Legacies

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Legacies

Posted: February 15th, 2025 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

Randall Cunningham is the most dynamic QB in the history of the Eagles. Donovan McNabb has most of the records. Michael Vick was great in 2010, but that was late in his career. Jalen Hurts is very good, but Cunningham was different. He did things that still make your jaw drop 30 years after the fact. He was the Ultimate Weapon.

Cunningham is not in the Hall of Fame. I don’t think he’ll ever get in. He didn’t have sustained success. He was great from 1987-1990, but injuries and other factors led to some inconsistent play. He had an amazing season in 1998 with the Vikings. That was a special team, but they choked in the NFC title game. Playoff disappointments are part of the problem with Cunningham. He was 1-4 in the postseason as the Eagles starter. They were held to 12 or fewer points in each of the losses. Fair or not, QBs are judged heavily by what they do in the playoffs.

Jalen Hurts just won his first Super Bowl and was named MVP for the game. That instantly changes his legacy. No matter what, he’ll always be a Super Bowl-winning QB. Nick Foles hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since he won SB LII, but he’s still seen as the guy who beat Brady and brought the Lombardi Trophy to Broad Street. Legacy.

Hurts is young so his story isn’t close to being finished. He could end up as a Hall of Fame player. Hurts could also be a good starter for the next 5 to 7 years, but not get back to the big game. Winning the SB makes him a part of history, but it doesn’t mean anything definitive in terms of evaluation. Hurts isn’t suddenly the best QB in the league. I don’t think he’s Top 5.

The good news is that I think Hurts best football is still yet to come. Experience is critical for QBs. They learn each and every time out. Hurts played at a high level in both the NFC title game and the SB. The physical ability is there. He’s still honing his QB skills. Hurts has started 66 games in the NFL. McNabb had 64 starts under his belt going into 2004, the season when he really took off. Hurts has a wide open future and it could be a lot of fun to see how good he can truly be.

Super Bowl wins are huge for coaches. Nick Sirianni wasn’t a lock to keep his job following the 2023 season. Luckily Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman and Sirianni all got on the same page. Sirianni did a great job with the team this year and delivered in a big way. He is now safe for the next several years.

If Sirianni can lead the Eagles to a second SB win, that would put him in good company. It wouldn’t guarantee a trip to Canton, but it would put him in that conversation. He is only 43 years old so Sirianni could be coaching for a while, assuming he can keep winning. Doug Pederson was 50 when he won SB LII. He was fired by the Eagles after the 2020 season and just got fired by Jacksonville. There are no guarantees when it comes to coaching.

Sirianni has more of an edge than Pederson did. I think that will be key to him sustaining success. Pederson had the magical year in 2017, but struggled to get the most out of his other teams. They had enough talent that they still went to the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. Sirianni is ultra-competitive. He will push people relentlessly. That’s part of what it takes to keep winning.

Vic Fangio is probably the most influential defensive coordinator in the NFL right now. Teams embrace his ideas, wanting to play with a light box and still be able to handle the run. Fangio joined the NFL in 1986. To put that in context, Sirianni was 5 years old. Fangio won his first Super Bowl last week.

People asked Fangio if finally winning the big game validated his career. He was emphatic in saying no. In his mind, he was just as smart on the Saturday before as the Monday after. His resume got a nice bump, but Fangio doesn’t think one game should define a career. People in the X’s and O’s world have been paying a lot of attention to Fangio since he shut down Sean McVay in 2018. Now they can study his SB gameplan and try to steal some ideas from that.

Kellen Moore got the Saints head coaching job. It wasn’t official until after the SB, but the decision was made before the game. If things don’t work out for Moore in New Orleans, he will get another OC job with no problem. He’s a SB champ.

Lane Johnson will be a Hall of Fame player. His resume is so good that he doesn’t need the titles, but having a couple of championships may help him get in sooner. There aren’t good stats for OL so SB wins help to make a good case for them.

Think about Brandon Graham. The Eagles traded up to get him back in 2010. BG didn’t get off to a great start. He got compared to Earl Thomas and Jason Pierre-Paul over and over. Both guys won titles early on, while BG was a struggling role player. BG never quit. He kept working and made himself into a valuable role player.

