The Eagles have been to four Super Bowls in the 21st century. They failed to make it back after the first three, in large part due to drama that made the offseason more complicated than it needed to be. Some of that even spilled over to the regular season.
The best example is 2005, when TO went nuclear. Rarely have we seen one player melt down a whole team. TO was a special player on the field and a unique force off it. That team started 3-1 and then went 3-9 after that.
2018 was another memorable season. Carson Wentz tore his ACL in December 2024 and watched Nick Foles win the Super Bowl. Wentz wasn’t healthy to begin 2018 so he had to watch Foles start the first two games of the season. Wentz struggled with that and there was an odd vibe for the whole season. When Wentz took over, he wasn’t just competing with the team on the other side. In his mind he was also competing with Foles and what the team did the previous postseason. The Eagles did go 9-7 and win a playoff game.
The Eagles lost both coordinators heading into 2023. Jonathan Gannon left under odd circumstances and his BS cost the Eagles the chance to hire Vic Fangio. Philly went with a pair of young coordinators in Sean Desai and Brian Johnson. That did not work at all. The Eagles hired Matt Patricia as an assistant. When things went wrong on defense Nick Sirianni made Patricia and DC and things got worse. A lot worse.
The good news is that this offseason has mainly been drama free. The Eagles did lose Kellen Moore, but things were done the right way and the Eagles went with a veteran coach to replace Moore. CJGJ made some comments after he left expressing frustration that he was traded. I don’t think his departure or comments bothered anyone. Bryce Huff made some comments about how things didn’t go well last year, but didn’t say anything that will affect anyone in Philly.
There is no QB controversy, unless you count a battle between Kyle McCord and Dorian Thompson-Robinson for the #3 spot.
The star players are under contract and seem to be happy.
An example of the culture Nick Sirianni continues to set.
Zack Baun telling us Sirianni shared his story in a team meeting highlighting what a player can achieve on a one year deal.
— Ashlyn Sullivan (@ashlynrsullivan) June 10, 2025
The Eagles did lose some key players in the offseason, but feel they have good replacements for them. Only time will tell, of course. There aren’t any obvious holes on the roster.
The biggest concern is probably seeing how the team handles success. The good news on this front is that the Eagles made the Super Bowl in 2022 and didn’t seem to handle that success great in 2023. I think Sirianni and the team learned from that. He’s been preaching to them to forget the celebration and focus on the present.
It will be interesting to see if the Eagles can make a run at another Super Bowl. The fact they don’t have to navigate a bunch of mindless BS should be a big help. They can simply concentrate on winning football games.
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Here is a random Eagles game from the past…Eagles vs Cowboys on Christmas Day 2006. I don’t want to tell you who wins, but it is a fun game to watch. It is cool to see how much the game has changed. Andy’s offense had the I-formation and split backs. The FB got touches. Jim Johnson’s defense was an actual 4-3 at times.
Jeff Garcia was fun to watch back in 2006. He was talented and had a fun, aggressive style. That was an interesting team. It’s too bad they couldn’t have kept Donte Stallworth around. He was a good fit for the offense and helped in a big way.
July 4th is a day focused on freedom. The Founding Fathers declared independence from Great Britain. They took a huge risk by doing that. If Americans had not been victorious in the Revolutionary War, the signers of the Declaration of Independence would have been arrested as traitors and executed. Instead, they are a part of history forever.
Risks in football don’t have the same gravity, of course. You can lose a job or become infamous for the wrong reasons, but it is far better to be ripped on talk shows and social media than to be hanging from the gallows. Still, risks are an important part of football greatness.
Think about the Cowboys of the early 90’s. Jerry Jones took a risk when he hired Jimmy Johnson from the college ranks. Johnson built a staff of mainly college coaches. As he had done at the University of Miami, Johnson focused on speed rather than size. That was unusual for pro football. Dallas traded away their best player, Herschel Walker. The NFL world did a lot of laughing at Jones and Johnson when Dallas went 1-15 in 1989. Dallas was a playoff team by 1991 and won three Super Bowls over the next four seasons.
