When the Philadelphia Eagles stunned the football world with their first Super Bowl win in February 2018, the city erupted in celebration—and the front office leaned into that moment with all the force of a team expecting a dynasty. But what followed was a cautionary tale: a championship roster clung to too long, bloated by veteran contracts and injury concerns, ultimately setting the franchise back rather than propelling it forward.
Fast forward to 2025, and the Eagles are once again coming off a Super Bowl win—this time with a very different outlook. Gone are the days of rewarding past performance with oversized contracts. Instead, Howie Roseman and company have built a machine designed not just to win now, but to keep winning. By prioritizing youth, draft capital, and sustainable roster construction, Philadelphia is rewriting its own championship script.
The 2018 Offseason
The confetti rained down from the sky at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN.
The Philadelphia Eagles, long sufferers of jokes regarding their empty trophy case since the 1966 NFL-AFL merger, had finally done it. Backup quarterback Nick Foles had outdueled future Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady and had the city of Philadelphia in a frenzy.
Fresh off their first Lombardi Trophy, they were hoping to make a second straight run for the title, and it showed in their offseason approach.
Howie Roseman, now recognized as one of the most savvy and influential figures in the league, wasn’t always known as the elite general manager that he is today.
This showed when he decided to keep his championship team, mostly made up of unsung heroes and veterans unlikely to repeat their previous season’s magic, as close to its previous iteration as possible.
This was highlighted by questionable contract extensions, such as the one handed to star WR Alshon Jeffery. Jeffery, then 27 years old, was set to miss the first few weeks of the 2018 season after announcing that he’d played through the 2017 season with a torn rotator cuff, though this didn’t stop the team from signing him to a lucrative 4-year contract worth $52 million that would later become a nuisance to the team as he regressed significantly.
Linebacker Nigel Bradham was met with an equally appalling deal, being extended for 5 years at $40 million. Additional moves included letting defensive veterans such as Vinny Curry and Beau Allen walk, while replacing them with 3x Pro Bowler Michael Bennett.
In reality, this type of championship-winning roster was not only unprecedented, but it never should’ve been expected to repeat its production. A team with a starting QB coming off of an ACL tear, a star WR with a surgically repaired shoulder, a starting RB with career-long knee injuries, and many other red flags should’ve made the team cautious in their offseason approach. Instead, the Eagles chose to celebrate their immaculate victory by paying their winning roster lucrative deals out of the team’s price range.
When the draft came around, Philadelphia opted to trade their 32nd overall selection in the first round to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for picks 52, 125, and a second-round pick the following season. Some of the key selections made by the team included tight end Dallas Goedert, edge rusher Josh Sweat, cornerback Avonte Maddox, and, most importantly, franchise left tackle Jordan Mailata.
For all of the faults this team might’ve had in their first championship offseason, this class of picks stands out as one of the finest drafted under Howie Roseman. To put into perspective how impressive this class was, 4 of the 5 players selected by Philadelphia in 2018 played in the most recent Super Bowl. The 5th player, Matt Pryor, is now back with the team after bouncing around the league for a few years, while Josh Sweat and Avonte Maddox have signed with new teams this offseason.
Back to the outcome of this offseason, the 2018 Philadelphia Eagles were a shaky team, beginning the season 4-6 and losing key veterans Jay Ajayi and Rodney McLeod to season-ending knee injuries. As the season wore on, other members of the defense were also lost to injury, including Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby, with franchise quarterback Carson Wentz also being lost following a back injury in a Week 14 overtime loss to the rival Cowboys.
Once again, veteran backup Nick Foles stepped up to lead the team to 3 straight victories, enough to secure a wild-card berth in the 2018 postseason. The team won a low-scoring matchup against the NFC North Champion Chicago Bears before losing heartbreakingly to the New Orleans Saints in the Divisional Round.
In hindsight, the 2017 Eagles were lightning in a bottle, perfectly constructed not to dominate teams, but to win under the right circumstances, which they were able to do. The mistake the team made was believing that this was a sustainable formula; thus, they looked to build on their championship win and wound up setting the franchise back a few years.
