Why the championship core is still here
This roster won a Super Bowl 18 months ago. The pieces didn't vanish.
Start with the game-wrecker: Saquon Barkley remains one of the most dangerous running backs in football, the engine that powers everything Philadelphia wants to do. Even in a down 2025, this was a team too talented to finish where it did — the foundation of a champion is intact.
The secondary is genuinely elite. Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Riq Woolen give the Eagles one of the best, deepest cornerback groups in the NFL, with the versatility to deploy DeJean at safety in base looks. A defense that can lock down the back end buys an offense time to find itself.
Saquon Barkley, offensive engine
One of the league's most dangerous backs anchors the offense and gives Philadelphia a foundation almost no defense can fully solve.
An elite, deep secondary
Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and Riq Woolen form one of the NFL's best cornerback rooms, with the versatility to disguise coverages.
A championship pedigree
This core won a Super Bowl in 2024 — the talent and experience to contend again are clearly still on the roster.
Why 2025 happened — and could repeat
The drop from champion to one-and-done had real, structural causes.
The offense cratered to 22nd in the NFL in 2025, and the biggest reason was the trenches. The offensive line — the strength of the Super Bowl team — took a clear step back, with Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens hampered by injuries all year and Lane Johnson missing the second half with a Lisfranc sprain. An aging, banged-up line is the single scariest variable on this roster.
Then there's the gamble on change. The Eagles hired Sean Mannion to install a Shanahan-style offense — a major scheme overhaul for a quarterback in Jalen Hurts who is once again under heavy scrutiny, with old quirks like a league-low usage of the middle of the field resurfacing in 2025. New scheme, aging line, pressured quarterback: that's a lot that has to go right.
An aging, injury-hit offensive line
The 2024 strength took a step back in 2025 — Dickerson, Jurgens and Lane Johnson all battled injuries. The line's health is the season's biggest swing factor.
A brand-new offensive scheme
New coordinator Sean Mannion is installing a Shanahan-style system, a major transition for Jalen Hurts after the offense fell to 22nd in 2025.
A quarterback under scrutiny
Hurts faces heavy pressure after a down year in which old habits — including a league-low use of the middle of the field — resurfaced.
The one thing that decides it all
Everything in Philadelphia traces back to the trenches. If Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, and Lane Johnson are healthy and the line returns to its 2024 form, Saquon Barkley feasts, Jalen Hurts gets clean pockets to learn the new scheme, and the Eagles are a Super Bowl threat again. If the line stays aging and banged-up the way it was in 2025, the new offense never gets off the ground and another disappointing season follows — no amount of secondary talent can fix a broken offensive front.
