A.J. BrownBillsNFL

Philadelphia Eagles 2025 NFL Season Preview and Picks: Did Philly Crush One Great Dynasty to Start Its Own?

Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar02/09/2025 - 12:38 pm
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Behind general manager Howie Roseman, the Philadelphia Eagles have figured out how to maintain winning consistency in an NFL designed for parity, especially in the NFC. But the Eagles are not just a flash in the pan. They have been to the playoffs in seven of the last eight seasons and have a 2-1 Super Bowl record in that time.

For the Eagles, it starts in the trenches with a great rotation of pass rushers on defense, and the offensive line continues to be one of the best in the league. When Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox retire, they are prepared with Jalen Carter and Cam Jurgens to lead the way.

Then they added notable talent to their wide receivers (A.J. Brown trade in 2022) and cornerbacks (drafting Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in 2024). Saquon Barkley was the cherry on top in 2024, leading to arguably the most dominant team in franchise history.

Is Nick Sirianni the best coach in the NFL? Of course not. But he is quite good at delegation as three of his coordinators have gone on to head coaching jobs in the NFL (Shane Steichen, Jonathan Gannon, and Kellen Moore).

Is Jalen Hurts a top-tier quarterback? I ranked him No. 7 going into 2025. But with the talent the Eagles have on both sides of the ball, Hurts rarely has to carry the team. The biggest feather in his cap is he saved his best playoff games for the two Super Bowls against the Chiefs, the dynasty of this era. By winning Super Bowl MVP in February, Hurts made sure the Chiefs wouldn’t be immortalized with a historic three-peat.

Now, the Eagles are in a position to repeat, tied for the second-best odds (+750 at FanDuel) to win Super Bowl LX. There is only one incident in NFL history where teams orchestrated back-to-back repeats, and that was the 1972-73 Dolphins followed by the 1974-75 Steelers. It’s worth noting that the Steelers didn’t technically end Miami’s reign personally as the teams never even met once in 1974 or 1975.

When it comes to the team of the decade talk, the Chiefs would look like a lock for the 2020s. But should the Eagles keep besting them in big games, then it could actually end up being the Eagles who get that nod for the 2020s.

In NFL history, there’s only one case of a dynastic team of the decade helping end the reign of the previous team. That was the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s ending the reign of the 49ers, the team of the 80s, by winning three out of four Super Bowls in 1992-95. The Cowboys beat San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game in both 1992 and 1993. They did lose one to the 49ers in 1994, but the Cowboys get the nod for that decade.

That’s the kind of history the Eagles can make this year and in the next few years to come while they have this talented core in place. If no one in the AFC wants to stand up to the Chiefs, then maybe the Eagles will have to keep doing it out of the NFC.

But the path to repeating is always hard because it’s always different from what happened last year. The Eagles are going to face new challenges they didn’t necessarily have to worry about in 2024. It should be fun to watch how they handle this new pressure with the target on their backs.

In our final 2025 NFL team preview, let’s relive the Eagles’ path to Super Bowl 59, what the path to LX might look like, and the best Eagles bets for 2025.

Previously on EAGLES: Title Push

Expectations were high for the 2024 Eagles, who were tied for the fourth-best odds to win Super Bowl 59 (+1200). Their 1-6 collapse following a 10-1 start in 2023 was well documented. The new coordinators just didn’t have the answers, so it’s no surprise the Eagles made that their point of emphasis for 2024 by hiring qualified candidates like Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio to run the offense and defense for Nick Sirianni.

It also helps when you add a talented back like Saquon Barkley to an elite offensive line, and the Eagles had to make the most improvement on defense where their draft class really helped along with the signing of Zack Baun and the development of young players like Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith.

We have the benefit of hindsight to talk about the 2024 Eagles today, but if you just talked about how that team played in September, you would not have concluded this was going to be a dominant team that wins the Super Bowl.

Going into October, the Eagles were just 2-2 with a minus-10 scoring differential. They got by the Packers in Brazil in a 34-29 game on bad turf. They choked in multiple facets at home against Kirk Cousins and the Falcons in a 22-21 loss. They took advantage of a blown coverage on 3rd-and-16 in New Orleans on a huge play to Dallas Goedert in a 15-12 comeback win. They were absolutely destroyed in Tampa Bay in a 33-16 loss that started in a 24-0 hole.

