The time nears. The Philadelphia Eagles approach the dawn of another training camp, and boy, do we all feel different than we did this time last year. Reaching a Super Bowl is tough, especially after reaching one the previous February and asking your coaches and players to go back to work having endured a shorter offseason. Still, even in knowing that, Charles Barkley is confident.
Well... At least we have that going for us, right?
As mentioned, we aren't of the mindset that we were 365 days ago. We felt, as daunting as the task of getting to football's biggest game in consecutive seasons is, the Birds were good enough to do it. We also felt they could deliver a better result than they did in Super Bowl LVII.
So, how are we feeling now? This team is good, right? We know they'll be competitive, but can they fly with the San Francisco 49ers or Detroit Lions?
Hope springs eternal. This is a solid roster with both established veterans and some young guys who could excel. Two of the offensive starters were given elite compliments recently, albeit from anonymous sources.
Dallas Goedert and Landon Dickerson land receive elite praise, but they do so from unnamed sources.
Senior NFL national reporter Jeremy Fowler of ESPN Plus dropped two recent stories worth reading recently. NFL executives, coaches, and scouts ranked pro football's top 10 tight ends ahead of the 2024 season. A day later, they did the same for the top 10 interior offensive linemen for 2024.
Dallas Goedert landed seventh on the first list behind Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Mark Andrews, Sam LaPorta, T.J. Hockenson, and David Njoku. He's ahead of Dalton Kincaid, Evan Engram, and Dalton Schultz.
Landon Dickerson was named on the second list in the sixth spot. Zack Martin, Chris Lindstrom, Quenton Nelson, Joe Thuney, and Joel Bitonio landed ahead of him. Creed Humphrey, Frank Ragnow Trey Smith, and Elgton Jenkins round out the rest of that list's top ten.
Both stories sit behind paywalls. We won't share a ton of quotes except to say both received compliments from some pretty important people, albeit anonymously. Here's what we can tell you about both write-ups.
An unnamed NFL exec believes Goedert reminds him of George Kittle. "[He's] one of the few that can block at a high level and still receive." An NFL coordinator called Landon "the best run-pass combo guard in the league." It doesn't take much to know that both will play huge roles in Philly's success this season. You can thank new OC Kellen Moore for that.
Last season's collapse didn't completely extinguish hope in football's most loyal fan base. Part of the reason why is the Birds cut bait with some old guys while adding to the nest in free agency. Another solid NFL Draft quieted the criticism. Then came the discussions about Nick Sirianni's CEO head-coaching position and whether or not Jalen Hurts is a distraction.
Gosh, how did we get here? Something tells us we'll have plenty of topics to toss around for fodder.
Among the major topics will be the new defensive and offensive coordinator. The latter has tons of toys to work with.
You can't hide anyone on Philly's roster. Still, the offensive unit features stars like Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, and DeVonta Smith, so it's easy to forget about some of the other guys. It's a good thing that some of the media is still paying attention.
