The Philadelphia Eagles have broken the drought. As the first number one seed to be underdogs throughout the playoffs, the Eagles used the disrespect to their advantage and culminated the 2017 season with a shootout victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
While the team has been an underdog since MVP-hopeful Carson Wentz went down with an ACL tear in December, there are plenty of individual underdogs that make up the Eagles’ roster and it starts at the top.
Here are the Eagles underdogs that made up one of the greatest underdog stories in history. These will be the names that Eagles fans will remember forever.
Howie Roseman, Executive Vice President of Football Operations
Roseman has been to hell and back with the Philadelphia Eagles and he is currently on top of the world. After being banished to the opposite side of the Eagles facility during the Chip Kelly era, Jason Kelce stated that the players rarely saw Roseman.
When Kelly was fired and Pederson took the helm, Roseman once again came to the forefront. Now, as Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Roseman is essentially the General Manager. Roseman has worked wonders in years past with aggressive trades and salary cap maneuvering but no offseason was more impressive than 2017’s.
Roseman’s list of acquisitions looks like the Eagles MVP list for the 2017 season. In addition to signing Nick Foles, Alshon Jeffery and LeGarrette Blount, all of who scored touchdowns in the Super Bowl, Roseman also had his hands in drafting Derek Barnett (recovered Tom Brady fumble), trading for Jay Ajayi (254 total yards in playoffs) and signing Corey Clement (100 receiving yards, TD in Super Bowl) as an undrafted rookie free agent. Players acquired by Roseman prior to the 2017 season were responsible for 88 of the Eagles 94 points in the postseason.
Without Roseman in his current role, the Eagles perhaps don’t even make it to the Super Bowl let alone win it. As one of few members of the organization who was around during the 2004 Super Bowl, Roseman made certain that the outcome of this one would be different.
Doug Pederson, Head Coach
Pederson’s season began and ended with a victory and a Gatorade bath. Pederson spent much of his offseason being questioned and ridiculed by football “experts.” Some were calling for Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz to take over. A certain former-GM called Pederson the least qualified coach in the last 30 years. All the while, Pederson’s team stuck by his side and rewarded their head coach for his first of what would become 16 victories that season.
A few weeks into the season NFL Films caught an exchange between Pederson and Brandon Graham toward the end of the game in which Pederson jokingly told Graham that the team is “overcoming the coaching.” A clear jab at the experts still questioning Pederson’s merits.
Pederson won the Eagles locker room early and his postgame locker room speeches became something that helped this Eagles fan get up and get to work each victory Monday. Late in the season, he was the leader that the Eagles needed to overcome a rash of injuries including one to their MVP-favorite quarterback. His “We Ain’t Done…YET” chants became a war cry for the Eagles down the stretch.
For Pederson to overcome all of the team’s injuries to win the first Super Bowl was simply incredible. His game-planning made Nick Foles look like an All-Pro quarterback and eventually led to him winning a shootout with the greatest quarterback of all time in the team’s biggest game of all time. The least-qualified coach of the last 30 years outdueled the likes of Bill Belichick, Matt Patricia and Josh McDaniels.
Pederson’s football journey went from NFL quarterback to high school head coach to NFL quarterback coach, NFL offensive coordinator and finally getting his first head coaching gig with Philadelphia, a city he played and assistant-coached in. A mere eight years removed from high school coaching, Pederson stood victorious on the sport’s grandest stage, hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
Nick Foles, Quarterback
Wow. I mean what can you say? Foles almost quit football two seasons ago after a wretched season in St. Louis. The quarterback went from 27-2 and Pro Bowl MVP in his second season to giving himself an ultimatum. After his 2015 season in St. Louis, Foles would only return to football for one coach: Andy Reid. Reid obliged and brought Foles in as a backup for 2016. When Foles hit free-agency, he decided to join Reid’s disciple in the town that originally drafted him.
Foles served as a clipboard-holder for the first 12 games of the season. Foles had thrown four passes on the season after missing the entire preseason and a large portion of training camp. Foles came in to relieve injured-Carson Wentz against Los Angeles and closed out the game with a victory that helped secure the NFC East and homefield advantage in the playoffs. He followed that up with a four-touchdown performance against the New York Giants followed by a few discouraging outings against the Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys.
Due to Foles essentially not being Wentz, the Eagles headed into the divisional, conference championship and even the Super Bowl as underdogs. Foles got better each game after the coaching staff studied what made him so successful in 2013.
He finished each of those games with 100.1, 141.4 and 106.1 passer ratings. He threw six touchdowns and his only interception came on a tipped ball. He executed the run-pass-option to near-perfection, slicing defenses in his wake.
Many called the Eagles dead when Wentz went down and were certain they would go one-and-done. Foles silenced the nay-sayers and performed at an elite level throughout the playoffs. The goofball who nearly quit football two seasons earlier went toe-to-toe with the greatest quarterback of all-time and came out on top, celebrating the victory and the Super Bowl MVP title with his wife and infant daughter.
Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
