2025 Season Preview
Posted September 2nd, 2025 | 2 Comments »The Eagles kickoff the 2025 season on Thursday night when the Cowboys come to town. Expectations are sky high for a team coming off a dominant Super Bowl win just seven months ago.
A lot has changed since then. The coaching staff is different. The roster is different. But this is still a very talented team that should compete for another Super Bowl title. Injuries are always an X-factor. The Eagles stayed very healthy last year and that certainly helped them win it all.
There is also the question of whether success will go to their heads. It doesn’t seem so. Nick Sirianni has preached to his players that this is 2025 and the focus can’t be on past accomplishments. Sirianni usually does an excellent job with his messaging. He’s able to connect with his players and get them to buy in to what he wants them to do. Winning a championship is a powerful drug. You don’t know how people will react to that. Having a serious, driven leader like Jalen Hurts is a good way to keep the rest of the team focused.
If the Eagles have the right mindset, this is going to be a dangerous team. Sirianni embraced his CEO role last season and got the most out of the team. He is ultra-competitive and won’t be satisfied with last year’s success. He wants to win anything and everything, from rock-paper-scissors to shooting baskets to football games.
The offense finished seventh in points and eighth in yards last year. They return 10 starters, having to only break in a new RG. The Eagles combination of Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith is a special group. Add in arguably the best offensive line in football and you’ve got an offense with dynamic potential. The offense started slow in 2024, but the team averaged 36 points per game in the postseason. You could see the offense take a step forward this year.
They will have a new coordinator in Kevin Patullo. This has some people nervous, because the Eagles offense was inconsistent after a coordinator change in 2023. I can’t stress enough how different Patullo and Brian Johnson are. Patullo has coached at the NFL level for more than 15 years. He has worked with Sirianni for the previous seven seasons and has lots of experience with Hurts. Patullo should be ready for this role.
The most interesting question will be what the offense looks like. The Eagles led the NFL in rushing attempts last season, while finishing last in passing attempts. That was by design. Will Sirianni and Patullo try for more balance or will they stick with running the ball? You want to stick with what you do well, but you know defenses spent the offseason focused on how to stop Barkley. Do you start throwing more or is that just what defenses will be expecting?
It will be fun to see what Sirianni and Patullo do with the offense. One reason I could see them throwing the ball more is to avoid too much wear and tear on Barkley. He had 378 regular season touches and then more than 100 in the postseason. The Eagles also have a better set of WRs this year. Brown and Smith are an elite duo. Then you have Jahan Dotson, who is coming off a good postseason and a good summer. John Metchie is talented and willing to do the dirty work. Future Hall of Famer Darius Cooper is waiting to unleash his greatness upon the NFL.
The biggest concern with the offense is probably offensive line depth. The starters should be really good, with four outstanding starters back from the title team. Steen is the new guy, but this is his third season at Stoutland University. He doesn’t have as high a ceiling as Becton, who could be physically dominant. Steen could still be an upgrade, if he can play at a consistently high level. Becton was new to playing guard and would have more missed assignments than you would ideally like.
Beyond the starters things get less certain. Fred Johnson is back as the swing tackle. Brett Toth and Matt Pryor are backups. Toth has two career starts. Pryor has played well at RG. He’s more of a risk at RT. You would be nervous about either of them seeing extended playing time. Rookie Drew Kendall had a good summer and could be active on gamedays.
I expect the offense to be better than last season. There is enough talent for this to be an outstanding unit.
Vic Fangio led the Eagles to the #1 defense in the league last year. The coaching staff is intact, but there will be several new starters and key role players. Those changes will make it tough to repeat that kind of performance. It should also be noted that good offenses tend to be good on a regular basis. There is more variation with defense. My guess on that would be that offense is star driven while defense is about all 11 players functioning together.
Think back to last season. The Eagles had the best pass defense in the league. That was due more to coverage than a dominant pass rush. Losing Darius Slay, CJGJ, and Isaiah Rodgers from the back end of the defense will affect the defense’s ability to cover. Nakobe Dean won’t be in the middle for at least the first month of the season.
Howie and the front office brought in players they think can do a good job in those positions. The question is whether they can gel and perform at a high level on the back end like the 2024 defense was able to. While the chemistry is uncertain, it is encouraging to see the confidence the players have in the scheme and each other.
The Linc – Zack Baun feels like the Eagles’ defense is “miles ahead of where we were last year at this time”https://t.co/3WtCZBzbDt
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) June 15, 2025
Fangio admitted in a recent press conference that he was overconfident in the defense early last year. That led to some issues. He learned from that and now has a lot of guys who know the scheme well. While there could be some drop-off, the defense should still be outstanding.
The edge rushers are young. Nolan Smith emerged as a force in the postseason and wants to build on that. Jalyx Hunt started one game last year. He’s got a great opportunity this season. Fangio believes in he and Smith. Depth isn’t ideal, but I think Fangio and the coaches like the backups more than those in the media/public.
The DL group could be the best in the NFL. Jalen Carter is a force to be reckoned with. Fangio seems genuinely excited about Jordan Davis and what he can do this season. That has me excited. Moro Ojomo is the breakout player everyone is ready to see. He had a great summer and could make us all say “Milton who?”.
Zack Baun is back and enjoying life as a star player this time around. He’ll be joined by rookie Jihad Campbell, Jeremiah Trotter Jr and/or Nakobe Dean. We know Dean is out for the first four games. He might get his job back at that point, but could be Wally Pipped if Campbell steps in and plays like a stud.
The coaches wouldn’t announce who will start at safety or corner. Drew Mukuba will get the safety job at some point, but might sit behind Sydney Brown for a few games. Mukuba is the kind of playmaker you want on the field. Corner is more of a mystery. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean give the Eagles a pair of young stars. Will it be Adoree Jackson or Jakorian Bennett playing with them? We’ll find out Thursday night.
Neither of them will be as good as Slay. That’s okay. The Eagles don’t need stars everywhere. You love it when you have them, but it makes managing finances tricky. There are a lot of teams who would kill to have the Eagles corner situation.
I think the pass rush could be improved this season, but the coverage probably won’t be as dominant. Fangio blitzed more this preseason than I remember in the past. Maybe he’ll be more aggressive as a way to keep offenses off balance. Campbell is a good athlete and knows how to get to the QB, as a blitzer or rusher.
Special teams should be good this season. Jake Elliott struggled last year, but had a good summer. He seems ready to get back to his previous form. Returner is a bit up in the air right now. We’ll have to see what the coaches do there. Britain Covey could be the guy for a few weeks until they make a more permanent decision.
One external factor that will affect the upcoming season is a difficult schedule. The Eagles played some good teams last year, but also had their share of cupcakes. That won’t be the case this season. It is crazy, but the Eagles could have a better team than 2024 and still end up with a worse record. Going 14-3 against this schedule would be incredibly impressive.
It’s (officially) here. Our 2025 Schedule‼️@Ticketmaster | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/w51YkEg4Xn
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) May 15, 2025
The tough schedule might actually do the Eagles a favor. This team can’t get distracted by outside noise or it will cost them games. Sirianni and the team leaders can keep everyone focused because of how tough things will be. The first five weeks will require complete focus and attention.
This should be an exciting journey. The Eagles didn’t load up with a lot of veterans in the offseason, instead opting to go young. They want hungry players, guys who will play with a lot of energy and emotion. The Eagles have the second youngest team in the league. The Eagles have tried going with ring-chasers in recent years and it hasn’t worked well at all. From Ryan Kerrigan to Julio Jones…yikes. Not good. This time out they focused on young talent.
I think that will serve them well.
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