Domo grades the Eagles' offense

(As the Eagles continue their coaching search, the Daily News' Paul Domowitch looks back on the past season and assesses exactly what kind of talent the new coach will potentially have at his disposal. Today, the offense.) Click here to send in your own grades.

Grade: B

Sam Bradford proved he could stay healthy, starting 14 games after missing most of the previous two seasons with ACL tears. It took him a while to gain confidence in his knee, fully master a new offense and get on the same page with his receivers. But once he did, he played very well.

Bradford's 97.4 passer rating in his last seven starts was the eighth-highest mark in the league over the last nine weeks of the season. He had a 68.5 percent completion rate and threw 10 touchdowns and just four interceptions in those seven starts. His third-down passer rating in Weeks 9-17 was 100.7, sixth in the NFL.

Those numbers were in stark contrast to his first seven starts when he was 30th in the league in passing (76.4) and threw 10 interceptions. He particularly struggled on third down early on, completing just 47.9 percent of his third-down passes and averaging a league-worst 4.04 yards per attempt in his first seven starts.

Overall, he set franchise records for completions (346) and completion percentage (.650). His completion percentage was particularly remarkable when you consider that his receivers dropped an NFL-high 50 passes. He also tied the club record for 300-yard passing games with five.

Mark Sanchez completed a career-high 64.8 percent of his passes in four games and two starts. But his penchant for turnovers continued to haunt him. He had four interceptions and a lost fumble in 100 pass plays.

Grade: D

The Eagles averaged just 3.94 yards per carry, which was their second-lowest rushing average in the last 20 seasons.

They finished 21st in rushing yards per game (124.5). But even that modest number was basically built on a four-game October and early-November stretch against the Saints, Giants, Panthers and Cowboys. The Eagles averaged 173.2 rushing yards and 5.1 yards per carry in those four games. In the other 12, they averaged 87.5 and 3.4.

The Eagles had just 47 runs of 10 yards or more this season, the fewest in Chip Kelly's three seasons. They had 54 last year and 73 in 2013 when LeSean McCoy won the league rushing title.

The Eagles traded away McCoy and replaced him with DeMarco Murray. To say they didn't get their money's worth from Murray, who signed a five-year, $40 million deal that included $18 million in guarantees, would be an understatement.

A year after running away with the league rushing title in Dallas, Murray averaged just 3.6 yards per carry in Kelly's spread offense, the fourth-lowest average in the league among running backs with at least 100 carries.

He wasn't a particularly good fit for Kelly's offense. But it also also seemed that the nearly 400 carries he got with the Cowboys in 2014 took a bit of a toll on him. He wasn't the same runner he was a year ago. Wasn't nearly as quick to the hole as he had been in the past, though he didn't seem to have a lot of confidence in the people blocking for him.

Murray averaged just 3.23 yards per carry on first down, the third-lowest mark in the league among backs with at least 60 first-down carries. Seventy-one of his 193 carries, or 36.8 percent of them, gained 1 yard or less. Last year with the Cowboys, that rate was just 30.3 percent.

Ryan Mathews, who also was signed as a free agent last March, was much more productive than Murray when he carried the ball, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. But the oft-injured Mathews - he has played a full season just once in his six-year career - missed three games with a concussion and averaged just 8.2 rushing attempts in the 13 games he played.

Darren Sproles, who will turn 33 in June, had the third-most rushing attempts of his career (83), and also his second-lowest rushing average (3.8).

Grade: C

The two biggest problems with this group were drops – they had a league-high 50 of them – and an alarming lack of production from their outside receivers.

Slot receiver Jordan Matthews had a team-high 85 receptions and 997 yards. No other wideout on the roster had more than 27 catches (Josh Huff) or 327 yards (Riley Cooper).

Next to Amari Cooper, Nelson Agholor was considered the most NFL-ready wideout in the draft last spring. But the Eagles' first-round pick was too often invisible in the offense. He had just 23 catches and one touchdown. He had more than 35 receiving yards in only two games.

The Eagles brought in veteran Miles Austin and gave him a seven-figure guarantee. But he caught just 13 passes before finally being released in mid-December.

Matthews and tight end Zach Ertz were Sam Bradford's go-to guys, particularly in the second half of the season, as the Eagles focused their passing attack between the numbers. According to Pro Football Focus, 54.3 percent of Bradford's attempts were between the hashmarks.

Matthews and Ertz combined for 160 receptions and 1,850 receiving yards. That's 39.5 percent of the team's receptions and 42.6 percent of their receiving yards.

Matthews had a team-high eight TD catches, including five in the red zone. Matthews and tight end Brent Celek (three) were the only Eagles receivers with more than one red-zone TD catch.

Matthews and Ertz combined for 36 of the Eagles' 67 passing first downs in the last five games. Matthews had a team-high 23 third-down catches, 11 of which came in the last five games (10 for first downs).

Grade: C-minus

This unit committed 33 pre-snap penalties in 2015, the most in Chip Kelly's three seasons as coach. Twenty of them were false starts, the 10th most in the league. Eight were illegal-formation or illegal-shift penalties. Two years ago, the Eagles were flagged just twice for an illegal formation or illegal shift.

Those penalties, along with 30 offensive-holding calls, often were drive-killers, putting the Eagles in long-yardage situations they couldn't overcome.

That hardly was the only problem. While it's easy to put much of the blame for the struggles of the Eagles' run game on Murray's shoulders, his line didn't give him all that much help. With the exception of the aforementioned four-game stretch against New Orleans, the Giants, Carolina and Dallas in October and early November, the run blocking wasn't very good.

Kelly foolishly released both of his starting guards - Evan Mathis and Todd Herremans - in the offseason. Their replacements, Allen Barbre and Matt Tobin (who replaced injured Andrew Gardner), struggled much of the season. And their problems had a ripple effect on the guy between them, veteran center Jason Kelce, who had an up-and-down year.

Left tackle Jason Peters was voted to his eighth Pro Bowl, but it was strictly on reputation. Peters, who will turn 34 this month, had trouble staying on the field as he battled through an assortment of injuries. And when he was on the field, he wasn't the same dominant player he had been in the past.

The line did a slightly better job in pass protection than it did in the run game. The Eagles finished 13th in sacks allowed per pass play and 17th in total sacks allowed (37). According to Pro Football Focus, their quarterbacks were under pressure on 31.5 percent of their dropbacks this season, which was actually less than 2013 (36.8) or 2014 (32.2).

Tobin too often was overpowered by rushers. He gave up a team-high eight sacks and 31 hurries.

pdomo@aol.com

On Twitter: @Pdomo

Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog