PHILADELPHIA — What the Philadelphia Eagles have done over the last two years to rebuild their roster into a Super Bowl contender is one of the most impressive things we have seen in the history of Philadelphia sports.
They have nailed back-to-back draft classes, their free agent signings have paid off, and they have remained aggressive in the trade market to bring in multiple stars on both sides of the ball.
General manager Howie Roseman deserves a lot of credit for learning from past mistakes (as he did in the 2017 Super Bowl season) to yet again take just two years to get the Eagles from the basement of the NFL, to the top of the league’s standings.
The execution of this rebuild has been superb, but luck also always plays a major role in any NFL team becoming elite.
Luck has certainly been on the Eagles side in this process.
Just look at this past offseason. The plan for Roseman and the front office was always to be aggressive, as they looked to improve a roster that had already made the playoffs in 2021.
However, the execution of that plan was certainly adjusted on the fly and it was adjusted to perfection. The best-case scenario has played out. The Eagles are getting a lot of positive answers about some of the biggest questions they had this offseason.
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Could they find an elite franchise QB? Jalen Hurts has answered that by breaking out in his third year as an early MVP favorite.
Could another top-tier WR be added to compliment Devonta Smith? A.J. Brown has looked like the most complete Eagles receiver since Terrell Owens in his first season.
Could the defense finally replace Malcolm Jenkins and find a versatile, do it all safety? Chauncey Gardner-Johnson leads all safeties this year with four interceptions.
Things almost didn’t play out this way. The Eagles were close to not seeing through the development of Hurts. The organization considered many other options at the sport’s most important position. Reports suggest they tried to make things work with Carson Wentz in 2021, they called about potentially trading up in the 2021 draft to select Zach Wilson, and they were also very interested in trading for both Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson this offseason.
Wentz, Wilson, and Watson did not want to be the Eagles QB and the Jets were dead set on taking Wilson with the second overall pick. That worked out just fine for Philadelphia as Hurts has outperformed all of them by a substantial margin.
Brown was also very close to never being traded to the Eagles. Former Atlanta Falcons WR Calvin Ridley was just traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Tuesday before the trade deadline, but if he wasn’t suspended for a year due to gambling, he would have been traded to Philadelphia.
The Eagles were also very close to finalizing a deal with Allen Robinson before the Los Angeles Rams swooped in to sign the veteran. They even had some interest in Christian Kirk before Jacksonville gave him one of the biggest contracts of the offseason.
Ridley was suspended, Robinson is on pace to have only a little over 400 receiving yards this year, and Kirk has been good but not great.
On defense, Roseman had interest in another New Orleans Saints safety before he traded for Garnder-Johnson. It was reported during the first week of free agency back in March that it was down to the Eagles and Baltimore Ravens to sign top free agent safety Marcus Williams.
Williams was placed on IR a month ago while Gardner-Johnson has been a crucial piece to the Eagles secondary.
Would these moves have all been disasters? No. Would they have worked out as well as the moves the front office actually made? Not even close.
Roseman should still get a lot of credit for improvising and nailing his Plan B, or even Plan C, but this just goes to show how different things could have been without a little bit of luck.
That is the NFL for you. For better or for worse, unpredictable chaos in its purest form.