Football
You can tell the official Dead Zone of the NFL calendar has arrived when “the lists” come out.
For a city like Philadelphia that eats, drinks, and breathes football, going months on end without significant developments to discuss can feel a lot like starving. Eagles fans are ravenous for content, but with a dominant Super Bowl victory tucked under their arms and a roster that most consider a threat to repeat in 2025, much of the low-hanging fruit that is usually there for discussion simply isn’t there.
Throughout the city’s history, the Birds have lived a flawed existence. There were always players underperforming, a coach with his job on the line, a particularly difficult playoff exit or a late-season collapse to dissect. Fans could always flock to the newspaper, internet, sports talk radio, the regional cable sports network or podcasts to scratch our natural itch to complain or debate.
There are uncertainties on the 2025 Eagles’ roster, as it’s currently constructed. But for the first time ever in franchise history, it is a summer in which there is no angst.
Even after their Super Bowl victory over the Patriots following the 2017 season, there was hand-wringing. Nick Foles’ magical ride through the playoffs was a storybook finish, but it also fomented uncounted hours of debate over who should be the team’s long-term starter, Foles or incumbent starter Carson Wentz. That debate only ended once Foles left the team following another improbable, if briefer, postseason run in 2018.
Right now, there are no worries. Jalen Hurts is your unquestioned franchise quarterback. He played his two best games of the season in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, with no doubt he’s the man moving forward. Saquon Barkley is coming off a 2,000 yard season, perhaps the greatest individual campaign by any player in franchise history. The offense is wildly talented, and while the defense lost key players, it is still coached by the mastermind Vic Fangio, and is a young and talented roster.
So while we wait for training camp, there is precious little to talk about. The Eagles are luxuriating in the glow of their second world championship, and there’s every reason to believe they should be favored to win a third.
This is why we make lists. It’s why we rank players. It’s why there is needless debate over where Jalen Hurts ranks among Philly athletes and/or NFL QBs. All our lives we dreamed of having a star QB good enough to play his best when it mattered most. Ron Jaworski couldn’t do it. Randall Cunningham couldn’t, either. Neither could Donovan McNabb or Wentz.
Eagles fans now have what we’ve always wanted. Our wishes were granted. So why do we feel the need to argue about the level of greatness of the unquestioned franchise quarterback?
It’s possible we may be incapable of appreciating a team as great as the Eagles.
We’re not used to this, and to be fair to sports-talk radio and podcasts, content has to come from somewhere. Players should know it’s not personal. Frankly, we’re bored. You can only talk about Bryce Harper’s injured wrist or the latest Phillies topic du jour for so long every day. In an NFL-led fiefdom, something has to fill the vacuum.
As long as the debates are well-intentioned and meant to generate a fun conversation, it’s all great. Fans need not revert to old habits of ridiculing great players like they’ve done in darker times. It’s difficult to restructure our brainwaves to accept the reality the Philadelphia Eagles are the best in the business, and that there is really nothing negative that can be said about them.
In Philly, there are few things better than a team that wins and plays just poorly enough to give you something to talk about. You get the thrill of victory and the pleasure of complaining about it the next day. But that simply isn’t the case right now, and we’re all navigating our way through it.
It’s going to be OK. There’ll be something to complain about soon, I’m sure.
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