The team looked like a work in progress, and maybe that Week 5 bye was perfect timing. Would love to see if anything will be discussed about that week in their upcoming America’s Game episode (airs Wednesday night on NFL Network) as the Eagles were a different team the rest of the season.

The Eagles were 16-1 after September. Their only loss was in Washington, a game where Jalen Hurts left early with a concussion. A game where the Commanders had five turnovers. A game where DeVonta Smith dropped a crucial third-down pass that would have given the Eagles a first down at the 2:00 warning with Washington down to one timeout.

In fact, if Smith catches that pass and Barkley catches a similar pass against Atlanta in Week 2, the Eagles could have easily been 16-1 with that Tampa Bay loss their only bad performance of the year.

But this team was largely great at controlling games and shutting opponents down when it had to. Barkley broke out the reverse hurdle against the Jaguars, then broke off a record number of long touchdown runs on his way to 2,005 rushing yards. The Eagles took it lightly with Hurts playing 12 snaps in the final three games of the regular season after his concussion, and they still scored 94 points in those games.

The Eagles settled for the No. 2 seed with a 14-3 record. In the playoffs, they won three of the games by at least two touchdowns, and they forced 10 turnovers before committing their only turnover of the postseason. Philadelphia’s +12 turnover margin is tied for the second best in a single postseason in NFL history.

The only game the Eagles had to sweat out was in the divisional round against the Rams. Despite taking a 28-15 lead with 4:36 to play in the snow, the Eagles found themselves defending an offense that was 13 yards away from the end zone and a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute. That’s when Jalen Carter produced one of the biggest sacks in NFL history, turning a 3rd-and-2 into a 4th-and-11 that the Rams were unable to convert as Philly hung on.

Philadelphia’s 55 points against Washington were the most ever by a team in a Conference Championship Game, and it ties the most points ever scored by a team in a Super Bowl (1989 49ers vs. Broncos).

Then in the Super Bowl, despite a subpar game from Barkley, the Eagles dominated everywhere else and led 34-0 in the third quarter, the largest deficit of Patrick Mahomes’ career, before winning 40-22.

Philadelphia’s 95 points in the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl are the most ever scored by a team in the final two games of a playoff run. That’s also tied with the 1990 Bills for the most points scored in any 2-game span in NFL playoff history. Philadelphia trailed for just 5:43 in the entire postseason, and that was a 7-6 deficit in the first quarter against the Rams and a 3-0 deficit against Washington that lasted 18 seconds.

It was a shaky start before the bye week, but the 2024 Eagles turned in one of the most dominant runs to a Super Bowl win that we have seen in the 21st century.

Philadelphia Eagles Offseason Review

The Super Bowl winner is usually poached for its coaching staff and players, and the Eagles are no exception in 2025. But much of the core group is returning, and so is defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. Let’s look at some of the gains and losses for this talented roster.

Offense: Another New Coordinator

Notice how Jalen Hurts is on his fifth offensive coordinator since 2020, but it’s not even a topic since he’s been good in his career. That’s only a talking point when the quarterback struggles. Meanwhile, the good quarterbacks tend to get their coordinators hired as head coaches as Hurts did again with Kellen Moore taking the New Orleans job. Funny how this works.

But the new play caller for the Eagles is Kevin Patullo. As you might suspect, he’s an in-house promotion as someone who’s followed Sirianni from Indianapolis to the Eagles in 2021 where he’s been a pass game coordinator. You wonder why he didn’t get this job in 2023 when they instead gave it to quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson, who was relieved of those duties and went to the Commanders for 2024.

Still, this is an ideal offense to run. Backup quarterback Tanner McKee is currently injured, but he’s lit it up in the preseason and any chance he’s had in this offense. They also acquired Sam Howell to back up Hurts. But most of the core is back with Barkley becoming the first running back to average $20 million per season on his new contract extension. They still have Dallas Goedert and Grant Calcaterra at tight end too.

