NEW ORLEANS — There Howie Roseman danced, a cigar between his fingers, surrounded by the staff that dismantled a dynasty. Gamers urged their common supervisor on. Others showered him with champagne. Extra stood atop their lockers, hollering over audio system that pulsated lyrics that partly outlined their franchise inside Future’s “Lil Demon.”
Go platinum, f— a finances.
Jeffrey Lurie, the proprietor of the Philadelphia Eagles, later lauded Roseman within the hallway exterior. The NFL shouldn’t be a spot to be risk-averse, Lurie believes. Not if you wish to unseat the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs. Not if you wish to be Tremendous Bowl LIX champions. Not if you wish to flip a long-languishing staff right into a league-wide commonplace that’s received two Tremendous Bowls in eight seasons when it as soon as had none.
“Aggressive,” Lurie stated. A company should be aggressive. Look via the smoke and the spray within the Superdome locker room. Have a look at all the explanations the Eagles thrashed the Chiefs 40-22 in one of the blatant beatdowns in Tremendous Bowl historical past. Have a look at Saquon Barkley pouring a large golden bottle of bubbly down an offensive lineman’s throat.
That picture doesn’t exist with no three-year contract that totally assured $26 million to the outlier of a devalued place coming into his seventh season. No, Terrell Davis would nonetheless personal the full-season dashing report he set in 1998, as an alternative of watching Barkley topple it by halftime on Sunday — finishing the only best season by any operating again ever. Barkley wouldn’t be there, shirtless and smiling, a once-ringless marvel for the New York Giants, now an Eagles demigod, watching his teammates move the Lombardi Trophy across the room.
“She appears to be like prettier in individual, I’ll let you know that,” Barkley stated.
The trophy finally reached A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mailata — 4 key members of a younger offensive core whose mixed offseason extensions included $155 million assured. Aggressive. A company should be aggressive. The Eagles ranked third within the NFL in money spending in 2024, per Over the Cap. Lurie licensed Roseman to set the market as an alternative of chasing it, to retain a foursome that knew what it took to beat the Chiefs as a result of they’d every suffered the last-minute loss in Tremendous Bowl LVII. Mailata had overwhelmed a locker-room fridge along with his fists that day. On Sunday, he’d overwhelmed a staff pursuing the NFL’s first-ever three-peat.
Crushed is simply too type a phrase for what the Eagles did to the Chiefs. They made a two-time reigning champion that solely misplaced two video games all season appear to be dropping was all it ever did. They made Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Tremendous Bowl MVP, not solely look mortal — they familiarized him with soccer mortality. They pulverized him inside a brutal three-drive sequence that provided the Eagles with a 24-0 halftime lead — a bonus that finally swelled to 34-0 after Mahomes, who was sacked a season-high six instances, was additional throttled within the third quarter.
The Chiefs solely trailed 10-0 when Mahomes dropped again on the primary play of their fourth possession. Eagles edge rusher Josh Sweat blustered previous tight finish Travis Kelce so swiftly, Mahomes didn’t have time to dish a checkdown to Kelce earlier than Sweat tore him down with one hand. On the subsequent play, Jalyx Hunt, a third-round rookie, bullied Joe Thuney, a two-time All-Professional guard filling in at left sort out, backward and dragged Mahomes down for yet one more sack.
Then got here the deadly blow. Cooper DeJean, a nickel security and defensive rookie of the yr finalist, began the next third-and-16 drifting towards the sideline in zone protection. Mahomes rolled to his proper, and, anticipating DeJean to stay there, fired a move throughout his physique towards the center of the sector. However DeJean jumped the move, picked it off and housed his first-ever interception for a 38-yard landing.
PICK 6 IS HECKUVA BIRTHDAY GIFT 🎁@cdejean23 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/aIO8v7Czls
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 10, 2025
DeJean stated he was too excited to suppose. He didn’t even have fun. He simply caught his breath as a result of he instantly returned to the sector. The Chiefs went three-and-out after Milton Williams sacked Mahomes inside a four-man rush. The Eagles didn’t must blitz. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio by no means despatched one. The seven-time defensive play-caller later stated “Mahomes may be very, superb whenever you rush 5 or 6” defenders. Fangio had seen Mahomes too usually make groups pay for making an attempt too exhausting to take him down. So, he constructed a sport plan through which the Eagles relied on the power of their secondary, on the assumption there’d be sufficient time for his or her defensive entrance to strike residence.
