One of many extra poignant moments of the Eagles’ historic 2024 season occurred mere minutes after their ultimate sport ended, on the makeshift podium out in the course of the Caesars Superdome. It’s when Jalen Hurts blotted every part out swirling round him, together with midnight green-and-white confetti, and appeared down at a mirrored image of himself within the Lombardi Tremendous Bowl trophy he held in his palms. It’s when it dawned on the fifth-year, 26-year-old quarterback that he did it.
He was a Tremendous Bowl champion.
The Eagles have been world champions.
It got here in sharp distinction to Hurts’ cellular phone wallpaper of him strolling off the sphere beneath raining red-and-yellow Kansas Metropolis Chiefs confetti two years in the past within the Eagles’ Tremendous Bowl loss. It goes together with the pink, fuming Jeffrey Lurie strolling up the Lincoln Monetary Area tunnel ramp trying like he wished to punch somebody within the face after the misplaced 2023 season, which included a disastrous fall to the three-win Arizona Cardinals.
Sunday marked the second time Lurie was in a position to maintain aloft the Vince Lombardi trophy, the second in Eagles historical past.
The epitaphs of the final two years are drastically totally different: The 2023 epic collapse got here with 10:44 left to play of their 32-9 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers within the Wild Card spherical, forcing ESPN colour analyst and NFL Corridor of Famer Troy Aikman to overtly announce to the nation that the 2023 Eagles have been a … “a defeated staff they usually have been once they got here in. And there’s been no life to this group actually all through your entire ball sport.”
A a lot sweeter inscription was positioned on the 2024 staff when Eagles’ Corridor of Fame broadcaster Merrill Reese proclaimed “the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles have received Tremendous Bowl LIX. They’ve overwhelmed the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, 40-22. It’s their second Tremendous Bowl win in seven years. What a sport. What a season. What a staff.”
This season’s Tremendous Bowl winners could be summed up in a phrase: Selflessness.
Saquon Barkley was the important piece that threw the Eagles excessive. However the staff needed to be prepared to just accept a star like Barkley, who may be very simple to just accept, although established star gamers generally don’t readily welcome new stars to a locker room. Established stars could be territorial, and generally jealous, which may trigger fissures inside a staff chemistry earlier than it has an opportunity to mildew.
“The Eagles’ personnel division, led by (basic supervisor) Howie Roseman, is one of the best within the league,” NFL skilled analyst Mike Mayock stated to Bleeding Inexperienced Nation. “They constantly flip 356 days a yr. Hiring (Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore) modified every part. They’ve hit the draft out of the park. Take a look at their first-round picks since 2021, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell. Take a look at their second-round picks like (Landon) Dickerson, (Cam) Jurgens, Dallas Goedert again just a few years in the past, Jalen Hurts, Cooper DeJean, and their free agent signings like Barkley and Zack Baun, have been big additions. The Eagles will at all times be at a excessive stage by way of acquiring and securing top-level expertise.
“Different groups can’t do what the Eagles have been doing. However what can be actually essential is once you usher in a famous person like Barkley, within the prime of his profession, and to have the season he had, and as selfless as he’s, it’s laborious for anyone within the locker room to be egocentric. When he was saying he didn’t want to return within the sport to get the document in opposition to the (New York) Giants, these issues make it laborious for any participant to say, ‘it’s about me.’ They know, ‘it’s about us.’ Jalen Hurts can be essential right here, too, as a result of he’s a really good younger man. On this NFL world of ‘franchise quarterbacks,’ dominated by Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson, all these guys make their groups go. It takes a selfless individual to chip in when mandatory, understanding Barkley and the operating sport is the present. It’s the identical with DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown. When you might have your two stars, Barkley and Hurts, these selfless gamers, that’s a extremely good begin for sustainability.”
It began with QB1
Jalen Hurts is on the core of this championship. He gave up an enormous chunk of his sport for the better good. He was prepared to just accept a extra restricted position within the offense behind Saquon Barkley, and when wanted, he responded. After successful the NFC Championship, 55-23, over Washington, Hurts stated snarkily concerning the sport plan “they let me out of my straitjacket a little bit bit at this time.” Nick Sirianni claimed Hurts was joking. The eventual Tremendous Bowl MVP wasn’t. Within the NFC Championship, he ran for 3 touchdowns, accomplished 20-of-28 passes for 246 yards and one other rating. He threw for over 200 yards 10 occasions this season and threw for over 200 yards 11 occasions over 18 video games final yr, which included 4 300-yard video games. He threw for over 300 yards simply as soon as this previous season, whereas throwing 452 passes. In 2023, he threw 538 occasions within the common season alone. This yr, he threw a career-low 361 passes as a fulltime starter in the course of the common season.
In 2023, he had seven-straight video games by which he threw for 200 yards or extra. This season, his longest 200-yard streak of video games was 4.
