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Five Thoughts on the 2025 Eagles as Week 1 is Officially Upon Us
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At last, the NFL regular season has arrived.
Admittedly, we didn’t write very much about training camp, because it’s camp. This is an Eagles team coming off its second Super Bowl win in eight seasons, and there weren’t a lot of high-profile position battles or storylines to talk about. For the most part, this is the same championship team, with an internally-promoted offensive coordinator and some defensive changes. Plus, there were 20 beat writers down there every day, providing observations and video clips and stats, so camp was well-covered for the hardcore fans who like to dig in over the summer.
Now, we turn to the Cowboys on Thursday night, with five thoughts on the season:
1. it’s not broken and doesn’t require fixing
The Eagles bring back 10 of 11 starters on an offense that hung 40 on the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Same group that posted 27.2 points per game while running for 179 on average and converting 41.7% of third downs and 70.4% of fourth downs. They finished third in time of possession and gave the ball away only 15 times, which was tied for sixth-lowest in the league. Across the board, they were top eight in pretty much every meaningful statistic.
So there’s nothing that requires fixing on the offensive side. The only change is at right guard, with Mekhi Becton departing in free agency. Landon Dickerson will get back to 100% health soon enough at left guard, while everything else remains the same.
Among the few questions on the offensive side – does Jahan Dotson get more involved in the passing game? Can Dallas Goedert stay on the field? Do they continue to go heavy 12 personnel with Grant Calcaterra? And if the Eagles do throw the ball more this season, how many targets go beyond A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Goedert, and Barkley?
These are first world problems. There’s nothing to adjust until a team comes out in 2025 and finds a way to slow this unit down. Otherwise, you continue to stuff the football down opponent throats.
2. we had questions about the secondary and EDGE group last year
You look at the Eagles’ depth chart and you probably have the most concern about safety, CB2, and the EDGE group. Andrew Mukuba might be the answer in CJGJ’s spot, if he gets himself healthy. Coincidentally, two of these three spots were positions of concern in 2024.
Regardless of whether Adoree Jackson, Kelee Ringo, or Jakorian Bennett ends up at CB2, you feel less enthused compared to the Quinyon Mitchell/Darius Slay tandem from a year ago. Recall, though, that Mitchell was a total wild card going into last season. A first round pick, sure, but a wildcard nonetheless. So was Cooper DeJean, who didn’t even start the season on the field. No one knew if either guy was going to pan out, and the end result was a dominant Super Bowl win.
So how concerned can we truly be when we went in with somewhat similar trepidation last year? If anything, 2024 proved that Vic Fangio can very quickly assimilate new players, young or veteran.
EDGE feels the same way. Haason Reddick was traded to the Jets, bringing the Eagles to Brazil with a group of Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat, sophomore Nolan Smith, rookie Jalyx Hunt, and soon-to-be retired Brandon Graham. Huff ended up being a bust and the rest of the group didn’t begin to figure it out until week 5 or 6. So you come back with Smith and Hunt and year older and wiser, add Azeez Ojulari and Josh Uche, and see what happens.
Reminder – the Eagles finished with the 5th-lowest QB pressure rate last season, forcing a sack, hurry, or knockdown on only 18.2% of snaps. And yet they finished with 41 sacks (13th) while allowing the second-fewest total points across 17 games (303). The success of Vic Fangio’s defense does not rely on pressure, whether it comes from the edge or the interior.
3. Jalen Hurts doesn’t have anything to prove
What a waste of time all of these summer lists were. Now we get to see the reigning Super Bowl MVP in action again.
As has been litigated before, the knock on Jalen Hurts in 2024 was that the team carried him to a title. He didn’t have to throw the ball very much because he was a “game manager” who could hand the ball to Saquon Barkley instead.
Yet when he did have to throw, he threw it well. Hurts went 20-28 for 246 yards and a touchdown in the NFC Championship Game, with no picks. Same Hurts who finished with a 119.7 QB rating in the Super Bowl. He tossed it for 290 yards and two touchdowns against the Steelers and had back-to-back 132 QB ratings in weeks 8 and 9.
He did all of that while running for more than 800 yards and 19 touchdowns across 20 games. And if you watched any college football this past weekend, you know how hard it is to replicate the tush push that Hurts executes so well.
Critics continue to look at QB play solely as throwing the football. They fail to properly weigh Hurts’ ball carrying while also downplaying the intangible leadership and mental qualities he brings to the locker room.
4. the psychology of downplaying
The Eagles have spent the entire summer telling anyone who will listen that they aren’t the defending Super Bowl champs. They’re not defending anything at all. They’re starting over and they’re in the same position as everyone else, with 0 wins, 0 losses, and a slate wiped clean.
Whether that’s true or not, they remain the NFL’s gold standard. They’re the team that everybody else is chasing, so while this may be a way to reset their own mentality and rebuild that drive and motivation organically, the attitude of 31 other teams doesn’t change. They’re chasing the Eagles whether the Eagles think they’re defending something or not.
Summarized:
They’re going to get everyone’s best shot this season. The Eagles are a barometer game for everyone else, regardless of what the Eagles think. But you appreciate the approach they’ve chosen and bought into, which seems to suggest that there will be no Super Bowl hangover, at least mentally.
5. comparisons to 2018
If, however, you’re thinking of a repeat, this recent Nick Foles clip sheds a lot of light on the situation now, vs. then:
“This is a very different situation for the Eagles. Their franchise guys led them to the Super Bowl. Their amazing vets led them to the super Bowl. They are way more dangerous than we were in ’18.”
It’s a really good point. The continuity can’t be downplayed. And other than the right guard position and a new offensive coordinator, there’s full continuity on the offensive side.
Speaking of which – everybody talks about Hurts dealing with a revolving door of OCs during his college and pro career, but how much has it actually negatively impacted him? He’s been to two Super Bowls and performed great in both despite the constant changes at coordinator. And Kevin Patullo was on the staff prior, so this is an internal hire who has the blueprint in front of him for what works and what doesn’t, so it seems like the continuity storyline with OC might not be as big of a deal as we used to think. That depends on whether or not Patullo is a bubble screen guy.
Otherwise, it’s good to hear that from Foles. This team feels healthier, with more clarity in leadership. If you go back to 2018, there were a LOT of fans calling for Nick to get the job over Carson Wentz, full time, and it was kind of crazy to think that a Super Bowl champion would come into the following year with a QB controversy. This team is in a much better situation, and the discourse surrounding it is much less toxic than it was back in August and September of 2018.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com