Thanksgiving Football: team needs for the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions

Football on Thanksgiving is a great tradition and this year will give us a chance to eye the team needs of the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions.

Both of these teams have severely under performed which has created a lot of unsatisfied fans. The Lions are out of the playoff race, but Philadelphia is lucky to play in the NFC East where they still have a chance to win the division.

Philadelphia’s biggest need is becoming more obvious at it’s at the quarterback position. Sam Bradford has not played well this season and Mark Sanchez showed this past week why he’s a back up. The issue is it’s hard to figure out how Chip Kelly will look to address the position.

This year’s draft doesn’t have a lot of great options outside of California’s Jared Goff, Memphis’ Paxton Lynch and Michigan State’s Connor Cook. All of these prospects are in the 1st-round mix but also come with question marks.

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Lynch might be the best fit out of that group because of his tremendous athleticism. He’s still developing as a passer, but he has the speed to effectively run the read-option portion of Chip Kelly’s offense.

It’s possible Kelly goes back to the trade market and looks to bring in someone like Colin Kaepernick.

The direction of the Lions franchise is completely up in the air as they work to build a new front office. It’s highly possible that there are tons of changes to both the coaching staff and roster. There has even been mention of parting ways with quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Assuming Stafford sticks around, the Lions need to turn their attention to addressing the offensive line. This group has done a poor job providing Stafford with ample time in the pocket. However, the biggest issue is a lack of a running game where Detroit ranks dead last in the NFL averaging only 71 yards per game.

Detroit is trending to be in position to target Notre Dame’s Ronnie Stanley who is the most complete offensive line prospect in the draft. He’s not on the same level as Ole Miss’s Laremy Tunsil as a pass blocker, but is better moving defenders off the ball.

The defensive side of the ball is feeling the effects of losing Ndamukong Suh. They lack that interior pass rush that makes quarterbacks uncomfortable. Haloti Ngata is still a really strong run defender but offers little in the pass rush department.

It’ll be a very interesting offseason in Philadelphia and Detroit.

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