After the NFC championship, Hurts stated, “I don’t play the sport for stats. I don’t play the sport for numbers, any statistical approval from anybody else. And I perceive that everybody has a preconceived notion on how they need it to look, or how they anticipate it to look. I instructed you guys that successful, success, is outlined by that specific particular person, and it’s all relative to the individual. And what I outline it as is successful. So the primary objective is at all times to return out right here and win.”
Off the sphere, Hurts made a concerted effort to mix in together with his teammates, a serious enchancment over earlier seasons, which was reported right here. Final offseason, Hurts was omnipresent. He was extra demonstrative. He was far, much more accessible. Within the weight room, he made it a degree to work out with varied place teams, in there encouraging everybody. He confirmed up at teammate’s features that he beforehand didn’t.
His teammates seen.
Earlier than the season, Eagles All-Professional proper sort out Lane Johnson went public by saying Hurts had, “gone out of his option to join together with his teammates. Simply this offseason, he’s actually achieved a very good job of bonding together with his teammates. I really feel just like the connection has positively grown. A extremely massive offseason. The work ethic has by no means been a difficulty. Super employee. However, simply changing into a extra vocal chief and, each time he speaks, guys hear up.
“Yearly is form of a prove-it deal to everyone once you’re in that city. Jalen’s our man transferring ahead. We love him, we respect him, and no person places in additional work than he does.”
Hurts is a winner. That’s confirmed. He’s 52-23 as a starter, 46-20 within the common season, and 6-3 within the postseason, now together with a Tremendous Bowl and being named Tremendous Bowl MVP. Can he be positioned on the identical pantheon as Mahomes, Jackson, Burrow and Allen by way of ability stage? Maybe not. However who cares? It’s good radio sportstalk fodder. He wins. He nonetheless tends to carry the ball too lengthy, although his RPO sport is sweet, his play-action sport is sound, and his deep stage accuracy is excellent, as he displayed all through his professional profession and definitely within the Eagles’ Tremendous Bowl victory. When he will get the ball out on time, Hurts belongs within the Mahomes-Jackson-Burrow-Allen orbit. Mix that with how good he’s together with his legs, Hurts is a championship-level quarterback.
Fixing the constructing
There was as a lot dysfunction on the sphere as there was off it in 2023. Roseman and Nick Sirianni shed that instantly by eliminating OC Brian Johnson and interim defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and taking in veteran coordinators Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore. Up till this season, neither coordinator had received something. Combine them in with a proficient roster and Sirianni’s selfless angle of letting them run their rooms, including some oversight right here and there, and that collaboration produced overwhelming success.
First, Fangio and Moore needed to acquire the belief of their gamers.
Everybody within the NovaCare Complicated misplaced belief in Johnson and Patrica, although it is rather essential that they maintained their belief in Sirianni, who may be very a lot a participant’s coach.
Fangio by way of temperament and demeanor is as near beloved former Eagles’ defensive coordinator Jim Johnson as you would get. Their philosophies, nevertheless, differ drastically. Johnson cherished attacking. Fangio’s top-down protection is the polar reverse. The Eagles needed to study it the primary month of this season. It was a tough-love course of. Fangio’s fabled gruff demeanor surfaced various occasions, however this staff wished to play for him. They step by step absorbed his protection and by the halfway level the Eagles have been the NFL’s greatest. “Veteran guys, rookies like me, it took time, however as soon as we bought it, we knew we might play free and fly to the ball,” Jeremiah Trotter Jr. stated. “Coach Vic offers his gamers freedom to suppose, and I like it, as a result of it’s linebacker pleasant and permits us to play downhill. Hold every part in entrance of you. You get that strain up entrance and everybody’s job is simpler.”
Fangio didn’t blitz Mahomes as soon as. It changed into a dominant efficiency.
Earlier than the season, Eagles’ Corridor of Famer Ron Jaworski, who has a protracted historical past with Fangio, stated to Bleeding Inexperienced Nation: “Vic is a soccer lifer and as old-school as you will get. He’s dedicated, disciplined, and expects the identical from his gamers. From what I heard in Miami, he didn’t get that. Vic tried to get by to these guys, and a few of them could have wished to social gathering greater than play soccer. They didn’t wish to put the work in. This Eagles staff will.”
They did.
Moore was prepared 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 match it round Barkley.
Sirianni was prepared to let Fangio and Moore run their groups. The offense at first of the season was extra Moore than him. After the 2-2 begin, Sirianni opted to make use of extra of what Hurts favored, and commenced inserting items again of Sirianni’s offense. An early season sea change in offensive philosophy led to the Eagles reaching Tremendous Bowl LVII.
