What the Philadelphia Eagles' ass-kicking tells the rest of the NFL
The 2024 champs did it their way. Are teams paying attention?
OK, so there’s absolutely nothing Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs can technically “learn” from having their faces shoved into the Superdome turf. It was obvious from Drive No. 1 — nobody open, quarterback running for his life — that the Philadelphia Eagles were too violent, too talented, too deep for the back-to-back champs.
As examined, Super Bowl LIX was an objective triumph for the sport itself:
To recap, at halftime the Eagles had more points than the Chiefs had yards. The score was 34-0 before the Chiefs even crossed the 50-yard line. Kansas City shut down Saquon Barkley — an MVP candidate — and was still humiliated to historic proportions. Physical punishment to this extreme demands the attention of the entire NFL. With two Jalen Carter slaps to the head for good measure, the Eagles sent a message to the other 31 teams.
Useless mock drafts can wait. So can the salary cap gymnastics.
Everyone should contextualize what happened in New Orleans.
You might think the Eagles’ 40-22 win in the Super Bowl was boilerplate blowout stuff. But the teams that look closely into everything that transformed Mahomes into an anemic quarterback will give themselves a realistic chance to celebrate the confetti, too.
Seek the ill-tempered competitor.
Not all teams can secure sharks with laser beams attached to their heads — T.J. Watt, Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby, etc. — but some mutated sea bass can suffice. (Especially if they’re ill-tempered.) Labeling the Eagles “physical” doesn’t begin to articulate the their temperament on the line of scrimmage.
This is an extremely violent football team. Replay Super Bowl LIX — or any Eagle game for that matter — and you’ll see their style of play is starkly different than anyone out there.
Jalen Carter, for instance. The ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft — with No. 1 overall talent — is a menace. He’s constantly shoving opponents through the echo of the whistle, talking trash between plays and there’s an art to his abuse. Take the sack-fumble by teammate Milton Williams with 9:51 remaining. Slow this play down and, yeah. You clearly see a double-punch to the face of Mahomes. But in real time? It’s as if Carter knows the officials’ eyes will follow the loose ball… so he sneaks in a quick 1-2. Sometimes, he gets caught. Almost always, he does not. The Georgia Bulldog straddled this line all season with the good far outweighing the bad. All teams should seek defensive players who are willing to straddle that line. On Sunday, Carter was both forearm-shivering linemen after plays and getting into Travis Kelce’s face. Everyone knew drafting Carter was a risk but — two years in? — he looks like a player built for this city. As we dip our toes into the predraft news cycle, we’ll all hear GMs stress the need for high-character players. It matters. But GMs should also remember this isn’t a 9-to-5 office job. They’re hiring employees to legally whup somebody’s ass. Howie Roseman gets it. He has constructed a team full of nasty dispositions. There are teams that’d never consider acquiring C.J. Gardner-Johnson — voted the “most annoying” player in the NFL. Roseman did it twice. It’s important for teams to remember, too: if such an acquisition backfires badly, simply move on. The potential reward should outweigh the risk.
Coaches can talk about being tough all they want. Coaches can bring in guest speakers, swear in the locker room, throw tantrums on the sideline.
The players themselves need to step onto the field with bad intentions.
Draft a quarterback when you don’t need one.
Too many teams wait too long with a Hall of Famer (Steelers with Ben Roethlisberger, Saints with Drew Brees) before getting caught with their pants down. Too many don’t consider drafting a quarterback because they’ve got one under a lucrative contract. Repeatedly, we see the benefits of a playoff team drafting quarterbacks when they don’t necessarily have a dire need for one. This has been the Green Bay Packers’ mode of operation forever. Even the Kansas City Chiefs didn’t “need” to trade up for Mahomes with a 33-year-old Alex Smith winning 11 games in three of his four seasons in KC at that point in 2017. Nobody expected Philly to take a QB when they selected Jalen Hurts 53rd overall in 2020. Carson Wentz was merely three years removed from an MVP-caliber season and had just eclipsed 4,000 yards with 27 TDs in ‘19. Roseman likely knew this pick could damage Wentz’s confidence — and his worst fears were realized. It did. Wentz did not win a pair of MVPs like Aaron Rodgers after Green Bay took Jordan Love in the same draft. But the position’s too valuable to worry about feelings. Ironically enough, those same Steelers selected wide receiver Chase Claypool four picks before Hurts.