With the offensive line, every starter returns except for right guard Mekhi Becton (Chargers). He’ll be replaced by Tyler Steen, who played 316 offensive snaps last year and was a third-round pick by the Eagles in 2023. He should be fine, but right now, the focus is on left guard Landon Dickerson, who injured his knee in August and is questionable for Week 1. But it sounds like he won’t miss any major time, if he misses any time at all from that.

The wide receivers are still top heavy with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but that’s one of the best duos in the game, so it’s hard to argue with that. Jahan Dotson didn’t show much in his first year with the team, but he did have that 27-yard catch early in the Super Bowl down to the 1-yard line. The Eagles also traded with Houston for John Metchie, another highly-drafted receiver who hasn’t done much, so they kicked the tires there to see if he can produce anything for them. But it’s still about Brown and Smith here.

Good luck stopping that duo while you still have to account for Goedert, Barkley, and Hurts’ legs.

Defense: Can These Eagles Keep Pace with 2024’s Defense?

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio deserves a lot of credit for turning the defense around after a poor 2023 season. He had a good share of talent to work with, but he used the pieces effectively. Are there fewer pieces available this year? To a degree, yes.

  • Edge rusher Josh Sweat (10.5 sacks including playoffs) got a bag from Arizona to reunite with Jonathan Gannon, so that puts more pressure on Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt to step up on the edges.
  • The Patriots paid big money for defensive tackle Milton Williams, but the Eagles feel confident in 2023 draft pick Moro Ojomo.
  • Linebacker Nakobe Dean tore his patellar tendon in January, so his timetable to return is up in the air.
  • The Eagles got middle linebacker Jihaad Campbell (Alabama) late in the first round after he slid for medical reasons, so he’s a top 15-20 type of talent who could be a steal for them.
  • The Eagles lost veteran corner Darius Slay (Steelers), but that’s why you have Quinyon Mitchell ready to take over as CB1 in his second season. Slay and Mitchell both allowed 41 catches on 75 targets last year, and Mitchell only allowed 16 more yards than Slay.
  • The Eagles traded safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson to Houston, so they’ll play Sydney Brown there and they drafted Andrew Mukuba in the second round this year.
  • Philly also lost depth corners Avonte Maddox (Lions) and Isaiah Rodgers (Colts), so this puts a spotlight on 2023 fourth-round pick Kelee Ringo to step up after limited action his first two seasons.
  • Veteran edge rusher Brandon Graham retired after 15 solid seasons, 76.5 sacks, and two Super Bowl wins for Philadelphia.

Eagles fans will fight you over anything, but it’s not unreasonable to conclude this defense isn’t as deep or talented as the 2024 defense. However, with nine key defenders entering their first, second, or third season with the team, that’s a lot of opportunity for growth, so Fangio still has more to work with than most coordinators.

Just getting great seasons out of Carter, Smith, Baun, Hunt, Mitchell, and DeJean would probably be enough to still have the best defense in the NFC East.

Can the Eagles Repeat with a Different Path?

Philadelphia Eagles Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley finding a different path on the Reverse Hurdle.

Repeating as Super Bowl champions is hard enough in the NFL, but the 2025 Eagles first have to repeat as NFC East champions – something no one has done since the Eagles in 2001-04. It’s an unbelievable streak seeing as how every other division has had a repeat winner at least twice in that span.

As we looked at in the Washington preview yesterday, the NFC East’s streak is largely built on not having a quarterback dominate the division for any length of time like a Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, etc. have done to their divisions.

The quarterback power in the NFC East has been more evenly distributed over the last two decades with a lot of players who were good but maybe not quite Hall of Fame material (Donovan McNabb, Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, Michael Vick in 2010, Robert Griffin III in 2012, Carson Wentz in 2017, etc.).

That’s why we also made a big deal out of how Jayden Daniels vs. Jalen Hurts can be the next classic quarterback rivalry, which is worth the read alone. It would make sense if this streak continued should Daniels build on the best rookie season ever and ascend to MVP status for a team that added Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil to his offense and have few places to go but up on defense. Daniels is also the only quarterback to beat Philadelphia since last October.

