Eagles embrace role of defending champs
Underdog throughout last year’s playoffs, Philly now the “top dog”
PHILADELPHIA – Throughout last season’s run to their upset of the Patriots for the first Super Bowl title in franchise history, the Eagles embraced the underdog role.
Discounted by the outside world because of abundant injuries and a lack of pedigree, the Eagles players donned floppy rubber dog masks and underdog T-shirts during news conferences and woofed their way to one improbable victory after another to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
Thursday those same Eagles took the field for their first training camp practice. But they’re still dogs.
“Top dogs!” center Jason Kelce boomed during an interview with USA TODAY after Thursday’s practice. His enthusiasm indicates the Eagles are again willing to accept the latest role thrust upon them.
One of the longest-tenured members of the team — a 2011 sixth-round pick-turned-two-time Pro Bowl selection and 2017 first-team all-pro — Kelce reported for training camp in each of the seven years telling himself, “This is our year.” But disappointments ensued in each of the first six
seasons. Things changed last year when at last Kelce and his teammates achieved their ultimate goal.
Ideally, Kelce and his teammates would flush all memory of their championship run and maintain the hunger that fueled them last season while overcoming the injury losses of franchise quarterback Carson Wentz, left tackle Jason Peters and running back Darren Sproles among others.
But that’s impossible. The offseason has featured a host of celebration ceremonies, a spike in requests for appearances at charitable functions and media obligations. Players say they can’t go anywhere without fans reminding them of the accomplishment while also begging for a repeat.
So when coach Doug Pederson — who as a second-year coach pushed all the right buttons — addressed his players to commence training camp Thursday, he challenged them.
“Embrace the target,” he told his players.
Yes, last year’s Super Bowl is just that: last year’s title, Pederson reminded them. All that crown does is place the 2018 Eagles squarely in the cross hairs of the 31 other teams.
“We’re the alpha dog,” Kelce explained. “And I think any time you’re up there, all the other dogs want to be up there with you, and we’re going to get that — their best shot. And it’s up to us to prove that we are that top dog, and we’re laying the foundation for that right now. If we stay where we were last year, that’s not good enough.”
Kelce had just spent an extra 20 minutes after practice on the field sharpening his techniques and then helping younger players refine their own. Many teammates at other positions did the same.
That’s the kind of approach the Eagles believe they must take to build another championship squad. “Repeat” isn’t in their vocabulary. They believe avoiding such talk will help both avoid complacency and the pitfalls of looking so far ahead that they miss crucial steps in the process.
Many players return, but things have indeed changed. Additional pieces have been added to defense and special teams. Players such as Wentz, Peters and Sproles must work their way back into the rhythm of the offense. And most opponents have undergone upgrades.
“The goal is obviously to win another one and then another one. That’s the motivation,” Pederson said during Thursday’s news conference. “But listen, I’m not going to focus on the end result. I’m focused on today, and how to get better, and then we’ll worry about tomorrow. The goal is always to win again, but we all know how hard that is. There’s a lot of good football teams in this league.”
Pederson respects the process because he has experienced the challenges of repeating.
He backed up Brett Favre during the 1996 Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl run. He held the same role in ’97 when the Packers again went 13-3 during the regular season and returned to the Super Bowl only to fall to Denver.
Pederson said that Packers team “probably should have” repeated, but obviously did not. He plans “to lean back on that experience and think about some ideas to take from that; from being on that team. It’s a matter of focusing every single day. I can’t let anything slide, whether it’s out here or in the meetings, and sort of buckle down that way.”
Former Giants coach Ben McAdoo (fired in December after his team fell to 2-10) said in a recent interview that he doesn’t believe the Eagles can handle the expectations, fanfare and distractions that come with success.
The longest-tenured member of the team, defensive end Brandon Graham
(2010 first-round pick) chuckled at McAdoo’s assessment and said he and his teammates would simply add his quote to their motivational bulletin board for the season.
“It feels good” Graham said of going from the hunters to the hunted. “For us embracing it, we have to make sure our game stays tight. We’ve got a lot of mature guys to do that. Biggest thing is keep your game tight because people are coming for us trying to take it from us, and we don’t take it lightly, whether they’re 0-15 or whatever. They’ll all give us their best shot.”
As Graham said, the Eagles have strong leaders. But few have found themselves in this position. Only Chris Long and new addition Michael Bennett have played in back-to-back Super Bowls.
Long won with the Patriots to cap the
2016 season and just helped the Eagles win theirs one year later.
Bennett and the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2013 but lost to New England in their return the following year.
Both preach the same message as Pederson when asked about the approach the Eagles must take to maintain excellence.
“I don’t think they’re fighting complacency,” Bennett said, relaying his observations of his new locker room. “They understand it’s a new year. That’s the whole message: conquer one game at a time; not worrying about the past or the future, but how well do we play against Atlanta? And how well will we play against the next team?
“Doug is doing a great job of reminding us that you can’t think about Atlanta and the Super Bowl, you’ve got to think about Atlanta in the game that you’re playing.”
And Long dismissed the notion that the pressure of trying to return to the Super Bowl could derail the Eagles.
“I’ve been on really bad teams before and there was a hell of a lot of pressure with that too,” he said. “I mean, going 1
15, there’s pressure there. “Everyone wants to spin it like there’s a lot of pressure on you when you’re defending Super Bowl champions. But I’ve been on teams where there were 10,000 people in the fans and you were being beat 44-6. That’s pressure, too.
“I’d rather have this pressure. Everybody should be thankful that we have that pressure and that target on our backs and embrace that.”