One of the more poignant moments of the Eagles’ historic 2024 season occurred mere minutes after their final game ended, on the makeshift podium out in the middle of the Caesars Superdome. It’s when Jalen Hurts blotted everything out swirling around him, including midnight green-and-white confetti, and looked down at a reflection of himself in the Lombardi Super Bowl trophy he held in his hands. It’s when it dawned on the fifth-year, 26-year-old quarterback that he did it.
He was a Super Bowl champion.
The Eagles were world champions.
It came in sharp contrast to Hurts’ cell phone wallpaper of him walking off the field under raining red-and-yellow Kansas City Chiefs confetti two years ago in the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss. It goes along with the red, fuming Jeffrey Lurie walking up the Lincoln Financial Field tunnel ramp looking like he wanted to punch someone in the face after the lost 2023 season, which included a disastrous fall to the three-win Arizona Cardinals.
Sunday marked the second time Lurie was able to hold aloft the Vince Lombardi trophy, the second in Eagles history.
The epitaphs of the last two years are drastically different: The 2023 epic collapse came with 10:44 left to play in their 32-9 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round, forcing ESPN color analyst and NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman to brazenly announce to the nation that the 2023 Eagles were a … “a defeated team and they were when they came in. And there’s been no life to this group really throughout the entire ball game.”
A much sweeter inscription was placed on the 2024 team when Eagles’ Hall of Fame broadcaster Merrill Reese proclaimed “the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles have won Super Bowl LIX. They have beaten the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22. It’s their second Super Bowl win in seven years. What a game. What a season. What a team.”
This season’s Super Bowl winners can be summed up in a word: Selflessness.
Saquon Barkley was the vital piece that threw the Eagles over the top. But the team had to be willing to accept a star like Barkley, who is very easy to accept, though established star players sometimes do not readily welcome new stars to a locker room. Established stars can be territorial, and sometimes jealous, which can cause fissures within a team chemistry before it has a chance to mold.
“The Eagles’ personnel department, led by (general manager) Howie Roseman, is the best in the league,” NFL expert analyst Mike Mayock said to Bleeding Green Nation. “They consistently turn 356 days a year. Hiring (Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore) changed everything. They have hit the draft out of the park. Look at their first-round picks since 2021, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell. Look at their second-round picks like (Landon) Dickerson, (Cam) Jurgens, Dallas Goedert back a few years ago, Jalen Hurts, Cooper DeJean, and their free agent signings like Barkley and Zack Baun, have been huge additions. The Eagles will always be at a high level in terms of obtaining and securing top-level talent.
“Other teams can’t do what the Eagles have been doing. But what is also really important is when you bring in a superstar like Barkley, in the prime of his career, and to have the season he had, and as selfless as he is, it’s hard for anybody in the locker room to be selfish. When he was saying he didn’t need to go back in the game to get the record against the (New York) Giants, those things make it hard for any player to say, ‘it’s about me.’ They know, ‘it is about us.’ Jalen Hurts is also important here, too, because he is a very smart young man. In this NFL world of ‘franchise quarterbacks,’ dominated by Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, all those guys make their teams go. It takes a selfless person to chip in when necessary, knowing Barkley and the running game is the show. It’s the same with DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown. When you have your two stars, Barkley and Hurts, those selfless players, that’s a really good start for sustainability.”
It started with QB1
Jalen Hurts is at the core of this championship. He gave up a huge chunk of his game for the greater good. He was willing to accept a more limited role in the offense behind Saquon Barkley, and when needed, he responded. After winning the NFC Championship, 55-23, over Washington, Hurts said snarkily about the game plan “they let me out of my straitjacket a little bit today.” Nick Sirianni claimed Hurts was joking. The eventual Super Bowl MVP wasn’t. In the NFC Championship, he ran for three touchdowns, completed 20-of-28 passes for 246 yards and another score. He threw for over 200 yards 10 times this season and threw for over 200 yards 11 times over 18 games last year, which included four 300-yard games. He threw for over 300 yards just once this past season, while throwing 452 passes. In 2023, he threw 538 times in the regular season alone. This year, he threw a career-low 361 passes as a fulltime starter during the regular season.
In 2023, he had seven-straight games in which he threw for 200 yards or more. This season, his longest 200-yard streak of games was four.
