Ralph Vacchiano
NFL Reporter
The rest of the NFL is hoping that the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty came to end on Sunday night, that the Philadelphia Eagles’ win in Super Bowl LIX opened the championship window for everybody else.
But maybe they all should have been more careful what they wished for, because even if one dynasty really has ended.
An Eagles dynasty might be coming next.
That isn’t so far-fetched considering the core of this Eagles team has been to the Super Bowl twice in the last three years and was 10-1 at one point during the season in between. The roster that general manager Howie Roseman so masterfully constructed, wasn’t built for short-term success either. He built it to last.
Almost all of their important players are young. The key ones are locked into long-term contracts.
In other words, the Eagles aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.
It’s certainly bad news for the rest of the NFC that the team with the NFL’s No. 1 defense and No. 2 rushing attack will return almost everyone for the 2025 season — and probably again for 2026, too. They are likely to lose almost no one of any consequence when free agency opens in March, especially if they find a way to re-sign free agent defensive end Josh Sweat and linebacker Zack Baun.
Because that’s really it. Their other key free agents-to-be are guard Mekhi Becton, cornerback Avonte Maddox and defensive tackle Milton Williams. They’ll also likely lose defensive end Brandon Graham once he makes his retirement official. All of them may be valuable players, but none of them are irreplaceable. And only Graham was ever once considered to be part of the Eagles core.
The current core is going nowhere. It was locked up by Roseman over the last two offseasons, with a flurry of big-money contracts. He re-signed right tackle Lane Johnson through 2026; quarterback Jalen Hurts, left tackle Jordan Mailata, guard Landon Dickerson, and receiver DeVonta Smith through 2028; and receiver A.J. Brown through 2029. And running back Saquon Barkley is locked in through 2026, too.
That’s not to say they don’t have work to do to make sure they stay on top. Once Kellen Moore is officially named the new head coach in New Orleans, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni — who will likely get a huge contract extension in the coming months — will be looking for his fourth offensive coordinator in the last four years. And with Graham, Sweat and maybe Williams gone, they’ll have to restock that defensive line. And they might only have about $18 million in salary cap space to do it.
But the beauty of Roseman’s work is that he’s already two steps ahead. Nolan Smith really emerged down the stretch and in the playoffs and could be a big factor on the defensive front next season. The same can be said of rookie Jalyx Hunt. And don’t forget, Roseman spent $51 million on edge rusher Bryce Huff last offseason. Huff suffered through a terrible, injury-filled first season in Philadelphia, but Roseman insisted “I believe in the player”.
Given the GM’s track record, he deserves the benefit of the doubt.
And even if that doesn’t work out, there’s so much else to love about the future of the team he’s built. The best part, for the sake of longevity, is it’s built around youth. The secondary was rebuilt around rookie corners Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell and safety Reed Blankenship — all 25 or under. The same is true of Smith, Hunt, and defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter — the core of Philly’s defensive line.
Hurts, Devonta Smith and Dickerson are all 27 years old. Brown, Mailata and Barkley are all 28. Most of this team is either just entering, or right in the middle of their prime.
But that’s been part of Roseman’s wizardry over the last decade. He builds a team on youth, locks them up, and makes sure there’s a conveyor belt of younger talent coming up behind them. So when a veteran corner like 34-year-old Darius Slay approaches the end, two kids are ready behind him. Just like when center Jason Kelce retired, 25-year-old Cam Jurgens stepped right in.
Are the 2024-25 Eagles an all-time great team with SB LIX win?
And the system works. Just look at what Roseman did to rebuild the Eagles after their first Super Bowl championship back in 2017. Only four players remained from that team — Johnson, Graham, kicker Jake Elliott and long snapper Rick Lovato. He turned over the entire roster on the fly, and only five years later they were back in the Super Bowl with a new franchise quarterback and a new head coach.
That’s the kind of stuff the New England Patriots did during their extended dynasty years. They may have had the constants of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, but they were constantly changing the pieces around them.
The Eagles might not have a Belichick-Brady tandem, or even an Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes one, but they also don’t have to do an extensive offseason overhaul either. Every championship piece — the quarterback, a top defense, dominant players in the trenches, dynamic skill players — is already here.
And they likely will be for a while, setting up the Eagles for an extended stay among the true Super Bowl contenders. Yes, they’ll need to win a couple of more over the next few years to truly be considered an NFL dynasty.
But they’re built to do it. They’re built to last. They’re built around a core of incredibly talented players who aren’t going anywhere for the next few seasons, at least.
So, unfortunately for the rest of the NFL, Super Bowl LIX might have been the end of one dynasty, but the start of another. These Eagles don’t look like a one-championship wonder. They are not likely to quietly go away.
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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