Now that the Philadelphia Eagles beat the living daylights out of the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 in Super Bowl LIV last Sunday, the last thing anybody wants to hear about is dynasties or three-peats. Chiefs Fatigue has taken America by storm, and the automatic (and quite possibly erroneous) assumption is now that the Eagles took the Chiefs’ lunch money in this game, Patrick Mahomes and his guys will revert from all-time great to just really, really good, and wouldn’t we all like to see somebody else from the AFC in a Super Bowl? Seems like it’s been years.
That said, this Eagles team could well be on their way to their own NFL clampdown. It’s important to remember that this is Philly’s second Lombardi Trophy over the last eight years (they beat the New England Patriots, the league’s previous obnoxious dynasty, in Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4, 2018), and they were in this moment just three years ago. Were it not for a defensive holding call on cornerback James Bradberry with 1:54 left in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 3, 2023 which extended Kansas City’s game-winning drive, the Eagles might have found themselves on the other side of the end result, which was a heartbreaking 38-35 loss as Harrison Butker kicked the game-deciding field goal with 11 seconds left.
So the Eagles know what it takes to get to the Super Bowl, and they know what it takes to win it. Can they now put everything together to be as ubiquitous as the Chiefs and Patriots have been?
When making the argument in the affirmative, we can start with general manager Howie Roseman, who is the first executive to preside over two teams in the salary cap era who have won Super Bowls with different coaches and different starting quarterbacks. Back in 2018, Doug Pederson was the head coach, Carson Wentz was the injured starter, and Nick Foles was the improbable Super Bowl MVP. Now, it’s Nick Sirianni as the head coach, and Jalen Hurts as the improbable Super Bowl MVP.
Roseman has long been one of the NFL’s most adept executives, and the ways in which this particular Eagles team put everything together was singularly remarkable. From the signing of former New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, which will go down as one of the most impactful transactions in NFL history, to a 2024 draft that filled the Eagles’ coffers with right-now starting talent, to the development of young players acquired both from the draft and via free agency — there’s nobody more respected in the NFL who does what Roseman does, and with good reason.
Another smart thing Roseman did before the 2024 season? He realized that the coaching “Brain Drain” caused by the hiring away of offensive coordinator Shane Steichen and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon after that Super Bowl loss three years ago could not stand. In 2023, Brian Johnson (Steichen’s replacement) and Sean Desai (Gannon’s replacement) weren’t quite up to the task, and the Eagles started the season at 10-1 before falling off a cliff with an 11-6 mark, and a Wild Caridf blowout at the hands of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
So, this time around, Roseman didn’t hedge any bets. He availed himself of two of the best minds in the game in new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Moore, now the New Orleans Saints’ new head coach, helped Jalen Hurts through a level of development that had its rough spots at times this season, but ended with Hurts taking the mantle in Super Bowl LIX with an MVP performance as the Chiefs focused on Saquon Barkley.
Take out the quarterback kneels at the end of the game, and Kansas City still had three linebackers – Nick Bolton, Drue Tranquill, and Leo Chenal – on the field for 21 of Philly’s offensive plays. That allowed Hurts to get off some great passes, but even when the Chiefs went with lighter boxes and focused on the passing game, Hurts played at a different level.
We’ll see how that shakes out as head coach Nick Sirianni looks to appoint Moore’s successor, but if the Super Bowl version of Jalen Hurts is the one we see in 2025 and beyond, good luck stopping that.
As for Fangio, his defensive game plans were utterly brilliant all season long. The Eagles came into the Super Bowl with the NFL’s best defense by DVOA, and Fangio just ratcheted things up in the season’s most important game. Vic knew that the Chiefs’ offensive line was no match for his front four, so the Eagles didn’t blitz once in the entire game, and they still pressured Patrick Mahomes ceaselessly. That allowed them to show all kinds of different coverages to Mahomes, including the Cover-4 on Cooper DeJean’s pick-six with 7:16 left in the first half – which was actually quite similar to a pick-six DeJean had for Iowa against Rutgers in 2022. As far as we know, the 66-year-old Fangio is sticking around, and as great as he’s been throughout his career, he may be just hitting his stride!
Of course, there’s also offensive line master Jeff Stoutland, whose “University” has bequeathed upon the NFL its best current offensive line.
Will the Eagles have things to deal with on the way to that possible dynasty of their own? Sure. Saquon Barkley’s record-setting season was dependent on his not only staying healthy, but somehow running with more speed, power, and juice as the season went along. That’s an interesting construct for a guy who has missed more than one game due to injury in three of his seven NFL seasons, and Barkley celebrated his 28th birthday on Super Bowl Sunday. There’s also the possible free agency defection of some key players – defensive linemen Josh Sweat and Milton Williams, linebacker Zach Baun, and guard Mekhi Becton. But it was Fangio who made Sweat and Williams better, and saw things in Baun that turned him from a special teams guy with the New Orleans Saints to an All-Pro linebacker with the Eagles. And if Becton decides to capitalize on the open market, we’re pretty sure that Stoutland University has other potential honors students in the hopper.
So here’s a team that narrowly lost the Super Bowl two seasons ago, dropped from a 10-1 start one season ago, and dominated the NFL’s previous dynasty in this season’s Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles have been closer than you may think to their own dynastic stretch, and they appear to have everything in line to begin that process once and for all.
If you’re tired of dynasties in the NFL, the Eagles might be bad news for you in the years to come.