The Eagles are reigning Super Bowl champions and they’re the favorites to win it all again in 2025.
Of course, it’s hard to repeat.
The Eagles’ roster is definitely talented enough to win another Super Bowl and they should definitely be one of the top contenders but that doesn’t mean it will be easy and that doesn’t mean this is a perfect team. As a reminder, there are many teams around the NFL with much bigger concerns than the Eagles. They really are in a good spot.
But here are my five biggest concerns with the Eagles as they get ready to defend their title:
5. It’s a very tough schedule
No matter how you look at it, the Eagles have a very difficult schedule in 2025. You can look at 2024 results, 2025 projected win totals or even 2025 Super Bowl odds and it all points to the same thing: This is a tough schedule.
It’s not an unfair schedule in terms of rest or travel or anything like that. It’s just tough because the Eagles play a lot of really good teams. This year, the NFC East plays the AFC West and the NFC North — the two divisions in the NFL that that last season had three teams win 10+ games. On top of that, the Eagles have a first-place schedule setting up other tough matchups.
There aren’t many layups this year. The Eagles play just three teams that won 5 or fewer games last season: The Giants in Weeks 6 and 8, the Bears in Week 13 and the Raiders in Week 15.
The good news is that the Eagles are supremely talented and could very well be favored in most of their games (except probably Week 17 in Buffalo) all season.
4. Saquon coming off a huge workload
Saquon Barkley is coming off one of the greatest seasons in NFL history and the 28-year-old should be able to have another big season. But he did play in 20 regular season and postseason games and finished the year with 482 touches, which is the 10th most in any season in NFL history.
There’s no reason to think Barkley won’t have another good season in 2025 but it’s probably unrealistic to expect him to duplicate his incredible 2024 Offensive Player of the Year campaign. Barkley is the ninth player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season and none of the previous eight have ever done it again (although Derrick Henry came close in 2024). So to think that Barkley would do it in back-to-back seasons is a stretch. The hope has to be that the cumulative workload doesn’t start to wear him down.
Here’s a look at the previous eight members of the 2,000 club and how they fared the following season:
O.J. Simpson in 1973: 332 attempt, 2,003 yards, 12 TDs, 6.0 average
Simpson in 1974: 270 attempt, 1,125 yards, 3 TDs, 4.2 average
Eric Dickerson in 1984: 379 attempts, 2,105 yards, 14 TDs, 5.6 average
Dickerson in 1985: 292 attempt, 1,234 yards, 12 TDs, 4.2 average
Barry Sanders in 1997: 335 attempt, 2,053 yards, 11 TDs, 6.1 average
Sanders in 1998: 343 attempt, 1,491 yards, 4 TDs, 4.3 average
Terrell Davis in 1998: 392 attempts, 2,008 yards, 21 TDs, 5.1 average
Davis in 1999: 67 attempts, 211 yards, 2 TDs, 3.1 average
Jamaal Lewis in 2003: 387 attempts, 2,066 yards, 14 TDs, 5.3 average
Lewis in 2004: 235 attempts, 1,006 yards, 7 TDs, 4.3 average
Chris Johnson in 2009: 358 attempts, 2,006 yards, 14 TDs, 5.6 average
Johnson in 2010: 316 attempts, 1,364 yards, 11 TDs, 4.3 average
Adrian Peterson in 2012: 348 attempts, 2,097 yards, 12 TDs, 6.0 average
Peterson in 2013: 279 attempts, 1,266 yards, 10 TDs, 4.5 average
Derrick Henry in 2020: 378 attempts, 2,027 yards, 17 TDs, 5.4 average
Henry in 2021: 219 attempts, 937 yards, 10 TDs, 4.3 average
3. Defense can’t overcome losses
While the Eagles return 10 of 11 starters on offense from their Super Bowl season, they did lose some key players on defense. Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Oren Burks and Isaiah Rodgers are all gone. And many of them won’t be easy to replace.
