The proper Eagles draft philosophy, a reason John Tortorella had to go, and other thoughts

First and final thoughts …

The NFL draft is less than three weeks away, and if the event doesn’t have the same juice when it comes to the Eagles and the new players they might acquire, well, there’s only so much left to squeeze after a Super Bowl victory.

For fans of a team that wins the whole schmear, the first concern that usually comes to mind — following all the celebrating, of course — is How are we gonna keep all our awesome players?, not What new guys are we gonna get? For the team itself, the task of replenishing talent waits for no championship afterglow to fade, but the Eagles have given themselves some leeway. They have eight picks as of now, including the 32nd and final one in the first round, and they’ve had so many recent draftees turn into starters or at least valuable contributors so quickly that there’s little pressure on them to shore up a position where they’re shorthanded.

Could they use another safety? Yep. Could they use a defensive tackle to make up for Milton Williams’ departure? A good idea. Could they use some depth at wide receiver? Probably. But none of those needs is so pressing that the Eagles should cast aside one of their core principles: that building and maintaining a terrific offensive line is vital to becoming and continuing to be a championship contender.

To that end, there’s some work they could do. Tyler Steen or Trevor Keegan may or may not be ready to replace Mekhi Becton at right guard. Kenyon Green may or may not be a functional NFL lineman. Lane Johnson is still the best right tackle in the league, but he turns 35 next month. This draft offers the Eagles a chance to play to one of their greatest strengths. They can add a couple of young, promising linemen for the sake of both depth and competition for the starting lineup, and they should.

Jay Wright’s last victory as Villanova’s head coach was one of the most important and excruciating of his 21-year career there, a 50-44 will-tester in the 2022 Elite Eight that should take on a brighter luster after these last three seasons and NCAA Tournaments.

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The Wildcats outlasted Houston that night in San Antonio to reach the Final Four. That win gave Villanova its fourth berth in the national semifinals under Wright and provided more evidence that he was running what had been, at the time, the best men’s program in the country. But it also prevented coach Kelvin Sampson and Houston from getting to the Final Four themselves for the second straight year — and maybe obscured just how good the Cougars have been in recent years.

Whether his team beats Florida in the national championship game or not, Sampson will have led Houston to two Final Fours and six Sweet 16 appearances in the last seven years. The only time the Cougars didn’t make the regional semis in that span was in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the tournament, and they have not lost more than eight games in any of their last eight seasons. If Villanova held the title of Best Program in America when Wright retired, Houston, under Sampson, can stake its claim with a victory Monday.

Flyers chairman Dan Hilferty said the quiet part out loud in an interview with The Athletic last week, hinting that John Tortorella’s reputation around the NHL as a difficult and demanding head coach — maybe too difficult, maybe too demanding — was a consideration when the team fired him last month.

When it comes time for the Flyers to pursue free agents in earnest, to try to take a bigger step forward in their rebuild, Hilferty said, they “want a player who’s considering several options [to] check the box that, ‘I can play for that guy,’ in addition to the facilities, in addition to the commitment to excellence, in addition to the fan base.”

The Flyers have won one playoff series in the last 12 years. They are about to finish fifth or worse in the eight-team Metropolitan Division for the ninth time in the last 11 seasons. They have to remove as many actual and potential obstacles to improvement as they can. If Tortorella’s rep gave even one free agent pause about signing with them, it was one more reason that his removal was a move the franchise had to make.