Poised for dominance: 2022 Eagles look more like 2001 than 2017

Let’s talk about composition.

The composition of the quarterback.

The composition of the roster.

Most importantly, the composition of the rest of the conference.

They are the three biggest reasons to think that Sunday is just a starting point. Barring injury or some unforeseeable calamity, the Eagles’ NFC championship matchup against the 49ers could easily go down as the first in an unprecedented run. I know what you are thinking, but everything about their situation looks more like 2001 than 2017. Beat the 49ers on Sunday, and it will be hard not to conclude that this team is poised to dominate the NFC for the next half decade.

Five years ago, this was not the case. Carson Wentz was coming off an MVP season, but he was also injured. The Eagles’ offensive line was dominant, but it was also starting 35-year-old Jason Peters (also injured) and journeyman Stefen Wisniewski. Their top two running backs would play a total of seven games for the team after the Super Bowl. One of their starting wide receivers would retire in a year. The other was 27 years old going on 40.

That’s not to say that you could have predicted the swift and dramatic downfall that awaited Wentz, Doug Pederson, and those 2017 Eagles. But this one is not that one. This one has surrounded its quarterback with four premium young players in Jordan Mailata, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert. Factor in Landon Dickerson plus Hurts and you are looking at an offense with seven of 11 starters under the age of 28 and under contract through at least next season. Six of the seven are under contract through at least 2024.

The exceptions are notable, no doubt. Jason Kelce is 35 years old and could retire at any time. It could be tough for the Eagles to match the contract that Isaac Seumalo figures to command on the open market this offseason, particularly with Hurts playing himself into a contract that could add an additional net $25-plus million cap hit starting in 2024 and net $7-plus million as soon as next season. They also need to figure out a way to re-sign cornerback James Bradberry and defensive lineman Javon Hargrave, or to pay players that will replace them.

It will come down to the quarterback staying healthy and being worth his money, as it always does. But the margin for error in that department is much bigger than it was back in 2017.

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The NFC stinks right now. And it is going to stink for a while. That’s really the only way to put it.

Frankly, it might be the biggest parallel between the beginning of the Nick Sirianni era and the early Andy Reid era. Back when the Eagles faced the Rams in the 2001 NFC championship, they were coming off a regular season in which 10 of the NFC’s 16 teams finished with a negative point differential of at least -27. Nobody else in the NFC East finished with a winning record. The quarterbacks in the division were Kerry Collins, Tony Banks, and some combination of Quincy Carter, Ryan Leaf, Anthony Wright, and Clint Stoerner.

In a lot of ways, the division was a microcosm of the conference at large. You had 32-year-old Brett Favre in Green Bay and 30-year-old Kurt Warner in St. Louis. Beyond that, these were the starters, in rough order of aptitude: Brad Johnson, Aaron Brooks, Jeff Garcia, Jake Plummer, Daunte Culpepper, Chris Chandler, Matt Hasselbeck, Charlie Batch, Chris Weinke, and Jim Miller. If I missed one, rest assured, he deserved to be missed.

Remember, the story of the early-2000s wasn’t just that the Eagles lost three straight NFC championships games; it was that they lost the last two of them to Johnson and Jake Delhomme. Fast forward to Daniel Jones, Brock Purdy, and the various speed bumps that showed their bellies to the Eagles throughout the 2022 season.

The best way to understand the current quarterback situation in the NFC is to look at what it was the last time the Eagles were on this stage. Back in 2017, nearly half of the conference had a starting quarterback who had already produced an MVP-caliber season. The top dogs were Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, both very much in their prime. Beyond them you had Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Cam Newton, all of whom had won conference player of the year awards and conference titles. In Detroit, 28-year-old Matt Stafford, had a conference player of the year award. All of those players would return as starters the following year, along with Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Jameis Winston, and Eli Manning. Plus, Carson Wentz. Factor in Jimmy Garoppolo and then-rookie Mitch Trubisky, and the only teams who entered the offseason without a clear quarterback were Washington, Minnesota, and Arizona.

Compare that to the current mess. Right now, the only teams who will enter the offseason with zero doubt about their starter are the Eagles (Hurts), Vikings (Kirk Cousins), Cowboys (Prescott), Rams (Stafford), and Cardinals (Kyler Murray). And at least two of those starters deserve significant doubt (Murray and Cousins). Three more have options that are glorified career backups (Giants, Seahawks, Lions). Four of the remaining eight teams have no clear starter and no real options. That does not include the Bucs and the Packers, neither of whom have a viable alternative to Brady or Rodgers. The remaining two teams have former top draft picks who are on borrowed time.

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It’s notable that one of those last two teams is the one that the Eagles will face in the NFC championship game on Sunday. The Super Bowl remains a very big if, thanks to a 49ers defense that poses a bigger test for Hurts and this offense than any it has faced. Still, whether or not the Eagles move on, it says something that Daniel Jones and Purdy were the two quarterbacks in their way. More important is the fact that is not a fluke. Things will get worse in the NFC before they get better. Sometimes, timing is everything. The next few years sure look like the Eagles’ time.