But let’s set Washington aside and focus on the big picture of the Eagles getting back to the Super Bowl again, something only the 2013-14 Seahawks have done in consecutive years on the NFC bracket since 1998. Only nine teams have pulled off the Super Bowl repeat, and the 2022-23 Chiefs were the first to do it since the 2003-04 Patriots, so it’s been harder than usual in this era.

One of the issues is peaking early and not being able to build on a dominant year, which you could certainly paint the 2024 Eagles as having. How much of this do you think is sustainable in 2025?

  • The 2024 Eagles are the first team since the 2010 Packers to never trail or even face a tie in the fourth quarter of the playoffs.
  • The 2024 Eagles are the first team since the 2002 Buccaneers to not play a one-score game in the fourth quarter in either the Conference Championship Game or Super Bowl.
  • The Eagles created 10 takeaways before a single giveaway in the postseason.
  • Due to the new playoff format and the Lions losing as the top seed, the 2024 Eagles were the first team in a non-strike year to go 3-0 in home playoff games without having a No. 1 seed. The 2021 Chiefs (2-1) were the only other team to ever attempt that.
  • How many times can the Commanders lose three fumbles against this defense? Twice in a row is already pushing it.

Then there’s the case of Saquon Barkley, the Madden cover athlete, the first $20M running back, and apparently the No. 1 player in the NFL right now as voted on in the Top 100 list on NFL Network. He set the single-season rushing record when you combine playoffs with regular season, but he could be facing some pretty serious regression after such an outlier of a year for both a running back in general and his previous career output with the Giants:

  • None of the first eight running backs who rushed for 2,000 yards have rushed for even 1,500 yards the following year – Barry Sanders came the closest with 1,491 yards in 1998 but even his yards per carry dropped from 6.1 to 4.3.
  • Barkley had four touchdown runs of 65-plus yards in the regular season, a single-season record.
  • Including the playoffs, Barkley had seven touchdown runs of 60-plus yards, smashing the previous NFL record of four (Jim Brown in 1963 and Adrian Peterson in 2012).

Barkley should still be very good in this offense this year, but I’d fade any shares of him winning Offensive Player of the Year for a second season in a row. Interestingly enough, his rushing yardage prop bet keeps falling this summer as he’s down to just over/under 1375.5 yards at FanDuel. That might actually make the over the best value, but he won’t hit 2,000 yards again.

At least on the bright side, a vote to ban the Tush Push failed, so the Eagles will have that in their arsenal for another year.

But the fact is most of the nine teams who repeated got stronger in the second year:

  • While the 1973 Dolphins didn’t go 17-0 like the 1972 team did, they had better statistics against a much tougher schedule of opponents.
  • The 1975 Steelers were so much better at throwing the ball over the 1974 team.
  • The 1979 Steelers lost a couple of more games than the 1978 team did because of turnover problems, but they had the No. 1 offense in yards and points and a higher SRS due to a tougher schedule.
  • The 1989 49ers were the most dominant San Francisco team during their dynasty era with Joe Montana winning his first MVP.
  • The 1997 Broncos were a wild card team, but the 1998 Broncos started 13-0 and Terrell Davis had his best season to send John Elway out on top.
  • The 2004 Patriots were the strongest, most balanced New England team that won a Super Bowl for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. The closest one to a drama-free postseason too.

In the case of the 1966-67 Packers, 1967 was like a last hurrah for Vince Lombardi’s team, who won their fifth championship before he left the team. In the case of the 2022-23 Chiefs, you could argue the 2022 team was stronger overall thanks to a No. 1 offense, but the 2023 team was much different with the only elite defense of the Mahomes era, and they had to take the No. 3 seed route to the Super Bowl that year, winning the only two road playoff games of the Mahomes era.

That leaves just one example where a team basically won the same way twice, including even beating the same teams in the title games in both years. Jimmy Johnson’s 1992-93 Cowboys rode their core to beating the 49ers and Bills in all four title games those years, producing roughly the same stats and results in both years. It’s also the only seasons in NFL history where the Super Bowl was a direct rematch.

So, maybe the Eagles can follow in Dallas’ footsteps and ride their defense and Barkley to a great regular season, then beat Washington and Kansas City in the title games again. But in the salary cap era, it’s unlikely to happen that way.

