NFL: The Eagles in front of the Super Bowl – a fairy tale as if by screenplay

The Philadelphia Eagles have achieved a remarkable turnaround in the last two years. After the release of Chip Kelly at the end of 2015, Philly was faced with a pile of rubble and within a very short time, Howie Roseman and Doug Pederson formed a team that was able to deal with even the most serious setbacks in terms of personnel. Is there a coronation against the patriots? Super Bowl LII will be available on 4. February from 11.45 pm live on DAZN – optionally with German and original US commentary!

Shortly before New Year’s Eagles were on the ground:”We appreciate Chip Kelly’s work here,”Eagles boss Jeffrey Lurie’s announcement – the standard statement for almost every coach dismissal in the NFL. A few minutes earlier, Lurie had dismissed his coach after three eventful years.

Kelly had come from college in January 2013 as the hot coach candidate from Oregon, and even if this picture is often taken after the fact – it wasn’t all bad. At first, the opposite was true: Kelly took over a 4-12-team and led it directly to the division victory with ten victories, and as second head coach he won his own division in the first season with a new team.

Kelly’s Warp-Speed-Offense literally stormed onto the NFL stage, the Eagles became an attraction and broke enemy defenses with the sheer number of plays, the general tempo and the lightning-like execution. However, even in the successful season – ten games were won in Kelly’s second season – it was already bubbling behind the scenes.

Thus, the new head coach and Eagles manager Howie Roseman, who officially managed the draft and the free agency for the team, quickly became a source of obvious tensions, but in fact Kelly had the final word for the 53-man squad. Lurie also officially made Kelly the team football boss, Roseman remained, but had little influence. It was the beginning of the end and at the same time the root of the new beginning.

Kelly, now internally as powerful as ever among the NFL head coaches Bill Belichick in New England and Pete Carroll in Seattle, did not take long to ask. There was a massive break in the squad following DeSean Jackson’s handover in 2014, followed by LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Guard Todd Herremans. A bold clear-cutting which at that time was courageous, but on closer inspection did not seem to be headless.

What happened then, however, was the worst-case scenario: the team converted to Kelly’s wishes failed. There were several reasons for this, including Kelly’s inability to adapt his scheme. Defenses had mainly been tuned to the rather simple run game, it lacked the individual quality to catch that. With a record of 6-9, Kelly was discharged two days before New Year’s Eve 2015.

The Eagles didn’t have much at that time: The team was individually worse than in the years before, not least because Kelly had rebuilt the squad with the newly gained power in such a way that he was able to implement his scheme in the best possible way. Quarterback’s contract with Sam Bradford had expired and Doug Pederson and the Eagles had ventured into a rookie head coach.

Philly was also very interested in Ben McAdoo at the time, but he was promoted to head coach by the New York Giants. So Pederson – and Roseman, who was back in the saddle again and Lurie provided him with the power of decision on the squad.

Roseman had obviously learnt from his mistakes: After failing to answer the most important cadre question – the quarterback position – in his first term of office, Roseman wanted to present his solution with all possible means. And the way to get there was as efficient as Roseman’s satisfaction.

With Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso, two Kelly Wish Players for Miami’s first round pick (number 13) were handed in. Roseman used this as a springboard to take the number 2 overall pick from the Browns with further high picks – which was finally invested in Carson Wentz. It was the significant course-setting for the future of the Eagles.

The NFL attaches great importance to balance, the salary cap as well as the draft system make this relatively reliable. Philadelphia’s opponent in Minneapolis is the great anomaly, but in the end there is the one factor that can always unbalance this equilibrium: the franchise quarterback. Whoever has it has a big advantage over all the teams that are looking for it.

At the end it’s in the NFL, you can see it again and again, but around the quarterback. Nothing screams that louder than Philadelphia’s AFC Championship game Super Bowl opponent New England. While the Patriots had the best quarterback of his generation on the field, Jacksonville coached and played fearfully with a huge, ultimately too big handicap: The Jags tried desperately to hide Blake Bortles.

