Eight playoff appearances in nine seasons, including five straight trips to the NFL postseason. Three Super Bowl appearances and two Lombardi Trophies in a span of eight seasons. Wins upon wins and successes upon successes.
Keeping the Super Bowl window open is a goal for all 32 NFL teams, but few achieve it. The Eagles are one of those teams to plan, build, develop, and maintain a franchise that competes for a World Championship for the last decade. It hasn't been easy, not at all – the Eagles have had two head coaches in that time, a few quarterbacks, only some holdovers on the roster.
And yet, here they are, winners of the NFC East with a 10-5 record and in the postseason for yet another year. How? Why?
"I think it's the standard we have around here," said defensive end Brandon Graham, an Eagle since he was a first-round draft pick in 2010. "We didn't win the Super Bowl until 2017, but we were still a competitive team that had high goals. That's just the way it has always been.
"Then when you win one, you learn the things that are needed to get there. Everyone is accountable. I think that's a big thing. You know you're going to be challenged every day here. That creates a winning feeling."
There is a lot to be said for that, but clearly there are other factors involved. Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman has built a roster made from excellent draft and post-NFL Draft strategy, smart additions via free agency, great fits acquired in trades with other NFL teams, and the commitment from the franchise to keep a large core of players intact through multiple contracts.
Roseman's talent acquisitions also marry with what the coaching staff – and there have been two of them in the last eight years, Doug Pederson in the first wave and now Nick Sirianni – looks for in players. That's not an easy thing to connect, but Roseman has found the right formula.
Along with that, the Eagles have built an enviable player development program, have matched their performance staff with their medical and athletic training philosophies and continue to win football games, capture NFC East titles, and have good things happen in the playoffs.
If you really want to trace the origins of the current run of success, look back to 2016 and the trade of quarterback Sam Bradford to Minnesota. The Eagles acquired a first-round draft pick (used to select defensive end Derek Barnett) and a fourth-round selection (used in a trade in 2017 to acquire running back Jay Ajayi), and it was a deal that Roseman later referred to as "franchise changing."
This is what Roseman had to say when the trade was made, a deal that also opened up salary-cap space that the Eagles used to sign wide receiver Alshon Jeffery: "Well the only circumstance that changed was this trade offer from the Vikings. This was not our blueprint; this was not part of the plan. But as we sit, we have to be flexible, and we have to be able to take advantage of opportunities that give us an opportunity to get where we want to be. Our organization has had a run of success at some point, but we are trying to get that trophy (Lombardi Trophy) and to do that, sometimes you've got to do things like this that aren't so easy to do the week before the season starts."
The move paid off, of course, as the Eagles won Super Bowl LII a season later as Carson Wentz had a Most Valuable Player-level season prior to his injury, Ajayi joined the team in the middle of the year and had a positive impact down the stretch and in the playoffs, and Jeffery became a go-to target in the passing game.
"I think in roster building, you're not going to be perfect," Roseman said in 2024. "You're going to make mistakes. The most important thing we've got to do is have a vision for how we want it to look. We've got to have a process that we want to have. Sometimes you can have a vision, have a process, and the result is not what you want. So you've got to make sure that you're not overreacting to a result that maybe just kind of was an aberration in the moment, and then you've got to look at maybe is the process right."
When the Eagles' Super Bowl LIX celebration ended, Roseman went right back to work building for the 2025 campaign. He knew players were leaving via free agency – where defensive linemen Josh Sweat and Milton Williams found a strong market and signed elsewhere – and he knew the defense, in particular, would need a rebuild. The Eagles have relied on some of their own players like defensive linemen Jalyx Hunt and Moro Ojomo and Byron Young to step up in the trenches, and the defense has gotten better and better throughout the season.
What has really propelled the defense in the last couple of months has been some additions: Roseman nudged Graham to un-retire and he has been a plus in the pass rush, EDGE standout Nolan Smith came off the Injured Reserve list, linebacker Nakobe Dean returned healthy to the lineup, and Roseman stepped up and made a big trade with Miami to bring edge rusher Jaelan Phillips on board.
The result? The defense has been one of the best in the league as the Eagles gained chemistry and continuity.
"When there's opportunities to be aggressive for the right players, we're not gonna sit on our hands. You don't have great success without taking great risks. You can't be afraid to fail. To get to the top, you gotta be willing to take chances that may look controversial at times," Roseman said in November when he traded for Phillips. "If there's ever a time we feel we can do something to make sure we have confetti on our heads, we're gonna go aggressive in that direction. I won't live with regret with the way we operate around here."
And there you have it: A piece of the formula that begins with Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie and continues throughout the organization. It is a complicated puzzle, one the Eagles have put in place for the last decade and, of course, one that has a blueprint for the next few years ahead.
Every team wants it, and only a few have achieved it: A team that, year in and year out, is in the hunt for a Super Bowl championship. The Eagles, who came oh, so close in the 2000s with five NFC Championship Game appearances in eight seasons, are right where they want to be in the big picture of chasing another Lombardi Trophy.
