last year the eagles were considered by most observers to be starting a rebuild with a new head coach, questionable 2nd rd qb that could go either way, and most of their best players aging.
it actually started out pretty poorly opening the year at 2-5 as this article from october 28th 2021 lays out in good detail -
Here's why Eagles plan to rebuild while contending is not working – and who's to blame. on november 28th 2021, a month after that article, they lost 13-7 to joe judge after hurts threw 3 ints to fall to 5-7.
but after that they ended the year winning 4 of 5 against non playoff teams - the nyg without jones, the nyj, and 2 vs washington to go 9-8 and get a wild card. in the final game of the regular season against dallas they got stomped and gave up 51, then in the wild card game vs tampa they went down 31-0 before ultimately losing 31-15 with all their points coming in the 4th q.
2 players made the pro bowl (kelce, slay) and 2 were alternates (hargrave, sweat).
and now 12 months later they have a loaded roster with 6 additional pro bowlers including some who were already there (lane johnson, hurts, miles sanders, landon dickerson) and some new ones added (reddick, ajb).
they also added bradberry in FA and chauncey gardner johnson in a trade.
the point here isn't to say this is necessarily an exact blue print they need to copy or predict this will happen, in fact it will be more difficult for the nyg bc they wont have the luxury of their starting QB carrying just a 1.6m cap # and they dont have an extra first round pick to trade for AJB so they have to do it differently. but it is yet another good case study of how much can change in the nfl 12 months later if you have good organizational leadership that puts players in systems that work, and can effectively add talent at premium positions (receivers, pass rushers, cover corners especially).
But the real difference to me is that every RB the Eagles have is a Saquon because they have such a great OL. If Brigtwell and Breida played on the Eagles they would look like Saquon too.
Giants traditionally built their OL and DL first. They got away from that and/or failed because of poor evaluations.
Also, in the past Giants found good OL and DL in the mid rounds (Diehl, Seubert--UDFA, Tuck). They have not done that the past ten years.
So Giants are going to spend 15 million per on Saquon and Eagles will get better production from a bunch of RBs making minimal salaries because they have an OL filled with pro bowlers
But the real difference to me is that every RB the Eagles have is a Saquon because they have such a great OL. If Brigtwell and Breida played on the Eagles they would look like Saquon too.
Giants traditionally built their OL and DL first. They got away from that and/or failed because of poor evaluations.
Also, in the past Giants found good OL and DL in the mid rounds (Diehl, Seubert--UDFA, Tuck). They have not done that the past ten years.
So Giants are going to spend 15 million per on Saquon and Eagles will get better production from a bunch of RBs making minimal salaries because they have an OL filled with pro bowlers
i totally agree the philly dominance at the LOS yesterday was obvious. and that was even without Jordan Davis doing much and it wouldnt shock me if he's on the dex level in a few years. the nyg dont have any depth behind their starters on the DL and on the OL Neal was an obvious weakness. the NYG need to keep investing more in those 2 areas, though with 2 top 10 picks at the tackles and glowinski making decent $ they already have to some degree. they need Neal to improve a lot next year and i think it's a reasonable bet he will.
saquon wont make 15m per year in real dollars so that's a bit of a boogeyman. either he'll take an extension around 12-13m or he'll play on a 10m tag.
Obviously its not a perfect one but we have 60M in cap which can become 80-85+ with some cuts, extensions i.e Golladay, Leo William extension etc
And then 179M in 2024. If the contracts are structured right, maybe slightly backloaded with lower first year cap hits, we will have a ton flexibility while keeping our core players long term.
NYG can more or less follow the blueprint most contending teams have done that did not draft enough at WR. Trade for a veteran top #1 one like Buffalo, Miami, Philly did and then double dip high in the draft too. Also a rookie CB unless he is an absolute stud has a learning curve. Sign one in FA there too.