Of course, one thing the Eagles have done really well in recent years is draft on the defensive side of the ball and this season will be a year to thrust even more of those young players into the lineup. So maybe it does work out and the Eagles’ defense is just as dangerous in 2025. The Eagles coaching staff has done a great job of developing their talented draft picks but it’s unfair to expect them to hit near 100% again this season.
At least the Eagles still have Vic Fangio. And even though they lost plenty of players, the guys who do return in 2025 will enter their second season in Fangio’s defense. So there should be some new levels to reach in this system with the returning players like Zack Baun, Jalen Carter, Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell.
2. Not enough pass rush
The Eagles’ defensive line was dominant in the Super Bowl and Patrick Mahomes is probably still having nightmares about it after he was sacked six times for the first time in his NFL career. And if you just watched that game, you would probably think the Eagles’ pass rush was dominant throughout 2024. But that wasn’t really the case.
Sure, the Eagles had the best defense in football but the strength of Vic Fangio’s side of the football last season was the back seven. The Eagles’ defensive line was good but not overly dominant. The Eagles finished the 2024 regular season with 41 sacks (t-13th) and a pressure rate of 31.1% (28th). A few key players from the defensive line (Josh Sweat, Milton Williams and Brandon Graham) are all gone and the Eagles are relying on some projection in 2025. There’s a chance all of those projections hit and this unit is very good but that might be a tad unrealistic.
At defensive tackle, the Eagles know they can rely on Jalen Carter, who was fantastic last season and is already one of the best interior defensive linemen in the NFL. But after losing Williams, the Eagles have to hope that Moro Ojomo, Jordan Davis and rookie Ty Robinson are able to be strong in that rotation. Ojomo has shown a ton of promise but Williams is leaving big shoes to fill. Davis has been a solid run-stuffer but still hasn’t realized his potential as a pass rusher. And Robinson is an intriguing prospect but is a fourth-round rookie.
On the edge, Nolan Smith had 10 1/2 sacks in the regular season and postseason last year and returns as their top edge rusher. It’s a good thing he had a breakout season in 2024 because the Bryce Huff signing was a flop. The ceiling for Jalyx Hunt is unlimited but he’s still a relatively inexperienced player who goes from a developmental prospect to a potential starter. And as good as Azeez Ojulari has been in his career, it might be foolish to expect him to stay healthy for a full 17-game season. After that, we’ll see what Josh Uche, Antwaun Powell-Ryland and others fare in training camp. If there’s a position the Eagles could still look to add, this could be it.
1. Offense won’t evolve
The Eagles’ passing offense came through in a major way in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl. Players always suspected that it would and they proved it on the biggest stages.
But now the Eagles have another new offensive coordinator (Kevin Patullo) and another new quarterbacks coach (Scot Loeffler) to lead Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ offense into 2025.
Last season, the Eagles had the No. 2 rushing offense in the NFL behind the strength behind a once-in-a-lifetime running back performance from Saquon Barkley behind the best offensive line in football. It wouldn’t be wise for the Eagles to suddenly abandon the run in 2025 but defenses are going to do everything they can to try to stop Barkley and the Eagles have to be able to respond. Their 29th-ranked passing offense from last year is probably going to have to get better or at least more consistent.
There are reasons to think it will. After all, teams are going to be selling out against the run and the Eagles still have Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert and Jahan Dotson as key cogs in their passing attack. But it’s hard to imagine the passing offense suddenly looks very different. Kellen Moore was supposed to bring all of those fresh ideas and new looks but those changes were more subtle and now he’s gone after a year and is being replaced by Patullo, who has been with Sirianni since before they came to Philly in 2021. It’s unfair to simply link Patullo and Sirianni and say that they’re basically the same offensive mind, but we’ll need to see how Patullo handles this offense and how he handles the responsibility of being the play-caller. Patullo might be really good at it but we won’t know until Sept. 4.
Read the full article here