They’re still searching and — insult to injury — the QB they did eventually draft (Kenny Pickett) now has a Super Bowl win.
Perfect one play. Run it into submission.
Through the four straight days of media access, no specific topic was discussed more than the “Tush Push.” Players and coaches on both sides were asked about the Eagles’ controversial quarterback sneak. I’m sure we’ve got opinions on both ends of the spectrum here at Go Long — all of you make excellent points inside our Gameday Chat. My 2 cents: it’s perfectly fine. We’ve seen other teams attempt their own version of the play and prove that it’s not automatic. They’re incapable of generating the same leverage with the same push as the Eagles under the best offensive line coach in the sport: Jeff Stoutland. If you’re able to step up to the line, the entire world knows exactly what you’re doing, and you still manage to pick up 1 1/2 yards, that’s damn the essence of the sport. Your 11 are imposing their will on the opposition’s 11 — emasculating, demoralizing stuff. Linebacker Zack Baun nailed it: “I don’t think it should be controversial at all. It’s a football play and it’s been stopped before. I don’t like when people say it’s a guaranteed first down. Our team just so happens to be really good at it.” Any coach for any team complaining about the Tush Push should do themselves a favor and devise their own play to run with ruthless precision.
Old-school coaching can work.
The Miami Dolphins ran Vic Fangio out of town. When the defensive coordinator and the team split after the 2023 season, safety Jevon Phillips posted a picture of himself kicking rocks. Jalen Ramsey implied that Fangio misused both himself and cornerback Xavien Howard. (“I won’t ever forgive dude for not utilizing our full skillset!” he posted.) There was enough smoke to suggest those Dolphins couldn’t handle Fangio’s hard coaching. Conversely, the Eagles were starving for hard coaching off an embarrassing 2023 campaign. Baun alluded to the “wrath of Vic” last week. Josh Sweat alluded to the need for discipline and structure. There’s a balance to strike. Mike Zimmer’s act in Minnesota went too far. But sometimes, I think we all underestimate the Gen-Z athlete. Ultimately, pros of all ages want the same exact thing: a coach who’s going to get the absolute most out of them. Because that means they’ll win games and that means they’ll make more money. All players want their physical gifts maximized. This Eagles defense was full of 22- to 25-year-olds eager to absorb Fangio’s defense, and they made Mahomes look worse than he has at any point in his NFL career.
Don’t PANIC.
When the Eagles fell to 2-2 and entered their Week 5 bye week, Fangio and the defense could’ve made wholesale changes to both personnel and the playbook. Once again, they were lit up by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the ‘23 wild card, the Bucs hung 32 points, 426 yards and 23 first downs on Philly. In Week 4 of the following year — after major offseason changes — the Bucs totaled 33 points, 445 yards and 29 first downs. Numbers alone that had everyone wondering if anything even changed around here. But as Sweat and others detailed to Go Long, they sincerely did not panic behind the scenes. Hard conversations were held and Fangio didn’t reinvent anything. Too often, that’s what coaches do. External pressures get to them and they throw out all of the work that went into building the team from March to September. Simply, the Eagles knew they’d be ushering rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean into the secondary off the bye and trusted that growth in Fangio’s system would prevail. The W’s accumulated. And when A.J. Brown was obviously pissed off with the direction of the offense after an ugly win over the Carolina Panthers — again — Nick Sirianni didn’t do anything drastic. The Eagles did not start throwing the ball 40+ times a game to pacify Brown. Subtle tweaks were made. Chances are, Sirianni knew a game like last Sunday was inevitable. At some point, a defense would completely sell out to stop Barkley and they’d need this passing game to deliver. The Chiefs dared Hurts to beat them, and he was much obliged.