After the NFC championship, Hurts said, “I don’t play the game for stats. I don’t play the game for numbers, any statistical approval from anyone else. And I understand that everyone has a preconceived notion on how they want it to look, or how they expect it to look. I told you guys that winning, success, is defined by that particular individual, and it’s all relative to the person. And what I define it as is winning. So the number one goal is always to come out here and win.”
Off the field, Hurts made a concerted effort to blend in with his teammates, a major improvement over previous seasons, which was reported here. Last offseason, Hurts was omnipresent. He was more demonstrative. He was far, far more accessible. In the weight room, he made it a point to work out with various position groups, in there encouraging everyone. He showed up at teammate’s functions that he previously did not.
His teammates noticed.
Before the season, Eagles All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson went public by saying Hurts had, “gone out of his way to connect with his teammates. Just this offseason, he’s really done a good job of bonding with his teammates. I feel like the connection has definitely grown. A really big offseason. The work ethic has never been an issue. Tremendous worker. But, just becoming a more vocal leader and, whenever he speaks, guys listen up.
“Every year is kind of a prove-it deal to everybody when you’re in that town. Jalen’s our guy moving forward. We love him, we respect him, and nobody puts in more work than he does.”
Hurts is a winner. That’s proven. He’s 52-23 as a starter, 46-20 in the regular season, and 6-3 in the postseason, now including a Super Bowl and being named Super Bowl MVP. Can he be placed on the same pantheon as Mahomes, Jackson, Burrow and Allen in terms of skill level? Perhaps not. But who cares? It is good radio sportstalk fodder. He wins. He still tends to hold the ball too long, though his RPO game is good, his play-action game is sound, and his deep level accuracy is outstanding, as he displayed throughout his pro career and certainly in the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory. When he gets the ball out on time, Hurts belongs in the Mahomes-Jackson-Burrow-Allen orbit. Combine that with how good he is with his legs, Hurts is a championship-level quarterback.
Fixing the building
There was as much dysfunction on the field as there was off it in 2023. Roseman and Nick Sirianni shed that immediately by getting rid of OC Brian Johnson and interim defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and taking in veteran coordinators Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore. Up until this season, neither coordinator had won anything. Mix them in with a talented roster and Sirianni’s selfless attitude of letting them run their rooms, adding some oversight here and there, and that collaboration produced overwhelming success.
First, Fangio and Moore had to gain the trust of their players.
Everyone in the NovaCare Complex lost trust in Johnson and Patrica, though it is very important that they maintained their trust in Sirianni, who is very much a player’s coach.
Fangio in terms of temperament and demeanor is as close to beloved former Eagles’ defensive coordinator Jim Johnson as you could get. Their philosophies, however, differ drastically. Johnson loved attacking. Fangio’s top-down defense is the polar opposite. The Eagles had to learn it the first month of this season. It was a tough-love process. Fangio’s fabled gruff demeanor surfaced more than a few times, but this team wanted to play for him. They gradually absorbed his defense and by the midway point the Eagles were the NFL’s best. “Veteran guys, rookies like me, it took time, but once we got it, we knew we could play free and fly to the ball,” Jeremiah Trotter Jr. said. “Coach Vic gives his players freedom to think, and I love it, because it’s linebacker friendly and allows us to play downhill. Keep everything in front of you. You get that pressure up front and everyone’s job is easier.”
Fangio did not blitz Mahomes once. It turned into a dominant performance.
Before the season, Eagles’ Hall of Famer Ron Jaworski, who has a long history with Fangio, said to Bleeding Green Nation: “Vic is a football lifer and as old-school as you can get. He is committed, disciplined, and expects the same from his players. From what I heard in Miami, he did not get that. Vic tried to get through to those guys, and some of them may have wanted to party more than play football. They did not want to put the work in. This Eagles team will.”
They did.
Moore was willing to make the selfless act of stepping away from what had been a “pass-happy” system he ran in Dallas and with the Los Angeles Chargers and fit it around Barkley.
Sirianni was willing to let Fangio and Moore run their teams. The offense at the start of the season was more Moore than him. After the 2-2 start, Sirianni opted to use more of what Hurts liked, and began inserting pieces back of Sirianni’s offense. An early season sea change in offensive philosophy led to the Eagles reaching Super Bowl LVII.