BG started 10 games in 2015 and had a career high with 6.5 sacks. He was a full time starter from 2016-2020. He’s been a great role player since then. BG will retire having played more games than anyone else in team history. He’s got 76.5 career sacks. He has won a pair of Super Bowls. And he made the greatest play in Eagles history.

Every young Eagle should be told about BG’s career. Things don’t always go easy. How do you handle adversity? BG could have easily given up. The city of Philly would be missing a legend and the Eagles would be missing a pair of SB titles. Thank you, BG.

Has anyone heard from Earl Thomas or JPP recently?

Saquon Barkley just had the greatest season ever by a RB. He didn’t break Eric Dickerson’s record for regular season yards, but he did break Terrell Davis record for yards when including the playoffs. Beyond the numbers, there were some insanely good moments. Barkley had 3 TD runs of 60 or more yards…in the playoffs. That is nuts.

We have seen plenty of players do historic things. Dickerson’s record season ended in a wild card loss. The Giants missed the playoffs when Michael Strahan set the sack record. Peyton Manning’s 55 TD passes came in a year when the Broncos lost the SB. The lack of a title doesn’t diminish the accomplishment, but it does mean more when the great season ends with confetti falling.

Barkley might have a shot at the HOF now. He’s got 7, 216 rushing yards. He’ll need to about double that to have a good shot. Barkley is 28 so he can play at a high level for the next 4 or 5 years.

AJ Brown is in the middle of a great career. He has 695 catches and 49 TDs. There are so many great WRs in this era that it is hard to say where he would fit into a HOF discussion. He might have 7 or 8 good years left so the numbers could get pretty big. Having the SB title certainly helps him when fighting for pecking order on a list of crowded receivers.

There are a bunch of young players on the team who we just can’t put into context quite yet. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Nolan Smith and DeVonta Smith.

I didn’t realize Elliott had such good career numbers in the postseason. I don’t know if he’s truly a HOF, but Elliott is certainly helping his case. After an inconsistent year, he had a great SB. Maybe that will lead to a bounce-back year in 2025.

I wrote a full piece on Howie Roseman the other day. This SB win does a lot for his legacy.

Finally we come to Jeffrey Lurie. The win is big for him as well. Winning SB LII meant the Eagles were off the list of non-winners. Winning a second title just a few years later shows sustained success. That shows there is a plan, an overall strategy. That points to management and ownership.

Lurie genuinely wants to win. He spends big and also pushes his GM and coaches to be aggressive. You can argue whether he’s too hands on. You might not like his style or personality. But you can’t argue with the team’s success under him. Lurie has been to 4 Super Bowl and won 2 of them. The Eagles have been to 8 NFC championships under him. The rest of the NFC East has been to a total of 6 NFC CGs in Lurie’s tenure.

One of Lurie’s strengths is being honest about success and mistakes. You can talk yourself into some bad decisions if you don’t fully understand why something worked or failed. Learn from it. Zach Berman had a great example of this.

The Eagles felt passing on Russell Wilson in 2012 was a huge mistake. They weren’t going to repeat that in 2020 so they drafted Jalen Hurts at a time when they didn’t "need” him. That tured out to be a great pick. It has resulted in a couple of SB appearances and one more ring. It will be interesting to see what lessons Lurie learned from the aftermath of the first SB win. What can they do differently this time around to ensure the Eagles stay at or near the top?

Luried hired the best coach in team history, Andy Reid. Lurie also fired him. Since making that move the Eagles have been to 3 Super Bowls and won 2 of them. It isn’t easy to let go of a successful coach, but that proved to be the right move for Reid and the Eagles. You can’t be afraid to take chances. Look at the Steelers. No one disputes that Mike Tomlin is a good coach, but he hasn’t won a playoff game in seven seasons. Do you really want to keep that going?

Lurie has certainly carved out a special place in Philly sports history. It is hard to judge what the rest of the league thinks of an owner. He proclaimed the Eagles as the league’s gold standard back in 2003. A lot of people laughed at that notion.

No one is laughing now.

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