Are you a playoff team? It’s OK to pay a running back.
There’s been plenty of dunking on the heads of the New York Giants for letting Barkley leave for the Eagles. In retrospect, the running back was obviously worth more than the Giants’ final offer. But does Barkley change much in New York? Not really. This team was further away than we imagined. If anything, he gets the Giants to 5-12 or 6-11 tops and all they have to show for it is a worse draft pick. Teams like the Giants do not have the luxury of paying for a running back — they’ve got too many other holes to address. But the Eagles? The Ravens? The Packers? The Texans? All were correct to sign running backs last offseason because all were in position to win. It’s still ludicrous that the Dallas Cowboys, fresh off three straight 12-win seasons, refused to sign Derrick Henry when Henry wanted to be a Cowboy. The Jones Boys were in position to pay for a back, and cried poverty. Top of the head, I could see Sean Payton envisioning a 30-year-old Aaron Jones as his an Alvin Kamara-like threat in Denver.
Trade!
Teams in Super Bowl contention cannot get their hands on a Ja’Marr Chase or Malik Nabers in the Top 10 of a draft. So, get creative. Call and text the GMs of teams iffy on paying their own alpha receiver. The Tennessee Titans didn’t want to pay A.J. Brown, so they shipped him off to the Eagles for a first-rounder (Arkansas’ Treylon Burks). This immediately gave the Eagles a pair of true game-changers at the position — all after epic draft-day misses. Remember, these same Eagles drafted JJ Arcega-Whiteside over both Terry McLaurin and D.K. Metcalf in 2019, then Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson in 2020. Misses that did not sense Roseman into the fetal position. He drafted a Heisman winner 10th overall in 2021 (DeVonta Smith), then committed an NFL felony by stealing Brown from the Titans in 2022. The wide receiver position is too valuable. At the NFL Combine this month, the GMs of playoff teams should loiter around the GMs of rebuilding teams as much as possible. One book at a time, Brown elevated Hurts and elevated the Eagles offense. In 54 total games with Philly, the wideout has 4,340 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Cash vs. Cap
All of the above is only possible with an owner who’s fully vested in winning championships. Some owners say they want to win Super Bowls and then treat their NFL team like any other business. While GMs cannot exactly stand in front of a microphone and openly discuss this awkward tug of war, it’s a very real problem for many teams. My friend Zach Berman from PHLY explained the dynamic perfectly on the podcast last week. Owners willing to get creative with money and pay players in cash create the financial flexibility within the NFL’s salary cap structure to pay market-value contracts. Jeffrey Lurie has given Roseman that green light — that’s Step No. 1. Given this freedom, Roseman then acts fast to pay his own before the market explodes even more. Hurts (five years, $255M), Brown (three years/$96M), Smith (three years/$75M) all signed massive deals, but those same deals are aging gracefully. The Eagles are a well-oiled machine behind the scenes. A team like the Cincinnati Bengals with Chase, Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson due to get paid should take note. Will Mike Brown open his wallet? That’s a topic we’ll get to soon.
Miss anything from our week in New Orleans?
Catch up on everything below:
CARNAGE: The Philadelphia Eagles didn't only win Super Bowl LIX...
Talent vs. Vibes: How the Philadelphia Eagles avoided an 'avalanche' to get to Super Bowl LIX
Scorched Earth: Xavier Worthy is only getting started with the Kansas City Chiefs
Pod: How the Kansas City Chiefs mentally BURY you, with Joshua Brisco
Happy Hour Replay: Eli Manning HOF debate, Nick Sirianni & Bland Tom Brady with SI's Conor Orr
When it comes to a choice between drafting a Boy Scout with talent or a thuggish character-risk of equal talent, take the thug.
Another point is that precious few scribes and pundits heading into the game ignored the huge wart the Chiefs had: they posted 12 wins by one score. What does that indicate? That the Chiefs were not a powerhouse. They were good, but not historically great. Close wins tend to paper over flaws. That paper can get torn to shreds in the playoffs.