If I had to guess what changes we’ll see with the Eagles in 2025, they’ll have to lean more on the passing game at times once defenses have a better plan for Barkley, who won’t break as many long runs this year. The defense should also take a step back after losing some depth and veterans. It should still be very good, but Fangio isn’t exactly known for long runs of dominance like the Lovie Smith Bears or Ray Lewis Ravens.

Hurts is likely going to have to lead a game-winning drive in the playoffs to win another Super Bowl. He’s not bad at that by any means, but we’ve yet to see him do that in a playoff game as most of his starts have been blowouts one way or the other. It’s also probably the first time he’ll have to win an NFC Championship Game that’s not against a rookie quarterback at home like how he got to face Brock Purdy (injured on opening drive in 2022) and Jayden Daniels the first two times.

The good news is Hurts seems to have that demeanor where one Super Bowl win isn’t enough for him, and he may even hold more contempt for the Kansas City loss in LVII than the joy he got out of February’s win and game MVP award. He’s like Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla in quarterback form.

But we’ll see how many Eagles are as hungry as he is for another ring. We’ll see if he can deliver in those clutch moments in the playoffs that could help this team turn into a dynasty, replacing the one in Kansas City.

Best Bets for the 2025 Eagles     

First order of business, I am going to pick the Eagles to end the NFC East drought and repeat as division champs thanks to still having a better defense than Washington and an elite group on offense.

But picking the Eagles to win the NFC again or go the distance to repeat? That’s trickier when you consider the schedule and other things we talked about with regression for Barkley and turnover battles.

What if the Eagles enter the playoffs on a sour note? They’ll face Washington (twice) and Buffalo in those last three games, an odd choice by the NFL to stack the deck like that right before the playoffs. That’s a tough trip to Buffalo a week after going to Washington. Obviously, you could see Washington making a leap in Year 2 for Daniels, an MVP favorite.

The Rams get another look at Philly in Week 3. You could see the Rams finishing the job this year (if everyone stays healthy – huge if) with the addition of Davante Adams and a front seven that sacked Hurts seven times as no one played the Eagles tougher in the playoffs. Sean McVay is seeking his own third trip and second win in eight years at the Super Bowl like the Eagles just did (2017-24).

The Packers drafted a burner at wide receiver and traded for Micah Parsons. They have a top coach in the conference, and they get to host the Eagles in Week 10 on a Monday night in a game worth circling as it comes after the Eagles’ bye week.

J.J. McCarthy is a wild card in Minnesota, a talented roster with great receivers and a tough defense to face. The Eagles play there in Week 7, and they face the Lions in Philadelphia in Week 11. We didn’t see the Eagles play either team last year when they won a combined 29 games.

The Eagles are in Tampa Bay in Week 4 for the second year in a row. Those last two trips down there, including 2023’s playoff rout, have gone poorly as Baker Mayfield’s been shredding that defense.

The Eagles have to play arguably the best AFC division in the West with a great mixture of quarterback and coaching talent. The Chiefs won’t have Rashee Rice (suspended) again in Week 2, but you know they’ll have revenge on their mind after that 34-0 start in February. It’s just incredible (and completely unprecedented) that we’re going to see an AFC and NFC team play for the fifth season in a row. It’s really turning into a rivalry, and who knows, they could meet again in February in LX. The Chiefs shouldn’t have a left guard cosplaying as a left tackle this time.

It’s definitely a tough schedule, which is why I’m cautiously taking over 10.5 wins with a division title for the Eagles. But I think several contenders have gained enough ground to where I’m not willing to pick this team to repeat or even represent the NFC again in another Super Bowl. In fact, I’m thinking they come up a game short and lose in the NFC Championship Game.

Let’s get back to treating repeating as sacred territory. Show me you can hold off Daniels and repeat in the East first.

  • NFL Pick: Philadelphia Eagles over 10.5 wins (-155) at FanDuel
  • NFL Pick: Philadelphia Eagles to win 2025 NFC East (-145) at FanDuel
  • NFL Pick: Stage of elimination – Eagles lose NFC Championship Game (+550) at FanDuel

Related Articles:

Tags
Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar02/09/2025 - 12:38 pm