Sirianni took in defensive line coach Clint Hurtt, a former defensive coordinator with Seattle, and another veteran coach who developed Pro Bowlers Bobby Wagner, Devon Witherspoon, and Julian Love. That translated into player improvement in Nolan Smith, Josh Sweat, and Jalyx Hunt, a converted Cornell safety who Roseman found in the third round. The players responded to Sirianni. He has been able to keep the outside noise outside. Roseman provided the talented players. They improved under Sirianni and his coaching staff.
Moving forward
A sea of green unfolded on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Friday celebrating the Eagles’ Super Bowl. Recency bias in Philadelphia has made it en vogue to run around proclaiming the 2024 Eagles as the greatest Philadelphia sports team in history. So, for a day and probably the next few months to come, the Philadelphia euphoria will turn Oren Burks into Ray Lewis and Mike Singletary, Nick Sirianni into the next coming of Vince Lombardi and Don Shula, and Cooper DeJean will be better than Ronnie Lott and Ed Reed.
Yes, this team has an argument in this time. Not in all-time. They may be the greatest Eagles team of all-time. The 1983 and 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers, which was chosen as the greatest individual team in 1980 for the NBA 35th Anniversary Team, have far stronger ammo as the city’s all-time greatest pro sports teams.
Want to be great? Want to be iconic? Do it again.
No team in Philadelphia has been repeat world champions since the 1974 and 1975 Flyers’ teams 50 years ago. Before that, it was 45 years that an iconic team that no longer exists—the Philadelphia A’s 1929 and 1930 World Series champions—were repeat winners, toppling one of the greatest sports dynasties of all-time, the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig New York Yankees.
Green Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh (two different times), San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, New England, and yes, Kansas City, all did it. Those teams reached the rarefied air of repeat Super Bowl winners.
With the way the Eagles are currently configured, they could repeat, and even threepeat.
Though within days of winning, the Eagles were already undergoing change.
Moore jettisoned to New Orleans as the Saints’ new head coach. He may bring with him Eagles’ quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, who was with Moore in Los Angeles, opening the slot for Kevin Patullo, the Eagles’ passing game coordinator/associate head coach and was with Sirianni in Indianapolis, to replace Moore. Whoever it is, it would be Hurts’ fourth coordinator in four years (following Shane Steichen, Brian Johnson, and Moore).
It’s why someone like Frank Reich could be an option as the new OC. He’s Sirianni’s mentor, has a great reputation within the NovaCare Complex, having been the Eagles’ offensive coordinator for the 2017 Super Bowl-winning Eagles, knows and values the running game, developing Jon Taylor in Indianapolis. More importantly, he’s 63. Even if the Eagles are successful in 2025, as they should be, Reich, like Fangio, who is 66, likely won’t be poached. The pair are not going anywhere at this stage of their lives and their careers.
Reich would lend stability for Hurts for a few years and add another former NFL head coach to Sirianni’s staff whose opinion would be valued by the head coach.
Roseman is faced with the task of re-signing valuable pieces of the 2024 Super Bowl champion team beginning with arguably the best linebacker in football, All-Pro Zack Baun, edge rusher Josh Sweat, whose Super Bowl performance will allow him to cash in and is represented by the powerful Drew Rosenhaus, interior defensive lineman Milton Williams and right guard Mekhi Becton.
“I don’t think people talk about Milton Williams enough, and he has come into his own,” Mayock said. “Looking ahead, he’s going to grow into a great player. I love him with Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. I really like Milton Williams, who is a priority along with Zack Baun. It will come down to how much Josh Sweat wants and how they feel about the other edge rushers. Bryce Huff disappeared off the face of the earth. Their main free agents are Baun, Williams, Sweat and Becton, and I think Kenny Gainwell is a nice piece for them. They’re in good shape. Would it surprise me if Howie can sign the big four, Baun, Williams, Sweat and Becton? No, it wouldn’t surprise me.
“The Eagles will continue to win because they have Howie and they have quality coaches. If you can breathe a winning attitude in a city like Philadelphia and pay your guys, a lot of coaches will stay. Okay, Vic did a great job in the Eagles winning the Super Bowl but look at Jeremiah Washburn (the Eagles’ edge/outside linebackers coach who has been with the team for six years). He does an amazing job. You have Clint Hurtt, a former player who is great, and we all know about Stout (Jeff Stoutland). One thing I know about NFL players is they recognize very quickly the coaches that can help their careers, and help them get better, and help them get to a Super Bowl, versus the guys that can’t. The Eagles are fortunate, because they have the staff that can get them back there again.”