Sirianni took in defensive position coach Clint Hurtt, a former defensive coordinator with Seattle, and one other veteran coach who developed Professional Bowlers Bobby Wagner, Devon Witherspoon, and Julian Love. That translated into participant enchancment in Nolan Smith, Josh Sweat, and Jalyx Hunt, a transformed Cornell security who Roseman discovered within the third spherical. The gamers responded to Sirianni. He has been in a position to preserve the surface noise exterior. Roseman supplied the proficient gamers. They improved beneath Sirianni and his teaching employees.
Shifting ahead
A sea of inexperienced unfolded on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on Friday celebrating the Eagles’ Tremendous Bowl. Recency bias in Philadelphia has made it en vogue to run round proclaiming the 2024 Eagles as the best Philadelphia sports activities staff in historical past. So, for a day and doubtless the following few months to return, the Philadelphia euphoria will flip Oren Burks into Ray Lewis and Mike Singletary, Nick Sirianni into the following coming of Vince Lombardi and Don Shula, and Cooper DeJean might be higher than Ronnie Lott and Ed Reed.
Sure, this staff has an argument on this time. Not in all-time. They stands out as the best Eagles staff of all-time. The 1983 and 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers, which was chosen as the best particular person staff in 1980 for the NBA thirty fifth Anniversary Crew, have far stronger ammo as town’s all-time best professional sports activities groups.
Wish to be nice? Wish to be iconic? Do it once more.
No staff in Philadelphia has been repeat world champions because the 1974 and 1975 Flyers’ groups 50 years in the past. Earlier than that, it was 45 years that an iconic staff that not exists—the Philadelphia A’s 1929 and 1930 World Collection champions—have been repeat winners, toppling one of many best sports activities dynasties of all-time, the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig New York Yankees.
Inexperienced Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh (two totally different occasions), San Francisco, Dallas, Denver, New England, and sure, Kansas Metropolis, all did it. These groups reached the rarefied air of repeat Tremendous Bowl winners.
With the best way the Eagles are presently configured, they might repeat, and even threepeat.
Although inside days of successful, the Eagles have been already present process change.
Moore jettisoned to New Orleans because the Saints’ new head coach. He could carry with him Eagles’ quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier, who was with Moore in Los Angeles, opening the slot for Kevin Patullo, the Eagles’ passing sport coordinator/affiliate head coach and was with Sirianni in Indianapolis, to switch Moore. Whoever it’s, it will be Hurts’ fourth coordinator in 4 years (following Shane Steichen, Brian Johnson, and Moore).
It’s why somebody like Frank Reich could possibly be an choice as the brand new OC. He’s Sirianni’s mentor, has a terrific repute throughout the NovaCare Complicated, having been the Eagles’ offensive coordinator for the 2017 Tremendous Bowl-winning Eagles, is aware of and values the operating sport, growing Jon Taylor in Indianapolis. Extra importantly, he’s 63. Even when the Eagles are profitable in 2025, as they need to be, Reich, like Fangio, who’s 66, probably received’t be poached. The pair usually are not going anyplace at this stage of their lives and their careers.
Reich would lend stability for Hurts for just a few years and add one other former NFL head coach to Sirianni’s employees whose opinion could be valued by the top coach.
Roseman is confronted with the duty of re-signing priceless items of the 2024 Tremendous Bowl champion staff starting with arguably one of the best linebacker in soccer, All-Professional Zack Baun, edge rusher Josh Sweat, whose Tremendous Bowl efficiency will permit him to money in and is represented by the highly effective Drew Rosenhaus, inside defensive lineman Milton Williams and proper guard Mekhi Becton.
“I don’t suppose individuals discuss Milton Williams sufficient, and he has come into his personal,” Mayock stated. “Trying forward, he’s going to develop into a terrific participant. I really like him with Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. I actually like Milton Williams, who’s a precedence together with Zack Baun. It should come right down to how a lot Josh Sweat needs and the way they really feel concerning the different edge rushers. Bryce Huff disappeared off the face of the earth. Their predominant free brokers are Baun, Williams, Sweat and Becton, and I believe Kenny Gainwell is a pleasant piece for them. They’re in good condition. Wouldn’t it shock me if Howie can signal the large 4, Baun, Williams, Sweat and Becton? No, it wouldn’t shock me.
“The Eagles will proceed to win as a result of they’ve Howie they usually have high quality coaches. If you happen to can breathe a successful angle in a metropolis like Philadelphia and pay your guys, lots of coaches will keep. Okay, Vic did a terrific job within the Eagles successful the Tremendous Bowl however have a look at Jeremiah Washburn (the Eagles’ edge/exterior linebackers coach who has been with the staff for six years). He does an incredible job. You’ve gotten Clint Hurtt, a former participant who’s nice, and everyone knows about Stout (Jeff Stoutland). One factor I find out about NFL gamers is that they acknowledge in a short time the coaches that may assist their careers, and assist them get higher, and assist them get to a Tremendous Bowl, versus the blokes that may’t. The Eagles are lucky, as a result of they’ve the employees that may get them again there once more.”
