10 Eagles franchise records about to be broken

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Yesterday we looked at 10 Eagles records that will never be broken

Today we look at the opposite end of the spectrum and offer some franchise records that we believe will be broken.

Some of them very soon.

1. Donovan McNabb’s 32,873 passing yards: After just four seasons, Carson Wentz is already 43 percent of the way there. Wentz is signed through 2025, and at his current rate of 3,548 yards per season, he’ll pass McNabb during his current contract.

2. Mike Quick’s 1,409 receiving yards in 1983: It sounds like an astronomical number, but that’s really only because the Eagles haven’t had good receivers in recent years. Some 51 players in NFL history have had a total of 85 seasons with more than 1,409 yards. Heck, T.O. was on pace for 1,744 in 2005 before he got kicked off the team for being T.O. Someone would only need to average 88.1 yards per game to break Quick’s 37-year-old record. Hard to believe that hasn’t happened already.

3. Carson Wentz 33 TD passes in 2017: That’s a lot of TD passes, but Carson did it in 13 games, so he was on pace for 40. And 23 teams have a franchise record of 34 TD passes or more. If Blake Bortles, Steve Beuerlein and Daryle Lamonica can throw 34 or more, Carson Wentz can. If not him, someone else will.

4. Brian Dawkins, Eric Allen and Bill Bradley 34 interceptions: Not a single NFL franchise (other than expansion teams) has a lower franchise career INT record than the Eagles. Obviously Dawk and E.A. would have put up bigger numbers if they didn’t leave here prematurely, but 34 interceptions is a ridiculous number for a franchise record. Heck, the Steelers, Chiefs and Lions each have three guys with 50 career interceptions. Among current Eagles, Rodney McLeod has the most INTs as an Eagle with eight. So this record won’t be broken this coming season, but it will happen.

5. Sam Bradford’s 65 percent career completion percentage: We can’t allow Sam Bradford to hold an Eagles record. And 65 percent is only slightly above average these days. The NFL average is 63.5 percent climbing gradually each year, as the NFL continues to create rules that protect the quarterback and encourage offense. If Wentz just repeats his 2018 season in 2020 and 2021, he’s at 65.4 and the record’s his.

6. LeSean McCoy’s 6,792 rushing yards: Yeah, that’s a lot of yards, but three other Eagles — Steve Van Buren, Wilbert Montgomery and Brian Westbrook — came within 1,000 yards of that mark, which shows how obtainable it is. There are 64 running backs in NFL history with 7,000 yards, so 6,792 yards isn’t an out-of-reach figure. It will take a combination of two things: A superb talent and a general manager who doesn’t trade him away in the prime of his career.

7. Harold Carmichael’s 589 career catches: After averaging 75 catches in his first seven seasons, Zach Ertz has 525 receptions and is only 64 from Carmichael’s mark. If he stays healthy, at his rate of 5.8 catches per game since he became a full-time player in 2015, Ertz will pass Carmichael in the Eagles’ Week 12 game against the Seahawks at the Linc.

8. Alex Henery’s 22 consecutive field goals in 2012: One way to determine how soft a record is is to see how many people have come close to it. If people keep getting close, eventually the record will go. David Akers had had two streaks of 17 straight field goals, Caleb Sturgis made 18 straight, Cody Parkey made 17 in a row and Jake Elliott made 20 in a row last year before missing in Miami. If that many people have gotten close to 22, somebody — maybe Elliott, maybe very soon — is going to make 23 in a row.

9. Miles Sanders’ 818 rushing yards as a rookie: When you consider that 109 rookies in NFL history have had at least 819 rushing yards, you see how within reach this record is. Sanders had only 66 carries the first eight games of the season. All it would take to break this record is to play a full season, average 12 carries a game and pick up 4.3 yards per carry.  

10. Adrian Burk’s 393 punts: Are we really talking about punting records? Yeah, because isn’t it nuts that the Eagles have never had the same punter longer than five years? No NFL team — including expansion teams — has a lower punting record than the Eagles. The next-lowest is Josh Bidwell of the Buccaneers, with 419 punts. Since the average NFL punter punts 75 times a year, it would only take someone 5½ years to break Burk’s record. Cameron Johnston has 132 punts in two years with the Eagles and he should break Burk’s record sometime in 2023. If he sticks around.

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