” coach Nick Sirianni told reporters on Saturday. “Jalen [Hurts] is another huge piece of that puzzle. And then Landon [Dickerson] and the guards will be a huge piece of that puzzle. And the offensive line, right?
“And so you’re just getting reps with guys that haven’t got reps of it. So, we’ll see. We’ll see where that is. Obviously not giving any answers until we get out there and play a game.
“We haven’t been successful with it [this preseason], right? You’re seeing that it is a hard play. Like I’m glad they didn’t take it out of the game because it’s not just a gimme. It really shows you the talent of the guys that have been out there succeeding at that play for the past two and a half, three years, right?
“And so I feel like that should give you an appreciation of how good we’ve done it in the past. We’ll see. We will continue to rep it, we’ll continue to walk through it. We’ll see if we practice it. That was a discussion this morning if we needed to practice it. We’ll go from there.”
It isn’t an easy play. It’s demanding, physically. But the Eagles have perfected it. They’ll now have to re-perfect it without Kelce in the middle of the action.