Eagles Super Bowl 2025 run started with offseason for the ages
NEW ORLEANS — Every team goes into the offseason with a plan.Get better.
Improve the roster.Make smart signings in free agency.
Figure out which of your own players you need to keep, determine which of them are expendable and anoint the select few you believe worthy of contract extensions.Study and attack the NFL draft with gusto, working the board as best you can to bring in quality and quantity, adding young talent at reasonable prices to augment the roster. “That’s really the responsibility of the job, to field the best possible that you can, to get the best possible players, the best possible people on and off the field and try to win world championships,’’ Howie Roseman, the Eagles executive vice president and general manager, said. The goal is constant but the results vary, often wildly.
Roseman, Brooklyn-born and New Jersey-raised, was the orchestrator of an offseason haul for the ages.The Eagles took a nosedive down the stretch in 2023, losing five of their final six games in the regular season and then suffering the indignity of a one-and-done playoff ouster with an awful 32-9 loss to the Buccaneers. Roseman knew that two franchise icons, center Jason Kelce and defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, were headed to retirement.
There was work to be done.What he accomplished was astounding, with the centerpiece acquisition of Saquon Barkley, the most gaudy and prescient signing in the NFL. It was so much more than Barkley, to vault the Eagles into Super Bowl 2025, ready to face the Chiefs on Sunday at the Caesars Superdome.
The signings in free agency, coupled with additions via the draft, fortified the roster and turned weaknesses into strengths.Roseman delivered and the Eagles prospered. Here is the lowdown: RB Saquon Barkley: There is not much left to be said, but that will not stop anyone from singing his praises and trying to quantify his impact right up until kickoff.
No one is the least bit surprised that the physically gifted Barkley thri...