Bleeding Green Nation
A closer look at Philadelphia’s 2024 season.
One of the more poignant moments of the Eagles’ historic 2024 season occurred mere minutes after their final game ended, on the makeshift podium out in the middle of the Caesars Superdome. It’s when Jalen Hurts blotted everything out swirling around him, including midnight green-and-white confetti, and looked down at a reflection of himself in the Lombardi Super Bowl trophy he held in his hands. It’s when it dawned on the fifth-year, 26-year-old quarterback that he did it.
He was a Super Bowl champion.
The Eagles were world champions.
It came in sharp contrast to Hurts’ cell phone wallpaper of him walking off the field under raining red-and-yellow Kansas City Chiefs confetti two years ago in the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss. It goes along with the red, fuming Jeffrey Lurie walking up the Lincoln Financial Field tunnel ramp looking like he wanted to punch someone in the face after the lost 2023 season, which included a disastrous fall to the three-win Arizona Cardinals.
Sunday marked the second time Lurie was able to hold aloft the Vince Lombardi trophy, the second in Eagles history.
The epitaphs of the last two years are drastically different: The 2023 epic collapse came with 10:44 left to play in their 32-9 playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round, forcing ESPN color analyst and NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman to brazenly announce to the nation that the 2023 Eagles were a … “a defeated team and they were when they came in. And there’s been no life to this group really throughout the entire ball game.”
A much sweeter inscription was placed on the 2024 team when Eagles’ Hall of Fame broadcaster Merrill Reese proclaimed “the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles have won Super Bowl LIX. They have beaten the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22. It’s their second Super Bowl win in seven years. What a game. What a season. What a team.”
This season’s Super Bowl winners can be summed up in a word: Selflessness.
Saquon Barkley was the vital piece that threw the Eagles over the top. But the team had to be willing to accept a star like Barkley, who is very easy to accept, though established star players sometimes do not readily welcome new stars to a locker room. Established stars can be territorial, and sometimes jealous, which can cause fissures within a team chemistry before it has a chance to mold.
“The Eagles’ personnel department, led by (general manager) Howie Roseman, is the best in the league,” NFL expert analyst Mike Mayock said to Bleeding Green Nation. “They consistently turn 356 days a year. Hiring (Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore) changed everything. They have hit the draft out of the park. Look at their first-round picks since 2021, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell. Look at their second-round picks like (Landon) Dickerson, (Cam) Jurgens, Dallas Goedert back a few years ago, Jalen Hurts, Cooper DeJean, and their free agent...
