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On the field, the Philadelphia Eagles are known as one of the most aggressive teams in football.
Few teams keep their offenses on the field for fourth down as often as the Eagles, who went for it 23 times in neutral situations (when the game was within two scores in either direction) during the regular season. Their go-for-it rate was fourth-highest in the NFL, and second-highest when on the plus side of the 50-yard line. According to Tru Media, no team in the league added more EPA (expected points added) with its fourth-down decision-making than did the Eagles -- and that statistic doesn't even account for the result of those plays, which the Eagles converted more often than not.
Their emphatic Super Bowl victory over the Chiefs, however, did not require them to be all that aggressive on the field. They went for only two fourth downs during the game: one on their first drive, where a conversion was wiped away by a dubious penalty; and one on their last drive, when the game was long over and they were just trying to run out the clock.
Instead, the aggression that mattered during the Super Bowl was that which general manager Howie Roseman and owner Jeffrey Lurie showed in the offseason -- both in 2024 and in previous years.
The Eagles are more aggressive than any team in the NFL about extending their star players early. They did it with Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, Jordan Mailata, Lane Johnson, Darius Slay, Josh Sweat and more. When the time comes, they'll do it with the next generation of home-grown stars, because it affords them the ability to do so much more.
They do it so they can manipulate the cap hits of those players with option bonuses and void years and any and every possible trick so that they can add even more talent to their already-stacked roster. They do it so that they can manipulate those hits in such a way that they don't subject themselves to the same financial ruin as other teams that continually hand out big-dollar deals. They paid out over $63 million in dead-money cap hits in 2024 -- eighth-most in the NFL -- but were able to build their deep, versatile roster anyway because of the way they do things.
Getting those deals done early allows the Eagles to be aggressive in free agency. They signed Saquon Barkley this past offseason. They also stacked his deal so that he barely counted against their 2024 salary cap, so they could add even more talent. They brought back C.J. Gardner-Johnson. They took a shot on Bryce Huff, which didn't work out -- but also didn't matter because they were so aggressive about adding talent elsewhere. They took shots on players like Mekhi Becton and Zack Baun, which turned out to be huge home runs. They do this kind of thing all the time.
The Eagles have also routinely been aggressive about attacking specific weaknesses with volume.
They did it this past offseason, drafting cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell in the first round and Cooper DeJean in the second after their secondary fell apart down the stretch of last season. They did it in 2023 when they added defensive linemen Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith in the first round when their pass rush came up empty the previous season.
They did it across 2021 and 2022 when they drafted Smith and then traded for and extended Brown after they had whiffed on a first-round wide receiver the year before, and they got ahead of their future interior offensive line plans by drafting Dickerson and Cam Jurgens. They even did it in 2020, when they drafted Hurts despite already having Carson Wentz on their roster -- and locked into a high-dollar extension.
Their willingness to push the boundaries of the league's financial rules is how they built the best, deepest roster in the league. Their owner's willingness to bankroll all that creativity by doling out the money for huge up-front signing bonuses is how they built the best, deepest roster in the league. Their willingness to avail themselves of all three avenues of player acquisition (the draft, free agency and trades) is how they built the best, deepest roster in the league. Their outright refusal to be satisfied with the state of their team is how they built the best, deepest roster in the league.
There's a lesson in there that the other 31 NFL teams should learn. If they don't learn it quickly, they'll always be playing catch-up.
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