Jason Kelce doesn’t think he’s a Hall of Famer, discusses which Eagles Super Bowl team was better

As Cooper DeJean and Reed Blankenship look to go back-to-back after a successful season that saw the Eagles bring their second Lombardi Trophy to Philadelphia, they’re getting advice from an Eagles legend: Jason Kelce.

Ahead of their first preseason game, the former Eagles center joined the duo on the latest episode of Exciting Mics. Kelce discussed what made the first Super Bowl team so special, how last year’s team could compete with them, and offered up advice as the Eagles prepare to go into a season following a Super Bowl win.

“You’re getting more attention on everything that you’ve been doing,” Kelce said.“So, it’s going to feel different. You’re going to get every team’s best shot. But, I mean listen, what else do you want?”

Here’s everything you missed from the latest episode of Exciting Mics …

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Not only is Kelce a Super Bowl champion, but he’s a six-time first-team All-Pro, a seven-time Pro Bowler, and a future Hall of Famer. But, if you ask him, that last part still doesn’t feel right.

“It’ll be weird to be honest with you,” Kelce said. “And I think it’s weird because I don’t even think I’m the best player that I’ve played with in the NFL. Even on the offensive line, Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks. They’re all better players than I ever was. I was very good at center, but I was a scheme-specific guy. And when I think of Hall of Fame players, I think of people like — this was a guy that was so good no matter what team, who he played with, wherever he was at, he was going to be one of the best players of all time.

“And I just don’t think that’s the case for me. I was better when I had great players next to me. Now, when I did have that, I could do some really interesting things that nobody else could do. But, I needed a lot of other pieces in place and coaches in place for me to excel. That’s why it feels weird to me, if it ever happens.”

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While Kelce, DeJean, and Blankenship all brought a Super Bowl title to Philly, they did it so in different ways.

In 2017, Nick Foles took over for an injured Carson Wentz late in the regular season after Wentz tore his ACL. At that moment, the Eagles’ underdog saga began.

“As the season went along, we kind of started off real slow — not unsimilar to how you guys started off this year,” Kelce said. “Then we won nine games straight and we felt like we were really, really good. And it was a combination of we had great players, we were doing some things — at least offensively — schematically, that teams really didn’t know how to defend yet.

“Then all of a sudden Carson Wentz gets hurt. He was the best player in the NFL that year and we kind of got cast to the side. Nobody thought we were going to be able to compete after that, which I understand. But, we all felt like we had a really good team. … So, it really took on this underdog theme that ended up defining that whole season. And that galvanized us, made us really close.”

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Despite being underdogs in every game, Foles and the Eagles made it to Super Bowl LII and beat the New England Patriots, 41-33, to claim the Lombardi Trophy. That was a much different game compared to last season’s 40-22 thrashing of the Kansas City Chiefs.

“We won but it took everything we had to beat the Patriots,” Kelce said. “And you guys beat the team that’s been the best team in the NFL for pretty much — I mean, Patrick Mahomes has been in the conference championship every year of his career. He’s just finished his seventh season. And you guys, it wasn’t even close. Watching how you guys ended the season, I don’t know how you could realistically think that we would beat you guys.

“But, I’ll tell you this. Just being a competitor, we’d beat the [expletive] out of you guys.”

DeJean and Blankenship had their Super Bowl parade moments — from Blankenship getting mistaken for DeJean to DeJean getting wounded by a Bud Light chain. But none were more iconic than Kelce’s Mummers outfit in 2018.

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Kelce’s speech in front of the Art Museum steps will continue to be a top moment in Philadelphia sports history. The daylong celebration with the city will also be a core memory for the former Eagles player.

“I mean, it’s up there,” Kelce said. “Outside of having kids and the Super Bowl itself. I mean that was a very fun moment. And I don’t know if you guys felt this way, but when we won we saw all the pictures in the locker room. I was on my phone looking at all the people on Broad Street, climbing the poles and everything. I was like, man, I wish I was freaking there. I don’t want to go to this corporate after party. I want to be on [expletive] Broad Street.

“The parade is the first time you get to celebrate it with all of the fans. … The parade is the first time when it really magnifies how much it meant to so many people. … It was a very glorious day of celebration that I don’t know if you can replicate.”