The Philadelphia Eagles had one of the biggest collapses in NFL history last season, becoming the first team since the 1986 New York Jets to start 10-1 and finish with five-plus losses while failing to win the division.
The collapse ended with a blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC wild-card round, as Philadelphia lost six of seven to close the year. As a result, the Eagles fired both coordinators Brian Johnson and Sean Desai while head coach Nick Sirianni's future was in doubt.
While the coaches were the fall guys for what transpired in the locker room, running back Kenneth Gainwell also pointed out the players were responsible.
"I think it was a connection piece," Gainwell said on the Javien University podcast recently. "Teams like [the Kansas City Chiefs] are well-connected, upstairs and downstairs. Front office and locker room.
"When you have a connection, everything just clicks. But when you've got guys that aren't talking to each other, you never know what's going on."
The connection issues between the players were just a piece of what was going on in the locker room last season, part of the reason why the Eagles were aggressive in free agency and the draft. Philadelphia ultimately decided to keep Sirianni and revamp the roster, being aggressive in free agency by signing Saquon Barkley, Bryce Huff and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Haason Reddick was traded, while Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were the team's top-two picks in the draft.
Gainwell, who is currently slated as the No. 2 running back behind Barkley, also believes the Eagles can get things fixed through better communication. Having a strong finish will help too.
"If we all sit down and talk to each other and find out what's going on, or we find out what we need to do on the field to get this thing going, then we'll be good," Gainwell said. "Because if we played really hard at the beginning of the season, we need to continue to play hard at the end of the season because at the end of the season is what really matters."
