The Eagles aren’t being fully honest with themselves

After listening to Howie Roseman’s postmortem press conference earlier this week, I couldn’t help but think back to something I wrote in September.

I have reason to believe the Eagles haven’t been completely honest with themselves about how the past two seasons have gone. How they unconvincingly qualified for the postseason hasn’t mattered as much as the bottom line that they did make it. The feeling here is that’s dangerous and delusional results-over-process oriented thinking. And if the early 2020 season results are any indication, the proof is in the pudding: they clearly weren’t as close to contending as they thought they were.

Sure enough, Roseman’s recent messaging confirmed my worst fear: the Eagles are worse off than they fully realize. Jimmy Kempski and I discussed this topic further on the latest BGN Radio podcast episode. Partial transcript below:

KEMPSKI: What Howie Roseman and the Eagles are trying to do is, they’re trying to lump 2019 and 2018 in with 2017 because they know that ‘we won the Super Bowl.’ That’s run its course. Nobody cares about that anymore. That was great and it was one of the best moments in Philadelphia sports history. But that’s gone. You can’t use that as a crutch anymore. And what they’re trying to do is elongate the period of successful football from 2017 to 2019 when, in reality, they were set up to be a contender year in and year out for a long time after that Super Bowl win. And what we’ve seen since is they’ve gotten progressively worse as they’ve gone along.

GOWTON: Yeah, it’s opportunity cost. It’s not just like, hey, we did this [great] thing, that’s good. Well, you had the opportunity to do more, and you didn’t, so you should be held to that standard. And I think these things that are being said, and also, I should mention, [Howie saying] “25 yards away from going back to the NFC Championship Game!” […] My point on that is what was said by Howie Roseman in that press conference were internal talking points that I have gleaned and I had heard about for a long time now. Things that I had heard and why I’ve been frustrated with the team for a long time now, and reasons why I’ve been saying they’ve been delusional, is exactly everything he said. It’s like those same points. He said those same things that have had me so frustrated with this team and how delusional they’ve been. And how they’ve basically just lying to themselves or gaslighting the fans. Forget about the “35 wins [in the last three years]” thing for a second and just go with feeling. Think about how these Eagles seasons have FELT since the Super Bowl win. Like, okay, there was a nice little run at the end of 2018, sure. Think about the Texans game when Nick Foles came in. But, like, a lot of that season was miserable. Where are the lasting, enjoyable moments for the Eagles since [February] 2018 where you felt like ‘this is actually a Super Bowl team.’ For more than like a week or two. There hasn’t been that kind of sustained success where you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s hope for this team.’ It’s been miserable for the most part ever since the Super Bowl win.

KEMPSKI: That [Texans] game felt good, when they went up 14 to nothing against the Saints early in that game, it was like ‘Oh my god, they’re going to win this game!” And they didn’t. […] But yeah, I’m with you completely. How the season felt is really a good way of looking at it. Because you never felt good about that team really at all that season. And certainly you didn’t feel good about that [2019] team at all until they won those last four games, which was sort of a false positive.

GOWTON: And you’ve highlighted it well with just the quarterbacks they’ve beaten in that stretch. A lot of them are backups and guys who aren’t in the league [Luke Falk, Ben DiNucci, Taysom Hill, Eli Manning, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins, Case Keenum, etc.] . It’s a bunch of nobodies. So, don’t sell me on things have actually been better and we’re ungrateful as a fan base. Like, fans are ungrateful and they don’t have the perspective. Bullshit. That’s bullshit. So, I thought that was pretty pathetic, to trot out that message. And it speaks to the hubris of this organization that I’ve been complaining about for a long time.

You can [CLICK HERE TO LISTEN] to more of our conversation or stream the latest episode below:

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Read on for a show notes summary.

CARSON WENTZ WANTS OUT?

• Final thoughts on #TankGate
• Laughing at Joe Judge
• Parsing through all the Wentz reports that came out since Sunday. Does Wentz truly want out?
• Why Wentz declining to speak to reporters is absolutely meaningful
• What’s the likelihood that the Eagles trade Wentz? What could they get in return for him?
• Cap space update after the Alshon Jeffery and Malik Jackson restructures

HOWIE ROSEMAN SPEAKS

• Takeaways from Roseman’s first press conference since September
• Enough with the gaslighting — “35 wins in three years” ... “One bad moment”
• Two possible explanations for the Eagles running it back with Howie and Doug Pederson
• Jeffrey Lurie making Howie and Doug “smoke the pack”

EAGLES COACHING STAFF CHANGES

• Jim Schwartz is gone. What’s his legacy in Philly? Will he be easily replaced?
• Early thoughts on defensive coordinator candidates
• Death to “offensive coordinator by committee” with Rich Scangarello and Marty Mornhinweg gone.
• The Eagles are set to hire a real offensive coordinator. But will they call plays? Will Pederson actually get to pick?
• What happens with Wentz’s close buddy, Press Taylor?
• Who’s your pre-playoff Super Bowl pick? And which team are you rooting for?
• PLUS: Prize giveaways!

Don’t forget to use promo code BGN15 to get 15% off snacks at www.righteousfelon.com! Perfect option for something to munch on during the games with the playoffs coming up.

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Up next: More Eagles offseason coverage is coming your way!

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