Sweat, a member of the Eagles protection that didn’t sack Mahomes two years in the past, recorded 2.5 sacks. Williams sacked Mahomes twice and compelled a fumble within the fourth quarter.
Hmm… we’ve seen this earlier than 😏 pic.twitter.com/UQa3R6t3hU
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 10, 2025
“The boys up entrance are some dangerous motherf——,” DeJean stated.
They had been “offended,” too, if you happen to ask Lurie. That Tremendous Bowl LVII loss drove the Eagles of their journey again to the mountaintop. “I imply, we lived that every single day,” Lurie stated. They believed they’d be proper again with the identical concepts. At first, it appeared they’d. However a 10-1 begin in 2023 devolved right into a 1-6 collapse, and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni fired each of his coordinators — Brian Johnson and Sean Desai — in a workers overhaul aimed to restore dysfunctional techniques and maximize a roster that Roseman flipped into top-of-the-line the Eagles have ever fielded.
In a single dizzying offseason, the Eagles acquired Barkley, linebacker Zack Baun, security C.J. Gardner-Johnson and proper guard Mekhi Becton in free company, and spent their first two draft picks on DeJean (No. 40 total) and cornerback Quinyon Mitchell (No. 22). Baun, who’d by no means earlier than performed inside linebacker, burgeoned right into a Defensive Participant of the Yr finalist. Mitchell and DeJean blossomed into starters in a secondary that went from surrendering the league’s third-most passes of 15-plus yards in 2023, to the fewest in 2024, per TruMedia. On Sunday, Mahomes failed to seek out something deep within the first half. Mitchell blanketed speedy wideout Xavier Worthy, forcing Mahomes to accept checkdowns.
Mahomes finally bought flustered. Simply earlier than halftime, dropping again from his personal 6, Mahomes failed to identify Baun when firing to Hollywood Brown over the center of the sector. Baun intercepted the move. Jalen Hurts tossed a 12-yard landing to A.J. Brown two performs later. Mahomes’ EPA per dropback at halftime (-1.45) was the bottom ever by a quarterback in a Tremendous Bowl since no less than 2000, per TruMedia.
Behind the defensive dominance, Fangio’s arms had been on the controls, operating the system this Eagles regime prefers. If the franchise had its means, Fangio would’ve been the staff’s defensive coordinator in 2023. He’d served as a advisor through the 2022 playoffs, however, earlier than Jonathan Gannon all of a sudden accepted the Arizona Cardinals’ head-coaching job, Fangio left Philadelphia for a one-year stint because the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. However the Dunmore, Pa., native returned to the staff he admired rising up. “I simply referred to as them,” he stated. “I stated, ‘I’m going to get out of Miami if you happen to’re . I’m right here.’ It was accomplished many days earlier than it was introduced.”
Fangio, 66, stood there within the bowels of the primary NFL stadium he ever coached in. After beginning as a linebacker coach with the New Orleans Saints, after 4 a long time in skilled soccer, Fangio eventually had the Tremendous Bowl championship that had longed eluded him. He’d begun Philadelphia’s remaining week of practices with movie from his solely different look — a loss in Tremendous Bowl XLVII as defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers. That, too, had been performed in New Orleans.
“It’s only a actually heat feeling of accomplishment,” Fangio stated. “And….”
Fangio flinched. Turned. There was Hurts, smiling. The quarterback had slapped the old-school coach on the behind. The 2 discipline generals, who developed a friendship whereas dueling one another on the apply discipline, hugged amidst the scrum of reporters.
“…. and satisfaction and all of that,” Fangio completed.
And what about that man?
“Yeah, I believe Jalen’s nice,” Fangio stated. “Him and I’ve a superb little relationship. Very comfortable for him.”
Hurts, the Tremendous Bowl MVP, the quarterback who embraced a extra conservative position with Barkley within the backfield, the person Sirianni at all times referred to as “a winner,” mixed for 293 yards and three touchdowns within the first championship of his profession. He carried a cigar in his hand and moved from teammate to teammate with a smile that appeared reserved for that very second — and that second alone. There was Brandon Graham, the sting rusher who maybe made his remaining look with the Eagles, activated for a shock look after struggling what was considered a season-ending triceps harm. Hurts tugged Graham by the shoulder pads, pulling him away from the reporters. The previous and the current celebrated within the cigar smoke collectively.
(High picture: Timothy A. Clary / AFP through Getty Pictures)