The Eagles' Passing Attack Has a Distribution Problem — And It Starts With the Quarterback

Want to know why the Eagles fired their entire offensive coaching staff? Don't look at the scheme. Don't look at the play designs. Look at the target distribution numbers, and the answer becomes painfully obvious.

The Philadelphia Eagles had 464 targets in 2025. Of those, 240 went to two players — A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. That's 51 percent of all targets directed at just two receivers. Add in Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley, and you're at 337 of 464 targets going to four players. Everyone else on the roster combined for 127 targets over an entire season.

Jahan Dotson — the third wide receiver, the player who was supposed to be a meaningful contributor — had 36 targets and 18 catches. After him? Darius Cooper had 11 targets. Britain Covey had four. Danny Gray had four. Parris Campbell had two. That's not a passing offense. That's a two-man show with a running back safety valve.

Now compare that to a team with an actual quarterback who distributes the football. The Los Angeles Rams had 581 targets last season. Puka Nacua led with 170, Davante Adams had 120, but then you had Xavier Smith at 24, multiple tight ends in the 25-42 range, and running backs and slot receivers who were genuine options in the passing game. Of their 388 completions, 180 went to the top two receivers — leaving over 200 for everyone else.

That's the difference between a quarterback who can spread the ball around and one who can't. Matthew Stafford sees the whole field and delivers to the open man. Jalen Hurts locks onto his primary reads and rarely ventures beyond them. It's been the trend since Hurts became the starter, and it's gotten worse, not better.

This isn't a coaching problem. This isn't a scheme problem. Kevin Patullo got fired for it. Kellen Moore would have eventually gotten fired for it if he'd stayed. Now Sean Mannion is inheriting the same quarterback with the same limitations. The Eagles can install the most creative, modern, spread-the-field offense in football, and it won't matter if the quarterback can't or won't distribute to more than two targets.

The lack of a screen game compounds the issue. The Eagles essentially have no short passing game — no check-downs, no screens, no quick hitters to running backs or slot receivers. That means they can't take easy completions when the defense takes away the deep and intermediate routes. Other teams dink and dunk their way to 4,000 passing yards. Hurts has never thrown for 4,000 yards and likely never will.

Defensive coordinators have figured this out. When you know 51 percent of targets are going to two players, you can bracket those receivers with safety help and force the quarterback to find his third and fourth reads. Hurts doesn't do that consistently. The result is a predictable offense that stalls against good defenses.

The offensive coaching staff overhaul was necessary, but it won't fix the fundamental issue. Until the quarterback either develops the ability to spread the ball around or the Eagles build an offense that doesn't require it — think heavy run schemes with play-action and minimal passing — this passing attack will continue to be a liability.

The numbers don't lie. And right now, they're screaming that the Eagles have a quarterback distribution problem that no amount of coaching changes can solve. Year seven will tell us definitively whether Hurts can evolve. Based on the trend line, the odds aren't great.