The Philadelphia Eagles Understand One Important Thing
Jan 17, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles new head coach Chip Kelly addresses the media as Eagles ceo and chairman Jeffrey Lurie listens during a press conference at the Philadelphia Eagles NovaCare Complex. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
"“It is so hard to get a franchise quarterback, as you know. It sets the ceiling on what you have as a team…the only model to me that correlates to having success in the NFL is having a Hall of Fame franchise quarterback…the best structure is a franchise quarterback who is going to play for 10 or 15 years for your franchise.” – Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie."
The 16 Super Bowls from 2000-2015 represent one third of all the Super Bowls ever played (also the most recent), and the statistics clearly show that having a franchise quarterback is basically required to even sniff Super Bowl glory.
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It’s often stated that in the NBA a team does not have a shot at winning unless they have a superstar, but interestingly enough, in the NFL (the ultimate team sport) the same stipulation seems to apply.
Besides quarterbacks Brad Johnson in 2003 (he only played 4 years for Tampa Bay) and Baltimore’s Trent Dilfer in 2001, the remaining 14 Super Bowls from 2000 to 2015 were won by teams with legitimate franchise quarterbacks.
Other than Super bowl XXXV in 2001, which seems like an abnormality with New York’s Kerry Collins and Trent Dilfer as the starting QBs, the only other non-franchise QB to even get into a Super Bowl was Chicago’s Rex Grossman in 2007 (San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick would probably be considered a franchise QB, Arizona/St. Louis’s Kurt Warner was a top tier QB, Matt Hasselbeck was Seattle’s QB for 9 years, Jake Delhomme was Carolina’s QB for 7 years, Rich Gannon was Oakland’s QB for 6 years, and Steve McNair was Tennessee’s QB for 9 years).
So at the very least it’s good to know that the Eagles understand they will not contend for championships until they find former quarterback Donovan McNabb’s replacement.
A few additional thoughts on quarterback Marcus Mariota, because people still seem to think he will be an Eagle at the end of April…
The acquisition of Mariota in this particular draft, where talent at the QB position is weak, would be an all-or-nothing scenario. If Marcus Mariota were going to be an Eagle we would already know. At this very moment the Eagles would have the rights to pick #1 or #2, and it would probably have to be #1 because Tampa Bay would not divulge who they will select knowing that they could squander additional compensation out of the Eagles to go from #2 to #1. Had Tampa wanted quarterbacks Sam Bradford or Nick Foles, the trade that happened a couple weeks back would have resulted in the #1 pick coming to Philly, but this did not happen.
Could it be that the Eagles are acquiring players such as Bradford and running backs Demarco Murray and Ryan Mathews to bundle with some draft picks in order to make a move in the near future??
In what world would that make any sense??? Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is really going to persuade unrestricted free agent players to come to Philly only to ship them out to a different city?
Football is first and foremost a business, but if a coach personally convinces a player (Murray) to come play for his team there needs to be at least a hint of loyalty sprinkled in somewhere.
Besides the fact that such a move is morally wrong and would set a horrible precedent for the acquisition of future unrestricted free agents, it would be totally pointless to just start signing players to use as trade bait. You can’t spend millions of dollars on players that you ‘think’ other teams are coveting. Also, the Eagles lost further bargaining ammunition by giving St. Louis their second round pick in 2016. Now if the Eagles tried to move up they would be giving away their early round picks for the next several years. Again, this would be incredibly idiotic and unnecessary.
Chip Kelly won’t tell us that he’s not going to pursue Mariota because if another team does pick Mariota, that’s one team that didn’t end up taking the player that Chip actually wants (like a receiver or a defensive back).
The Eagles want Bradford to be their franchise quarterback, and the only way Mariota ever dons midnight green is if he slips close enough to pick #20.