Bill Walsh built the Niners into a juggernaut by taking chances. He made third round pick Joe Montana his choice at QB. Walsh acquired some veterans who had question marks. He spent the 16th overall pick in 1984 on a kid from Mississippi Valley State. Walsh embraced the short passing game and didn’t think you needed to focus on the run game.
Both Johnson and Walsh revolutionized the game of football. They built dynasties and won multiple Super Bowls. Their risks paid off.
Howie Roseman was demoted in 2015, losing his role as GM. He got the position back after Chip Kelly was fired. Roseman has since taken the Eagles to three Super Bowls and won two of them. Not many GMs can say that. Not many GMs can say they hired multiple coaches who won SBs. Howie is in rare air.
One of the keys to Roseman’s success is taking risks. He hired Doug Pederson at a time when no other team was pursuing him. Roseman hired Nick Sirianni when he was somewhat of an unknown in the NFL. Both coaches hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.
Roseman drafted Jalen Hurts at a time when Carson Wentz was established as the Eagles franchise QB. Wentz was 27 years old and had 56 career starts. It hardly seemed like the time to spend a high pick on another QB. The Eagles like Hurts quite a bit and thought it was worth adding him even with Wentz in place. Wentz was traded after the 2020 season and Hurts has gone 46-20 as the Eagles starter. More importantly, he’s 6-3 in the playoffs and won the SB last year.
A lot of people were highly critical of Roseman for the Hurts pick. Why not add more talent to help Wentz succeed? Instead, Hurts proved to be a franchise-changing pick.
Roseman took a chance when he drafted Jalen Carter ninth overall in 2023. Carter was a great talent at Georgia and could have gone first overall. There were questions about his focus and work ethic. How would he handle being a millionaire? Carter also had off-field issues. Teams loved his potential, but were scared of him. Roseman felt Carter could be a difference-maker. It was up to the Eagles to provide the right setting to help him be good off the field and great on it. The Eagles don’t win the SB last year without Carter. He is a dominant player. If you re-did the 2023 draft he doesn’t last anywhere close to ninth.
Not all of Roseman’s moves pan out. The Eagles signed Devin White in the spring of 2024, hoping he could be the MLB the team needed. White struggled and ended up getting cut. Luckily Roseman took another chance, signing Zack Baun and putting him at ILB based on the advice of Vic Fangio. Baun is now one of the best LBs in the league.
Roseman drafted Jalen Reagor in 2020, hoping his speed and athleticism would provide a boost to the offense. There are some reports that the coaches pushed for Reagor. No matter who wanted him, Roseman took the chance and made the pick. Reagor was a bust. Roseman didn’t give up. The following April he traded for AJ Brown, who has a chance to go down as the best receiver in Eagles history.
No coach or GM is going to be right all of the time. The key is to stay aggressive and take some risks. That’s how you find great players. Maybe you take a character risk. Maybe a medical risk. Maybe you are projecting a position change. You have to be willing to roll the dice and take chances.
Roseman hoped Bryce Huff could go from a situational rusher in the 4-3 to a starting 3-4 OLB. Didn’t work. Roseman didn’t force the issue. He dealt Huff this spring. Roseman signed a couple of free agent rushers in Josh Uche and Azeez Ojulari. Both were cheap and feel like better fits for the scheme. Roseman didn’t get scared. He went right back out there and made those signings. We’ll see if they pan out better than Huff did.
This April Roseman took a medical risk by drafting Jihad Campbell 31st overall. Campbell had Top 10 talent, but teams had some health concerns. Roseman felt the risk was worth the reward. Based on recent history, Campbell has a good chance to become an outstanding pro player.
The challenge for Roseman now is to see if he can keep this going. Picking 32nd makes it tough to get the best players. We’ve already seen there are some financial limitations because the Eagles have so many great players. That’s a problem most teams would kill for.
Roseman’s moves in recent years built an amazing team that won Super Bowl LIX. There are debates about that being one of the best teams of all-time. Can Roseman continue to work his magic and turn the Eagles into (dare I say)…a dynasty?