No one is shocked the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs are meeting in Super Bowl LVIII. The core of these teams didn't just battle for the Vince Lombardi Trophy four years ago, but entered the 2023 season as favorites to rep their respective conference at the biggest event in sports. The Philadelphia Eagles would've been nearly as unsurprising participants in Las Vegas, especially after going 10-1 through late November. Instead of rising to the occasion like the Niners and Chiefs when it mattered most, though, last year's NFC champions crumbled.
The Eagles finished the regular season 1-5, dropping to the fifth seed in the NFC playoffs. They were embarrassed by Baker Mayfield and the 9-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round, falling 32-9 at Raymond James Stadium to end what turned out to be a disastrous season in humiliating fashion.
Philadelphia has opted against making the sweeping changes their last two months of the season suggested might be necessary. The team is hanging onto head coach Nick Sirianni, but replaced Ben Johnson and Sean Desai at offensive and defensive coordinator with Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio, respectively.
Will tweaks to the coaching staff fix the sweeping issues that contributed to the Eagles stunning late-season collapse? We won't know for sure until nearly a year from now. With 2023 now firmly in the rearview mirror, though, running back D'Andre Swift insisted it wasn't coaching issues or even locker room friction that sparked Philadelphia's downfall. As he sees it, the Eagles' labors were simply a result of poor execution.
“It's tough, it's tough. Later in the year, people start playing their best ball later in the year. It come down to we didn't make enough plays, that's how I feel. We didn't make enough plays,” Swift said of the Eagles' season-ending slide on Micah Parsons' podcast. “People might say play-calling, coaching, whatever it is may be. But end of the day, we out there, we gotta make it happen. Whatever might get called, players gotta execute. It comes down to execution. That's what I feel like we really didn't do a good enough job of. From top to bottom, we just didn't make enough plays.”
Eagles poised to look much different in 2024
Maybe changes at offensive and defensive coordinator are all Philadelphia needs to fulfill the potential the team while advancing to the Super Bowl a year ago. Even if the Eagles' coaching staff truly levels up, though, it may not be enough to them to get back to the football promised land given the defections they're facing over the offseason.
Franchise icon Jason Kelce seems set to retire, as does fellow longtime Philadelphia great Fletcher Cox. Key contributors like Swift, Brandon Graham and Zach Cunningham headline a list of 20 pending free agents, including depth offensive linemen Jack Driscoll and Iosua Opeta. AJ Brown likely isn't going anywhere despite a rocky 2023 season marked by rumors of tension between he and team leaders. Jalen Hurts and D'Vonta Smith will definitely be back.
Most of the Eagles' stars, at least, are returning. But top-to-bottom talent helped drive them to a Super Bowl berth last year, and losing a presence like Kelce—and potentially Cox and Graham—will make it even harder for Philadelphia to manage the all-around alchemy every team must muster to play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Nothing is guaranteed in the NFL, a reality the Eagles learned the hard way in 2023. Superior execution going forward would definitely go a long way toward Philadelphia avoiding the pitfalls that doomed them this season. What if this team's window as a perennial Super Bowl threat has closed, though?
Needless to say, keep an eye on how the Eagles go about the offseason. Some roster churn is inevitable. Too much of it, though, could leave Philadelphia a shell of the team that once seemed on the verge of a dynasty, forcing the organization to effectively start anew.
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