From Fairy-tale to Foundation: How the Eagles Turned a One-Off Miracle into a Blueprint for Sustained Success
- Charles Walford
- Aug 15
- 6 min read
Written by Charles Walford.
The 2017 title felt like lightning in a bottle — but behind the scenes, a deeper transformation was taking root. Now, with a stable core and smart leadership, the Eagles enter 2025 built to win again.
From Jake Elliott's 61-yard field goal to the Philly Special and BG's strip sack that secured a first Lombardi trophy, the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles - and their fans - enjoyed a season sprinkled with magic moments, culminating in the most magical of all.
In fact, there was so much about the year that felt like some kind of alchemy, with players coming together in a certain time and place to fulfil a certain goal in - let's not pretend otherwise - unforeseen fashion.
What it didn't feel like, however, was that they were laying the foundations for repeat success. Yes, it felt as though Carson Wentz would be a franchise quarterback (even though it was Nick Foles who was MVP that night in Minneapolis), but much of what was achieved in that historic season was done without any feeling of permanence. 'For one season only, may we present to you the world champion Philadelphia Eagles'. It was a hell of a show, but it was its own farewell tour, never to be seen again.
In truth it felt that the plan was being made up on the hoof. Let's not forget that Foles himself had only been brought back to Philadelphia that summer, and no one could have foreseen his role in the show - certainly not when he was pressed into emergency service to little fanfare in the final weeks of the regular season.
And, yes, the contributions from the likes of Torrey Smith and LeGarrette Blount are there, unimpeachable, in the history books. But that 41-33 win over New England was their last game for the Eagles after only one season. Both sides got exactly what they wanted out of the arrangement - but it was a marriage of short-term convenience. So long, and thanks for the ring.
Some lasted a little longer, like Jay Ajayi would go on to have his time in Philly - and career in general - derailed by injury. But mid-season signings never feel like they are made with the future in mind. It was a 'win now' move, and it worked. Alshon Jeffrey too. He will not go down as a Philly great, even though he scored the opening touchdown of Super Bowl LII.
Soon after that magical night in Minneapolis it was time to think about the future and realise the price we had to pay for living out the dream. Books had to be balanced, the piper had to be paid - winners had to move on, and fast.
Of course it is easy to say with hindsight of a 9-7 season in 2018 (one that only saw a play-off win because of that Bears double doink) that the Eagles were never going to reach the highs of the previous season. But even at the time there was a sense that the fairy dust had scattered on the wind, and the Eagles would be due to return to the ranks of the also-rans.
However, to even put that one season of wonder in context, one needs to look further back.
Humility is rare in NFL owners, but Jeff Lurie realised that it needed more than just another round of firing and hiring if he was to turn around a franchise that had gone bad in the Chip Kelly era. One of those factors was already right under his nose, but he wasn't afraid to look outside the organisation for help with the rest. As the disastrous experiment that was Kelly as a head coach with control of player personnel decisions ended with his firing in 2015, the Eagles reinstated Howie Roseman as general manager to take back control of the roster.
Lurie and Roseman turned to Sportsology Group, a US-based consultancy with UK origins (founded by the Chelsea executive Mike Forde) that advises on all facets of sporting operations across global sport, including head coach and general hires. Their brief: Build an organisational structure and operational framework to set up the front office and new head coach for sustained success, while minimising the potential for the dysfunction of the Kelly era to rear its head once more.
Sportsology went in and spoke to people throughout the organisation about its culture and processes - and crucially got a view of Lurie's long-term vision. In return, the owner and GM took on board suggestions for a revamped head-coach recruitment process, the need for greater clarity of functional responsibilities, as well as guidance on how to build a fresh culture top to bottom.
It may seem like a simple approach, but fresh input and being forced to think critically about their approach has brought rewards. It got them that first ever Super Bowl win under Pederson in "year two" of the reset, and is also the reason why they returned so soon.
Their appearance in Super Bowl LVII came with a different head coach and a new quarterback to the win in Minneapolis - making them only the second team to have gone back to the Super Bowl within six seasons with a whole new head coach-quarterback axis guiding them. In Glendale, there were only eight players on the roster from their win five years previously, while they also had new offensive and defensive coordinators.
The strange thing is, however, at no stage did it feel like a full-scale rebuild. Yes, things turned sour at the end of the Pederson era, mainly because of the failure of Wentz to hit the giddy heights of his sophomore year, but they moved seamlessly into the Nick Sirianni-Jalen Hurts era, which has yet to experience a losing season or miss the playoffs, and which reached the pinnacle of the game on that heady New Orleans night in February. In a league where the rate of failure for head coach hires is huge, Roseman has hired back-to-back first time head coaches that have won a Super Bowl. It's not a "dynasty" in the traditional sense; it was not after all, a traditional approach. But it is a winning one.
And so here we are on the cusp of another title defence. It is hard to see how the 2025 season won't be further vindication for Howie. The success of the past three years is testament to his continued efforts. The measure of the quality of his work in compiling the roster was seen in the fact that in Super Bowl LVII ten of the 11 offensive starters were drafted by the Eagles, the 11th being AJ Brown, who was acquired on a shrewd Draft day trade. Saquon Barkley was added to the mix last season, but this has not been not a side thrown together on the hoof as the 2017 Eagles were, admittedly to wonderful effect.
And this is why this off-season has felt different. It has been enjoyed with that wonderful glow of belief that has so often been a stranger round these parts.
Yes, the likes of Mekhi Becton, Josh Sweat, Darius Slay and James Bradberry will not be in Midnight Green come Week 1, but in NFL terms the attrition rate from 2024 is small. The band is very much back together.
And we can still watch training camp, and pre-season hoping that there might be a rookie to exceed expectations as, say, Cooper DeJean did last season, but we do so safe in the knowledge that they will only be thrown into the mix if they can improve an already-strong side. This is not the summer of 2018, when the team had to go back to the drawing board with little foundation - or even a real idea of how they found themselves the defending champions.
Of course history is not on the Eagles' side: only nine teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls. But unlike seven years ago, the Eagles can embark on a Lombardi defence not in wild hope, but in very justified expectation.
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