The Road Back to Victory
7 years later, and the Eagles once again found themselves in the Super Bowl, fighting for eternal glory with their opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs, who’d beaten them in Super Bowl 57 just 2 years prior. This team was led by their season-long starter in Jalen Hurts, as well as running back sensation Saquon Barkley. The path to get here was certainly an interesting one, as nobody would’ve expected that the Eagles and Carson Wentz would sit on opposite sides of the field during the Super Bowl, and yet they did.
This iteration of the Eagles was built not through crafty veteran signings and lucrative, fully guaranteed deals, but through a plethora of draft picks, mostly from the Georgia Bulldog football program.
The team had a rough patch after 2018, winning a lowly NFC East at 9-7 only to falter in their first playoff game, followed by an abominable 4-11-1 season in 2020, resulting in the firing of Doug Pederson and the trading of once-franchise quarterback Carson Wentz.
The Carson Wentz trade was certainly a disappointing fall for a quarterback once considered to be an MVP candidate; however, flashes of greatness from second-round rookie Jalen Hurts led the team to make this tough decision, including taking on the most dead cap money in NFL history.
Fast forward to 2022, and the team had turned the draft pick from the Wentz trade, as well as their own selections, into one of the top teams in the league. Young contributors in Devonta Smith, Jordan Davis, Landon Dickerson, and many others led the Eagles to win 14 regular-season games in 2022, eventually resulting in a Super Bowl loss to the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs.
Only two years later, the Eagles, with a very similar roster to that 2022 team, made it back to the big game, this time obliterating the Chiefs in a rematch, finally hoisting that second Lombardi trophy they’d been after since their first taste of victory in 2018.
The 2025 Offseason
After the 2024 season, there was speculation that many of the defensive starters for the Eagles were either due for a payday or were already on expensive contracts. This isn’t ideal when so many of your key players are on their rookie deals, looking to get a big payday.
This resulted in many Eagles departing, including offensive guard Mekhi Becton, who took a 2-year deal worth $20 million from the Chargers, as well as many defensive starters such as Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Oren Burks, Darius Slay, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson moving on with their careers elsewhere.
The Eagles also limited their spending, focusing mainly on resigning their premium players to extensions such as Zack Baun, Saquon Barkley, Lane Johnson, and Cam Jurgens. They also managed to sign AJ Dillon, Josh Uche, Azeez Ojulari, and Adoree Jackson with their limited cap space.
In the draft, the Eagles filled a void at LB by trading up one spot for Jihaad Campbell out of Alabama, a crucial move considering the unknown that is Nakobe Dean’s availability for this upcoming season. Their second round selection was a safety by the name of Andrew Mukuba out of Texas, who could see significant playing time in his rookie season, similar to the likes of Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell in 2024.
A look at the Birds’ strategy
And so the offseason is essentially at a close with OTAs underway and training camp looming. Now the question remains: what did the Eagles learn in the time between their championships?
The biggest difference between the Eagles of 2017 and 2024 is their priority of young talent. Following 2017, they were a veteran-heavy group who decided to value current assets over future ones and gave out big money to those who’d contributed to the team previously. Now, however, the Eagles are focusing on their future, with one of the youngest starting defenses in the league and a priority on not only locking up their stars under the age of 30, but also stacking draft picks.
As it currently stands following the trade of Bryce Huff, the Eagles are projected to have 13 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, more than any other team in the league. This includes 3 third-round selections, which could be crucial not just to the future of the franchise in terms of selecting talent, but in trading for necessary pieces towards the trade deadline.
The last time the Eagles were coming off a championship, it felt like their window was rather small. They were built on a team of aging veterans who’d already played their best football. Now, it seems that the window is just beginning to widen for this group of Birds, with a chance to be a juggernaut for years between their current talent, development opportunities, and the sheer volume of draft capital they’re working with.
So to summarize how Howie Roseman has treated this offseason versus the last time the Eagles were getting ready for a ring ceremony, this team seems poised to take another step forward, whereas the championship of the past was merely a flash of lightning, brightening an entire city only to fade just as quick as it had arrived.
