Like the Patriots and Chiefs, Jeffrey Lurie, Nick Sirianni, and the Eagles are focused on the next Super Bowl
Instead of basking in the afterglow as they did after Super Bowl LII, they're moving on, the way Bill Belichick's Patriots and Andy Reid's Chiefs did.
The most remarkable aspect of the Eagles’ celebration immediately after winning Super Bowl LIX was the general absence of celebration.
Sure, there was a Gatorade bath, some high-fiving, some hugging, and maybe a little crying. An hour later, when the team congregated in the locker room, there was cigar smoking, champagne drinking, out-of-pocket swearing, and lots of dancing, some of it bad dancing, mainly by owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman.
For the most part, though, the field at the Caesars Superdome was filled with men satisfied with their accomplishment … and eager, somehow, for more.
It felt like a New England Patriots win. A Kansas City Chiefs win.
A win with the expectation of more wins like it to come.
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Those two franchises have won nine of the last 24 Super Bowls. The Pats won three out of four, then three out of five. The Chiefs have won three of the last six. Perhaps more impressively, the teams have participated in 14 of the last 24 Super Bowls. As the Patriots were with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, and as the Chiefs are with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, they are glad to win it all, but they expect to win it all.
Every. Single. Year.
That’s how it felt for the Eagles in February. That’s how it felt when the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors made their runs.
That’s how it feels when you’re a winner.
It was a far different aura this time than what existed seven years earlier at U.S. Bank Stadium after Super Bowl LII, the Eagles’ first such title. Of course, the first time for everything is special; you’re nervous, and amazed, and unsure if it will ever happen again. Also, that run happened without Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Wentz, with an underdog team hindered by an inferiority complex 52 years in the making. They didn’t know how to act.
So, the mood that night seven years ago on the field in Minneapolis was far less evolved than the mood two months ago on the field in New Orleans. So were the moods at the parade through Philadelphia, and on the Art Museum steps, and, most importantly, the mood in the many weeks since.
Doug Pederson, after two whole seasons as an NFL head coach, wrote a memoir. So did quarterback Nick Foles, the Super Bowl MVP, who was, in fact, the team’s backup quarterback. Pederson told his team and his fans that Super Bowl titles would be “the new norm.”
The organization quickly devolved into a whirlpool of hubris and arrogance. Pederson won only one more playoff game. He was fired three years later.
The mood in 2018: “We showed everybody.”
Toxic.
The mood in 2025: “We can’t wait to win it again.”
Healthy.
That mood carried over through the NFL meetings early this week in Palm Beach, Fla.
“The celebration of the Super Bowl is over,” said coach Nick Sirianni. “Our preparation [period] is here.”
It starts at the top.
“I feel like I’m just as hungry, if not more now, for a third,” Lurie said. “Ever since the parade, I don’t know that there’s been one day where we’re not discussing something in terms of the planning process to try to get a third. It’s nonstop.”
The Eagles have made the sort of difficult decisions they failed to make in the years after 2017. They cut Darius Slay, let Super Bowl stars Milton Williams and Josh Sweat leave via free agency, traded inconsistent safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and seem likely to part ways with tight end Dallas Goedert. These are all moves that will help them retain young, first-round defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, center Cam Jurgens, and, eventually, edge rusher Nolan Smith.
“I think that maybe we didn’t plan as well for one, two, three years out as we are now,” Lurie admitted.
The Eagles have been very good for the past seven years — they did, after all, reach the Super Bowl two years ago. But there’s a difference between goodness and greatness. What effect did losing Super Bowl LVII have? Arguably, not a favorable one.
The team started the 2023 season 10-1, but a regression from quarterback Jalen Hurts and haughty choices by Sirianni to replace assistant coaches who left for better jobs (or were fired) resulted in a collapse down the stretch and a second humiliation in three years at Tampa in the wild-card round.
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“We’ve internally talked about the frustration of not winning [LVII],” Lurie said. “So we held onto a lot of that. Probably played to our benefit this year, but there was all of us feeling that that was an incredible missed opportunity and a feeling that there was a Super Bowl there to be taken.”
This is a new attitude.
The Eagles finally seem to have realized that they don’t have all the answers. That winning is not a matter of entitlement, or vendetta, or genius. It is a matter of focus, execution, and good planning. That’s what the Chiefs have done. It’s what the Patriots did.
That was Belichick’s secret. Andy Reid’s, too.
It’s how Sirianni sounds now.
Brandon Graham, who retired as one of the greatest Eagles in history, and Saquon Barkley, who just had the best season an Eagle ever had, enjoyed a spotlight moment Monday at the Phillies’ home opener. So what, Sirianni said:
“I know BG and Saquon threw out the first pitch. We’ll have the ring ceremony, but the time has arrived to prepare for 2025.”
On Tuesday, A.J. Brown posted a video of himself performing an excruciating workout.
Hurts’ caption on his Instagram video of the parade?
“The Pursuit Continues. …”
Two weeks ago, 34-year-old Lane Johnson retweeted a photo of him working out with a high school lineman in Oklahoma.
The Eagles can start offseason programs April 21, but, it seems, not many Eagles are waiting for the doors to open. Because, when they do open, watch out.
“If you’re not busting your butt … you’ll be exposed,“ Sirianni promised. ”Try not to work hard in front of Saquon Barkley or Jalen Hurts."
Lurie pays them all. He has for 31 years. With two titles and two more appearances, he’s at least as Hall of Fame-worthy as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who hasn’t seen a Super Bowl since before Hurts was born. Is he happy that he is burnishing his legacy?
“Legacy? I’d just rather focus on getting that third, honestly,” Lurie said. “I find myself … it’s a burning desire to get that third, and we’ll go from there. That’s really, it’s an obsession. Maybe it’s not healthy, but I think it’s worthwhile.”
Really, it’s all that matters.
This time, the Eagles realize that.