It’s almost here.
In just a few dozen hours, the title defense officially begins when the Birds welcome the Micah Parsons-less Dallas Cowboys to Lincoln Financial Field to kick off the 2025 season. A season in which, for the second time in franchise history, begins with your Philadelphia Eagles as the reigning Super Bowl champions.
This season will not be like last season. No matter what happens, no matter how far these Eagles go, it will be different. Saquon Barkley likely won’t top 2,000 yards again. Jalen Hurts will play differently, better in some aspects, perhaps worse in others. New players will make an impact. Some players will disappoint. There is a new offensive coordinator/play caller, changes throughout the defense, and lady luck will have a say in how things transpire over the next five months of football.
That being said, the Eagles enter the 2025 season with one of the best, if not the best, rosters in the NFL and the best odds of winning a title of any team in football. Below are the five biggest reasons the Birds will be holding the Lombardi Trophy once again.
It’s the Talent, Stupid
Over the last few weeks, NFL.com has listed their top-100 players and the Eagles were well represented. Saquon Barkley is the league’s best player, according to the list:
- No. 1: Saquon Barkley
- No. 19: Jalen Hurts
- No. 23: Lane Johnson
- No. 26: Zack Baun
- No. 29: A.J. Brown
- No. 43: Jalen Carter
- No. 49: Quinyon Mitchell
- No. 60: Cooper DeJean
- No. 69: Jordan Mailata
Incredibly, Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens are not on this list, which is pure insanity, but I guess it would be too much to ask for more than nine Eagles to be represented. That being said, this team is loaded with elite players, on both sides of the ball.
There are other teams throughout the conference that could make a claim to having one of the best rosters in the league. The Packers got better adding Micah Parsons. The Lions, even without Ben Johnson, will be dangerous. We’ll see if the Commanders were for real last year, but Jayden Daniels is legitimately a great young QB. The Rams and Bucs could have something to say about going to the Super Bowl, and there’s always a surprise in the mix, too.
Talented rosters win titles. It’s that simple.
Offensive Versatility
One of the most underrated aspects of the Eagles’ offense is its versatility. With Saquon Barkley in the prime of his career, Jalen Hurts’ running ability and a dominant run-blocking offensive line, the Birds have the ability to ground any defense into a fine powder over the course of a long game and, most specifically, in the fourth quarter to protect a lead.
However, as we saw in the Super Bowl, when teams decide to key in on Barkley and devote all their resources to stopping the run, the Eagles have just as many weapons available to them to beat you through the air. When the skeptics railed against the passing game heading into last season’s game against Pittsburgh, Hurts and the offense made a concerted effort to sling the ball around the field, resulting in a dominant victory through the passing game. A.J. Brown is in line for a monster season, with DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert still around to give Hurts electric targets all over the field.
Oh, and there’s the Tush Push, the most successful one-yard play in NFL history, a play that only the Eagles run well, that essentially turns any third and/or fourth-and-one into an automatic first down.
Other than the Detroit Lions, there is perhaps no offense in football better able to defeat you in multiple ways than the Eagles.
Jalen Hurts
Hurts has a 46-20 record as a starter in his career. We plays his best football in the biggest moments, as evidenced by his two NFC Championship Game victories and two Super Bowl appearances, winning MVP in Super Bowl 59.
He will likely never put up the kind of passing numbers that get you placed into a lot of top-five, or even top-10 conversations of league quarterbacks. Hurts’ super power is his on-field humility. His goals are not to have a 4,000-yard passing season, or to throw for 30 touchdowns. His goal is to win football games. If that means feeding the rock to Barkley 25-30 times, that’s fine. If that week’s game requires him to run for 80 yards and throw for only 150, he’ll do it. If that week’s opponent forces him to put the ball up 45 times, he’ll do that, too.
Jalen Hurts does whatever is required of him, in that moment, to win a football game. Sometimes, his stats will suffer. When the Eagles go on an 8 or 9-minute drive to seal a victory, that’s an entire quarter of football in which Hurts is not piling up stats. And that’s OK with him.
Hurts lost only one game last in which he finished last season, in Tampa. That’s it.
He is what we wanted Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb and Carson Wentz to be, but were never able to become.
Nick Sirianni
Last year, Sirianni looked like a dead coach walking. Even though he had led the Eagles to three playoff appearances in his first three seasons as head coach, the collapse of 2023 and turmoil throughout the team almost cost him his job. Had the Eagles not gone on a deep playoff run, it’s possible he would not be the head coach heading into the ‘25 season.
But you can’t kill Nick Sirianni. He keeps changing and developing and figuring out new ways to get his teams to excel. His coaching staff changes on a yearly basis, particularly on offense. And yet, Sirianni is 48-20 in the regular season and 6-3 in the playoffs, including two Super Bowl appearances and his first title last year. His 54-23 overall record gives him a winning percentage of 70.6%, highest among active coaches and among the best of all-time.
It’s time to start viewing Sirianni as a major reason why the Eagles could become the NFL’s next dynasty, not a bystander.
Vic Fangio
At the start of last season, I wasn’t sure Fangio was the answer for the Eagles’ defensive coordinator woes.
Fangio’s style of defense, imitated by Jonathan Gannon and then Sean Desai were not overly impressive. Sure, Gannon’s ‘22 defense was successful, but was led mostly by a defensive line that destroyed their opponents, not because of anything that was done schematically. I was worried the league had caught up to what Fangio liked to do.
Turns out, all you need is some better players that fit what Fangio wanted to do. Rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, along with Darius Slay, had maybe the best season by any trio of Eagles cornerbacks in franchise history. Zack Baun becoming a first-team All Pro was not on our bingo cards, but he meshed into Fangio’s vision beautifully. And the defensive line got better as the season went along, too.
Most impressively, a defense that struggled immensely with communication in 2023, especially in the secondary, was suddenly all moving and playing together as a single unit. Spacing was perfect. Players were where they were supposed to be. They were aggressive, turnover machines, hunting ball carriers and receivers alike. By the time the defensive line caught on in the final month of the regular season, Fangio had put together the No. 1 unit in football, and they carried it through to the postseason.
There are question marks, to be sure, specifically at corner and safety, and at edge rusher, too. But confidence is high that Fangio will be able to make it all work.
6 CommentsSee More:
