How Eagles arose from the Super Bowl ashes vs Chiefs 2 years ago to become NFL powerhouse

Posted by author February 9, 2025 NFL

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NEW ORLEANS − It wasn’t long after several Eagles players dejectedly walked back to their locker room as the red and yellow confetti fell on the victorious Kansas City Chiefs that Eagles general manager Howie Roseman knew his team had to change.

The Eagles weren’t a bad team, clearly, after reaching the Super Bowl two years ago and hanging with the Chiefs right up until the end in their 38-35 loss.

But the defense was aging, and there were other players on expiring contracts whom the Eagles couldn’t keep.

And as quarterback Jalen Hurts said after that game: “You win or you learn.”

So here they are two years later, with a retooled defense that features eight new starters out of 11, an offense that revolves around star running back Saquon Barkley, and a determination to not lose to the Chiefs again.

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To do that, Roseman turned the defense over to four key players who weren’t even on the team two years ago in defensive tackle Jalen Carter, drafted in the first round in 2023; free agent linebacker Zack Baun, signed as a low-cost free agent last spring; and rookie cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean (first and second-round picks, respectively).

And, of course, splurging in free agency on Barkley, who rushed for a team-record 2,005 yards and added 442 more in the first three playoff games. That left him 30 yards shy of Terrell Davis’ 2,476 yards for an entire season plus playoffs entering Sunday night’s game.

But none of this would have been possible without the play of Mitchell and DeJean. Mitchell became a starter in Week 1 while DeJean had to wait until Week 6 after an offseason hamstring injury caused him to miss the first three weeks of training camp.

The Eagles are 15-1 since DeJean entered the starting lineup against the Browns on Oct. 13.

For Roseman, it was a gamble that had to pay off.

“Well, first they had to earn the jobs,” Roseman said. “I mean, nobody is on scholarship. There has to be competition. It was easy for (Mitchell), just how he came in during the offseason and you saw it right away, you saw all the things you saw in college.

“But (DeJean) had a tough offseason, and his ability to make a difference after the bye week is probably one of the stories we don’t talk about − exactly how that happened and when that happened.”

To those rookies, along with edge rusher Jalyx Hunt (third round), who became a major contributor during the second half of the season, perhaps the most remarkable part is the nonchalance with which they approach the Super Bowl.

It hardly matters to them that more than 100 million people are watching or streaming the Super Bowl. Those three have never come close to a championship game at the collegiate level.

The closest was DeJean, whose Iowa team twice made it to the Big Ten championship game. The Hawkeyes lost both games to Michigan by a combined score of 68-3.

“It’s crazy,” DeJean said about making it to the Super Bowl as a rookie. “I’m kind of glad it’s happening now, so you get the feeling of what it takes to get here. Being here and experiencing this as a young guy, it’s been awesome. To be able to do it with these guys around me, it’s really cool.”

Added veteran cornerback Isiah Rodgers, who along with Darius Slay, has served as a mentor to Mitchell and DeJean: “They’re so young, and they still got a lot of room to grow. I’m just happy to see them go to their Super Bowl in their first year because now they know what it feels like, and they’re going to want it every season.

“So they’re going to continue working and keep grinding to get there.”

Hunt, who started at Cornell before transferring to Houston Christian, said the biggest crowd he played in front of in college was about 15,000. Mitchell played at Toledo in the Mid-America Conference, far from the national powerhouse teams in the Big Ten and SEC.

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That’s not the case for Carter, who was on two national championship teams at Georgia, and is playing for his third championship in four seasons.

Still, even he admitted that the Super Bowl is different.

“It’s a big game; everybody going to be watching it,” Carter said last week. “I happened to do it twice, go to the ‘Natty’ twice, so I’m used to it. The Super Bowl is still different. It’s the NFL, so it’s the highest level. I’m still taking it calm, how I did (in college). I’m just ready for the game.”

So the Eagles’ defense that the Chiefs are seeing Sunday night is much different from the one two years ago.

Heck, it’s different from the one from the first month of the season, when the Eagles started out 2-2. Since then, DeJean has become a major part of the defense while Hunt became a regular part of the rotation.

Mitchell, meanwhile, has been stellar all season, as the Eagles had the No. 1-ranked defense in yards allowed.

“It wasn’t like we were the (bleeps) the first four games,” Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. “We had some bad moments. We just kept getting better and better. We did insert Cooper DeJean after the fourth game. So that’s one tangible thing that happened.”

And here’s another tangible thing: The Eagles are back in the Super Bowl, and they might be back again a few teams over the next four or five seasons. Just like the Chiefs.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.