Hey fellow Eagles fans!

I’ve noticed the offense this year feels different. We all have. Of course that was going to happen, new OC Brian Johnson coming into the picture with Shane Steichen leaving town for the Colts HC job. What I have particularly felt is the lack of RPOs in the 2023 offense. While the formations look similar, the offense has looked much more tradiitonal. More straight hand-offs, drop-back passes and motion to create mismatches or identify defensive schemes/blitzes. Unfortunately I don’t have access to advanced stats or ALL-22 to really support what I’m seeing. There was a little blip before the year started about a (not so)small rule change:

By Competition Committee; to make the penalty for illegally handing the ball forward consistent with other illegal acts, such as illegal forward passes.

There was one interview during pre-season where the question was asked and I believe Sirianni’s answer was short and succinct, “We’re aware of it.”

The RPOs last year depended on holding the ball in the RBs stomach for as long as possible to force the defender to commit, then either pulling the ball or handing it off. I believe this rule change has drastically affected the RPOs effectiveness. It seems strange to me that teams haven’t tried to adapt what, to me, was a highly effective scheme. I haven’t seen any penalty calls for forward hand-offs either. Did this rule make the RPO obsolete? Was the forward hand-off the cheat code to the effectiveness of the RPO? I really feel like this is a big reason behind why the offense hasn’t looked as unstoppable as it did last year, and has really challenged Siri/BJ on creating the offense this year. Overall, the offense is doing very good statistically, although certainly with challenges in RZ and the running game recently. I’m just not really sure why no-one is talking about this!