The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a heartbreaking loss against the New Orleans Saints that ended their season, but under this regime, they should be contenders for years to come.
Even with the heartache, Eagles fans can rest easy under the tutelage of Owner Jeffrey Lurie, VP of football operations Howie Roseman and head coach Doug Pederson. From top to bottom the Eagles have assembled one of the best leadership groups in the NFL.
Philadelphia has something that not many teams in football can say:
An owner who cares about a winning culture not just about making money.
A coach who instills that winning culture and can create a team-first mentality.
A VP of football operations who drafts well and spends money wisely, while being meticulous with the salary cap.
A young stud quarterback who has already shown he can be one of the best players in the league.
With these people, the Eagles can sustain their success to more than just future playoff berths, but Super Bowl contention more often than not.
Just like any professional sports league, teams constantly move from the bottom of the league standings to the top and vice-versa. However, some teams find ways to stay near the top of the league for decades with that same type of core people.
Jeffrey Lurie
Lurie seemingly makes headlines for all the right reasons every year. He just recently gave Nick Foles his $1 million dollar bonus even though he fell four snaps shy of reaching that mark. Lurie didn’t need to do that, and not every owner would have.
He’s also constantly seen interacting with fans throughout the community at games and through charities. Lurie has his own charity and an Eagles charitable organization for autism.
He even gifted a family, who has a son with autism a Super Bowl ring.
It’s not as if other owners don’t do these things, because plenty of them care about winning and their fans. But some don’t, and Lurie has seemingly always wanted to win and cared about the fans which make a huge difference.
Howie Roseman
When the Eagles hired Howie Roseman as general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2010 he became the youngest in NFL history at age 34.
Howie quickly showed how talented he was with player contracts, saving the Eagles money through restructured deals.
When Howie took over team control from Chip Kelly in 2016, he quickly moved up in the draft. Roseman did this by shedding salaries to get to the second overall pick to Carson Wentz.
Howie also quickly rebuilt the roster and secured the Eagles top players on route to their first Super Bowl in Franchise history. He signed players to one-year deals who were integral in the Eagles Super Bowl roster. Patrick Robinson, Lagarette Blount and Chris Long were signed to short and cheap deals. While trading for Tim Jernigan, Jay Ajayi, and Ronald Darby also proved to be invaluable.
Signing Nick Foles also turned into a decent decision for the franchise.
All six players played big roles in helping the team propel the Eagles from a fringe playoff team to legitimate contenders.
Part of that rebuild was moving on from starting quarterback Sam Bradford who was supposed to mentor Wentz. Roseman somehow convinced the Vikings to trade their first-round pick for quarterback Sam Bradford.
Bradford would go onto signing a one-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals but lost his starting job during a game in week three. He wouldn’t play another down for the team and was cut before week nine.
Howie used that draft pick to select Derek Barnett. He secured the fumble late in the 4th quarter against the Patriots to help win the Super Bowl.
With Howie Roseman at the helm, Eagles fans can rest easy knowing that the team is always headed in the right direction.
Doug Pederson
Mike Lombardi famously said before the 2017 season, that Doug Pederson was the least qualified head coach hire he’s ever seen in the NFL. Doug went on to lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl win in February of 2018.
Pederson has created a team-first mentality in the locker room. His one week approach and a players coach personality had the whole team on the same page. Everyone was playing for him and more importantly each other.
Doug Pederson has created a culture that goes way beyond the playing field.
Players want to play for him. Players want to play for each other.
Under Doug Pederson, the Eagles have pushed out bad attitudes in the locker room. While simultaneously creating a family inside the locker room.
Players also feel like they can speak their mind under Doug and that they don’t have to hide their opinions.
Malcolm Jenkins and Chris Long have been vocal about social issues that could be construed as controversial.
But no matter what your political standing is, the Eagles have created an environment where speaking your mind is acceptable.
Carson Wentz
Wentz arrived on the Eagles with minimal expectations for his rookie season. He was supposed to be the third-string quarterback behind Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel but was quickly thrown into the starting role days before the season.
The small school quarterback quickly took control of the team and led them to a 3-0 start.
The Eagles would fizzle out, as they finished the season 7-9. However, the team was in most games, as six of those losses were by one score or less.
Wentz would, of course, go onto have a monumental season for the Birds next season.
If it weren’t for a late season-ending injury, Wentz would’ve been the likely MVP winner. His 33 touchdown passes were a team record and his 11-2 record helped the Eagles secure the number one seed in the NFC.
Even though some people thought he had a down year, it was revealed that he had been playing with an injured back all season. Carson was still able to put up a 21 touchdown and 3,074 passing yard season in just 11 games. That would translate to 4,472 passing yards and 30 touchdowns over a full season and that is playing injured.
With a full offseason to train this time around, the league better be ready for a healthy Carson Wentz.
The Eagles Are Here To Stay
Under the current regime, it’s hard to see the Eagles faltering for a long time. They have the perfect core of players, management, ownership and leadership to continue Super Bowl contention.
The core of Carson Wentz, Malcolm Jenkins, Fletcher Cox, Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks, Jason Kelce, Alshon Jeffrey and Zach Ertz are joined by young up and coming players that balance out the roster.
The young secondary showed incredible promise over the last few weeks and what was long considered to be a weakness may now be considered a strength. Avonte Maddox, Rasual Douglas, Sidney Jones, and Captain Cre’Von (LeBlanc) have the potential to form one of the better secondaries in the league.
Young players like Derek Barnett, Dallas Goedert, Corey Clement should only get better and you’ve got to have confidence in Howie and Joe Douglas to keep drafting well and putting the team in positions to contend.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Eagles are back in the Super Bowl sooner, rather than later.
Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