“It was a challenging situation,”Roseman should admit at the end of the 2016 season,”and it all starts with the quarterback position.”

We know Wentz won’t be available in the Super Bowl, but the good news for Eagle fans is that Philadelphia has managed to win games after the bitter injury to Wentz. It was sometimes bumpy and not very nice to watch, the 19:10 against the Raiders in Week 16 is easily remembered. Even more unattractive was the 6-0 defeat against Dallas at the end of the regular season.

But the Eagles have, and that’s a huge compliment to Roseman, a team that can handle failures. Of course, Wentz himself was the first one, but Philly lost his star-left tackle in Jason Peters, the most versatile running back in the team and the most dangerous returner (Darren Sproles) as well as the starting middle linebacker (Jordan Hicks) due to injury. Hardly any team in the NFL would have been able to catch it, let alone move into the Super Bowl.

“Team” is the right keyword: Roseman has managed a remarkable cadre upheaval since his return to the executive chair. Only 22 of the 64 players currently under contract with the Eagles were already in Philly in 2015 – no small turnaround even for the fast-moving NFL. And the obligations were there.

In 2016 the Eagles got off to a dream start of the season, the hype around Wentz quickly reached dizzying heights. But on the one hand he had the expected rookie quarterback problems – while at the same time the offensive line wobbled without the banned Lane Johnson and Philly sent one of the league’s worst receiver corps out on the field.

Roseman and Pederson did exactly that: The Eagles first became active in the Free Agency, with Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith the receiver corps received a physical Number 1 receiver on the one hand, and a fast Wideout on the other hand, which can lengthen a defense. In addition, Nelson Agholor was pushed into the slot after an extremely disappointing season – and with confidence, Philadelphia gave Jordan Matthews to Buffalo Bills via trade at the same time.

Agholor shone in his new role, becoming one of the league’s most productive slot receivers this season, while Philly also had one of the NFL’s best tight ends with Zach Ertz. In short: The weapons arsenal had been catapulted into at least the upper third of the league within a very short time.

And elsewhere, too, Roseman’s commitments came into play. Chris Long and Timmy Jernigan have added a new depth to the defensive line, first-round pick Derek Barnett – made possible by the pick Philadelphia received for the Bradford trade from the Vikings – played a very good rookie season in his spinning role. In the Secondary Rodney McLeod and especially Patrick Robinson and also the trade for Jay Ajayi in the course of the season can be categorized as a win so far.

The Eagles’ recipe for success is no secret: Philly wants to dominate both sides of the Line of Scrimmage, and in most games it worked out – seldom more impressive than in the Championship game against Minnesota. No team could match the high quality of Philadelphia’s offensive and defensive line this season.

Philly combines this with great coaching on both sides of the ball. The Eagles’ offensive schemes are extremely quarterback-friendly, Pederson has helped Wentz and Foles enormously with a greater focus on run pass options and fast, clearly defined reads. Defensively Jim Schwartz builds up his game plans around the 4-men-front, but not only in the playoffs he showed how good he is in the selective Blitzing and also here in the use of his safeties.

The Eagles are also aggressive in coaching, Pederson uses his own analysis team, which communicates with him during the games in order to incorporate statistical aspects into possible fourth downs and long third downs. As a result, Philly has 18 successful fourth-down conversions this season – in the last ten years, no team has had a single season.

Whether Pederson retains this aggressiveness even in the biggest game of his young head coach career will be exciting to watch – just like the duel of the most complete team this season against the best quarterback head coach combination from New England and a patriots team that can prepare itself better than any other franchise for every opponent.

A triumph in the Super Bowl would of course be the (first) crowning of the turnaround under Roseman and Pederson. And even if that doesn’t work this year: with the quality in both lines, the strong team leadership and of course Carson Wentz, everything is geared towards long-term success after the upheaval of the Eagles.