Eagles 2025 Season in Review

Seventy-four percent. That's how often the Eagles walked into the red zone and walked out with a touchdown — second in the entire league. We're going to get into how Philadelphia's offense lived on efficiency over volume, why the pass defense quietly became a top-eight unit, and the one nagging weakness that finally caught up with them in January. Eleven and six, NFC East champions, third seed in the NFC — then a 23 to 19 Wild Card loss to San Francisco that ended it before it really started. A good season. Not a great one. The data tells you exactly why.

Start with the team-level picture. Philadelphia's offense finished at plus 25.7 expected points added — a measure of how much each snap improved their scoring chances — ranking 15th, dead average. The defense was the better unit at minus 84.2 expected points added allowed, eighth-best in football (with defense, the big negative is what you want). The signature number: 43 touchdowns on 58 red-zone trips, 74.1 percent, second in the league. And the consistency was real — ten of seventeen games decided by seven points or fewer. This wasn't a boom-or-bust team. It was a grind-it-out team that scored when it mattered, defended when it had to, and lived in the margins all year.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. Plus 22.9 expected points added on 534 attempts — 14th in the league, slightly above average, nothing dominant. Jalen Hurts threw for 3,224 yards, 25 touchdowns and just six interceptions across 16 games, with a completion percentage above expectation of plus 3.1, tenth among qualified starters. The efficiency was there. The volume wasn't — Philadelphia averaged just 206 passing yards per game because the offense ran through the red zone and through Hurts' legs, not through 35-attempt aerial assaults. The signature throw says it all: Week 7 in Minnesota, third quarter, second and five, Hurts hits DeVonta Smith down the middle for 79 yards, touchdown — Smith finished as the leading receiver with 77 catches for 1,008 yards. That one play added 6.6 expected points. One swing, one explosive, game flips. That was this passing offense — not constant pressure, but a handful of haymakers a week.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. Here's where the story gets uncomfortable. Philadelphia finished at minus 10.8 rushing expected points added — 16th in the league — on 4.2 yards per carry, 47th-percentile stuff, and boom-or-bust week to week (over 150 yards some games, bottled up in others). For a team built on the run, that's a step back. Saquon Barkley carried it 280 times for 1,140 yards and seven touchdowns, with plus 75.9 rush yards over expected — meaning he was creating yards the blocking wasn't giving him, ranking 31st per attempt among qualified runners. Translation: Barkley was the reason the ground game wasn't worse. The line wasn't winning at the line of scrimmage the way it did a year ago. The rushing identity that won them a championship was no longer the engine. It was the supporting act.

Next up, the pass defense. This is where Philadelphia smashed. Minus 72.4 expected points added allowed through the air — 88th-percentile, elite — with 42 sacks and just 14 passing touchdowns allowed all year. They generated 102 quarterback hits, sixth in the league, and turned pressure into takeaways. The play that sums it up: Week 2 in Kansas City, fourth quarter, Patrick Mahomes in the red zone looking for Travis Kelce, and safety Andrew Mukuba jumps the route for an interception that swung the game. Philadelphia won 20 to 17. That moment repeated all season — eight different snaps in the data set where the defense flipped expected points by six or more. The pass rush, the coverage, the ball-hawking — all of it traveled. When this team won close games, and they won a lot of close games, it was almost always because the back end made a play.

And the run defense. This is the softer side of the unit. Minus 11.8 rushing expected points added allowed — slightly better than league average, 53rd percentile, nothing more. Philadelphia gave up 125 rushing yards per game and 20 rushing touchdowns on the ground, and against physical run teams they got pushed around. The pass rush masked some of it — when you're getting off the field on third down through the air, you face fewer designed runs — but the run fits weren't always clean, and explosive runs allowed showed up in the losses. Good enough to win a division. Not good enough to stop San Francisco in January. That's the honest read.