ClutchPoints
For the second time in under a decade, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, but they did so in a somewhat unusual way.
You see, the first go around, the Eagles really pushed their chips to the center of the table in the pursuit of greatness, giving out big money contracts in free agency, making multiple trades for high-end starting players like Ronald Darby and Timmy Jurgens, and even pulled off a huge move at the trade deadline, bringing in Jay Ajayi to pair with LeGarrette Blount. While the Super Bowl win was sweet, the Eagles slowly but surely shed many of their fixtures of that era, with Nick Foles, Alshon Jeffery, Malcolm Jenkins, Jordan Hicks, and Zach Ertz all gone before the Jalen Hurts era really got cooking.
In 2024, by contrast, the Eagles really didn’t make as many major moves. Sure, they signed Saquon Barkley, who was always going to be a good player behind Jeff Stoutland’s offensive line, but no one knew he would become a 2,000-yard rusher, especially the New York Giants, who had to watch the headlines with a clenched fist all season long. Zach Baun was signed as a backup, as was Mekhi Becton, and the team’s two biggest acquisitonal swings, signing Bryce Huff and trading for Jahan Dotson, barely even moved the needle, as neither did much to secure the Super Bowl win.
Goodness, Howie Roseman and company were so unwilling to go all-in on the Super Bowl last season that they didn’t even make a move at the 2025 NFL trade deadline even after losing Brandon Graham to a torn triceps, instead signing Charles Harris in free agency, who played all of 55 defensive snaps, including zero in the Super Bowl.
Fortunately, none of that really mattered; the Eagles built an unstoppable ground game, which, when coupled with Vic Fangio’s impressive defense, took them all the way to the Super Bowl, where the Kansas City Chiefs didn’t have an answer on either side of the ball. The Eagles reached the promised land for the second time in eight years, with a few two-timers on the roster, no less, and in the end, will have that on their resume for the rest of time.
Fast forward to the start of training camp and once again, the Eagles have said goodbye to a number of key cogs from their Super Bowl run, with Becton, Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, and CJ Gardner-Johnson – among others – exiting for new opportunities elsewhere. While this was practically built into the process, as Roseman has effectively turned the Eagles into a college-style pipeline, where he can grow starters over multiple seasons while implementing them with big free agents and high draft picks, that strategy only works if the replacement players can more or less match who they are replacing.
Unfortunately, at least one of those positions hasn’t quite gotten to where it needs to be, so much so that the Eagles have had to make...
