This Eagles Season is a Fact-Finding Mission, so Let's Embark on a Journey of Positivity and Pragmatic Thought
The Eagles begin training camp today and this is the most excited I’ve been for a season since 2018.
100% serious.
That’s not a hot take or a contrarian “get clicks” stance; I’m sincerely intrigued by this transitional phase, this turning of the corner with brand-new coaches and brand-new players. We don’t know anything about this team or this staff and that should be exciting to anybody who is able to temper expectations and embark upon a pragmatic fact-finding mission.
It’s truly what this season is – a mission. We’re trying to learn as much about the Birds as we can. If you’re able to adjust your outlook for a season, appreciate the still-relatively-recent Super Bowl win, and turn the page on the Carson Wentz, Nick Foles, and Doug Pederson era, then you should be flipping on the TV this year with a clear mind and a blank fan slate. A South Philly Tabula Rasa. You can’t be disappointed when you have no expectations to begin with, and anybody who is truly honest with themselves will realize that the Eagles ain’t making a deep playoff run.
But ‘that’s okay,’ as divorce lawyer Joe Cordell once said. Instead of focusing on wins and losses, let’s write down a list of questions that need to be answered. And if we can answer an arbitrary amount of these questions going into next season, say 85%, we’ll be able to remain on this path or properly divert. This year is a stepping stone to bigger things, we hope.
Among those questions that need answering this season:
- Is Jalen Hurts a franchise quarterback?
- Is Nick Sirianni a bona fide NFL head coach?
- Does Jonathan Gannon have the chops to be a defensive coordinator?
- How does Howie Roseman handle the Zach Ertz situation?
- What do the Birds do with aging players on both lines?
- Is this linebacker corps going to be tenable?
- Will DeVonta Smith’s weight be a factor, or does he look like the player we saw at Alabama?
- Does Landon Dickerson recover from his injury to debut this season?
- Will Derek Barnett and Josh Sweat take the next steps?
- Do we get a rebound year from Jalen Reagor?
So on, and so forth. There is so much to learn.
It’s the great unknown, and I’m intrigued by that, because I don’t know what the hell any of these guys are. But what I do know is that we’re not going to be perpetually miserable watching a team with expectations underperform and disappoint. We’re not going to fall head-first into the toxic shit pile known as “Eagles Twitter five minutes after a loss.” We’re not going to feel like claustrophobic bugs as the figurative rolled up newspaper comes crashing down on us, over and over again. We’re being reincarnated as the cycle of NFL fandom continues.
On the surface, it seems insane to ask Eagles fans to temper their expectations. They will say that there are no rebuilding years in the NFL, and that big-market franchises should find a way to instead retool and reload every year. That’s an opinion I’d disagree with. Even the Packers have had shitty years, despite getting 30 straight seasons of Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre. The Steelers have the occasional .500 season and look at what the Patriots became when Tom Brady left. Like I wrote in another recent column, the only football teams in America that do not have rebuilding years are Alabama and St. Joe’s Prep.
But the good thing is that these transitional phases don’t take very long in the NFL. Everybody said the Eagles were dog shit dysfunctional after the Chip Kelly years, and then what happened? Howie Roseman made some great moves, the Birds went 7-9 in Doug’s first year, and then won the Super Bowl the following season. Similarly, everybody thought they were cooked when Andy Reid got fired, then Chip came in and had two 10-6 seasons before burning out and trying to trade everybody.
As history shows us, these phases are short-lived and don’t last very long, so if you can handle one crap year, isn’t it worth the step backward in order to facilitate two steps forward?
The question is this, and it’s somewhat rhetorical, somewhat not –
Will you join me on this journey? Will you walk this path of Posidelphia and pragmatic thought? Will you shun Negadelphia, adjust your mindset, and approach this season with curiosity instead?
I’m excited for this year. There will be no bitching about Carson Wentz and Nick Foles. No complaining about Doug and analytics. We won’t work ourselves into a frenzy of anxiety and high blood pressure on Sunday afternoon. Let’s enjoy this campaign without the need for Beta-blockers or ACE inhibitors.