Outside Perceptions Creating Unrealistic Expectations For Eagles?

The Eagles are talented but head coach Nick Sirianni understands it takes much more to win than just that.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni / Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

PHILADELPHIA - The dead period between NFL minicamps and the start of training camp in late July is something I’ve dubbed “list season.”

And the best way to handle any list you don’t like is to move on to the next.

Call it the forum shopping for NFL fans.

Some Eagles fans have been hyped by the latest ESPN list which has dubbed the Eagles’ offseason as the best in the entire league with Howie Roseman and Co. the only decision-makers to generate an A grade from the worldwide leader despite losing two franchise greats (Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox) to retirement, trading their best pass rusher (Haason Reddick) for a 2026 third-round pick that could become a two only if the New York Jets are as dumb as advertised, and overseeing a tortured coaching staff makeover, at least to some.

If that’s an A, imagine how bad the Dallas Cowboys offseason was after receiving an NFL-worst D+, something that will also put a pep in the step of the average Birds fan.

What Roseman has done is put together one of the most talented rosters on paper again, while the new coordinators – Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio – are proven commodities and assumed to be major upgrades over the departed Brian Johnson and Sean Desai/Matt Patricia.

What the love is really about is quite superficial, the talent, particularly the Eagles’ skill-position players, a group that is extremely gifted and can be credibly put in any argument as the league’s best before adding Saquon Barkley.

Head coach Nick Sirianni had already tried to put a damper on assumptions of talent being the be-all, end-all in the spring.

“All our players in this room have talent,” Sirianni said. “But the best teams have something else. They have something else, and it's the culture. It's the things that -- it's your daily habits of being connected, having accountability, being extremely detailed, being tough, that we're trying to drop in the bucket over and over again.

“I think sometimes you can lose sight of that, of like, ‘hey, we're not just going to win games because we're talented.’ It takes everything.”

Sirianni understands the baton he’s been handed, though.

“We know we have the right pieces,” he said. “Howie has done an unbelievable job of putting this team together and we have the right pieces in here. I'm excited to go to training camp with these 90 guys and these coaches and this front office and this support staff.”

The coach also understands there is more to reaching the ultimate goal.

“But at the end of the day, it's never just about the most talented-- not in football. It's never about the most talented team wins,” Sirianni said. “... We all realize that. I think, and it's just about going to work every single day, making ourselves better coaches and better players every day, but doing that and also making ourselves to have the best culture every single day.

“... It's your daily habits. … We're going to make sure we stay committed to all those things because we know at the end of the day it's not just the most talented team that wins, it's the best teams, it's the best culture that wins.”

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