Doug Pederson has spoken often this off-season about his offense’s poor third-down and red-zone production last year.
“Those are critical areas that we need to get better at,’’ the Eagles coach said.
The Eagles finished 20th in third-down efficiency (37.9 percent) and 24th in red-zone touchdown percentage (49.1) last year.
Just three of the 12 teams that finished behind the Eagles in third-down efficiency made the playoffs. And over the last five years, just seven teams with a sub-50-percent red-zone percentage have qualified for the postseason.
So, yeah, those are pretty important areas.
While Carson Wentz’s progression from a wide-eyed rookie to a confident quarterback with 16 starts under his belt certainly should help the Eagles improve those two numbers, football operations chief Howie Roseman and vice president of player personnel Joe Douglas – and well, pretty much anybody else who watched the Eagles play last year – knew the team’s wide receiving corps also needed to be upgraded.