Rested, refreshed, and focused on what is in front of them, the Eagles returned to the NovaCare Complex on Monday with their sights set on the Cleveland Browns and intentions on beginning the second part of this 2024 regular season on a positive note.

In the big picture, the Eagles know that the NFC East is on the rise – all three teams won on Sunday and the Washington Commanders lead the way in the division with a 4-1 record. In the micro focus, Philadelphia has the task of building from the positives, learning from the inconsistencies, and growing from every experience of the 2-2 first four games.

Let's explore some of what we know about the Eagles as they get back into the swing of things with the 1-4 Browns, who lost 34-13 to Washington, coming to town on Sunday …

1. The Injury Report

When we last saw the Eagles, the offense missed wide receivers A.J. Brown (hamstring) and DeVonta Smith (concussion), along with right tackle Lane Johnson (concussion). A week off, no doubt, did them all well. How well, we just don't yet know. The Eagles held a walkthrough on Monday, but won't issue an injury update until Wednesday. There is hope that those who have missed time are making positive strides toward returning to action.

Nick Sirianni is 3-0 after the bye week with the Eagles, and the general thinking is that a healthy Eagles team is a very good Eagles team. So, let's keep our fingers crossed that the health report comes back positive and the Eagles are at full go against Cleveland.

2. How good is the NFC East?

Well, maybe a whole lot better than a lot of folks thought at the beginning of the season. Washington is 4-1 with rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and a swarming defense leading the way. Dallas upped its record to 3-2 with a hard-fought win at Pittsburgh on Sunday night and all three of the Cowboys' wins have come on the road. New York went all the way out to Seattle and returned to the East Coast with a win and a 2-3 record. So, there are going to be tough divisional games ahead. Let's give credit to the rest of the NFC East: It appears to be on the upswing. The Eagles have some work to do.

3. Cleveland's struggles continue

Washington handed the Browns a 34-13 loss on Sunday and it was every bit as one-sided as the score indicated – Daniels didn't play in the fourth quarter with the Commanders up 34-6. Cleveland converted just 1 of 13 first downs on offense. Quarterback Deshaun Watson was sacked seven times – the third time this season that the Browns have allowed at least six quarterback sacks in a game. Cleveland's defense, a strength through four games, allowed 12 explosive plays – runs of 10-plus yards and passing plays that gained at least 20 yards – in the loss. Injuries have been a huge problem for the Browns all year, so as much as the Eagles' injury report will bear watching, so will Cleveland's. The offensive line has been decimated by injuries, the root cause of problems for the Browns.

4. What is next for Vic Fangio's defense?

The defensive coordinator met the media last week and talked about the need for better tackling and tighter coverage, so let's see what he has in store for this week. The Eagles showed how good they can be on the defensive side of the ball when they dominated New Orleans for four quarters a couple of weeks ago. That's the goal – every week.

Second-year player Sydney Brown is returning to practice this week as he has spent nine months exactly recovering from a torn ACL, and Fangio is excited to see where Brown is physically. Fangio also said that rookie Cooper DeJean is "closing in on being ready" so let's see what that means.

Overall, the Eagles are looking for more consistency from the defense. Stop the run, pressure the quarterback, take the football away, keep teams off the scoreboard. Those are the goals for every defense and the Eagles are no different.

5. Ride the offensive line, Saquon Barkley

The strengths of the offense through four games have been the solid play from the offensive line and the production from running back Saquon Barkley, and the Eagles know they can ride those strengths and win football games. With that, the offense looks to minimize its mistakes – giveaways, penalties, drives that stalled in scoring territory when the Eagles need touchdowns, and zero points scored in the first quarter of any game. The bye week, then, came at a good time to do some self-scouting, said Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore.

"We are just doing such a deep dive on so many things," Moore said. "This is a really fun [task] for us to navigate and find a way to get going sooner, get going quicker because there are moments coming out of second halves we've had successful drives. But we've got to start faster, so that's a big focus for us just to continue to evaluate that and find our way."

6. Offense searching for consistency

It's really a game-to-game thing with the offense, so let's hope the Eagles come back healthy and ready to play like the way they played for much of the game against Green Bay when they went up and down the field, when they ran the football well, when they scored in the red zone, and when they had explosive plays.

The Eagles have full belief that they will have one of the league's best offenses when it all comes together and that is the goal as the team returned to work on Monday. There is a lot to play for with all of the team's goals still attainable, so a good week of preparation and then a strong performance against Cleveland is the immediate goal.