Can The Philadelphia Eagles Win The NFC?

The Philadelphia Eagles can compete in the NFC.

You’ve clicked on the article. You’ve read the title. Chances are you’ve already formulated an opinion that is against what I am proposing. So, you are now at the proverbial fork in the road. Do you continue to read my case for why the Philadelphia Eagles are actually in contention in their conference or do you fast-forward to the bottom of the page to vicariously add a derogatory comment? Regardless of the decision ahead for you, the reader, the Eagles are sitting in a position that few are willing to acknowledge. They can easily compete with the best of the NFC conference in 2016, and it shouldn’t surprise you as much as you think.

The first question ahead of both you and myself is: Which quarterback do you expect to lead this team? Well, that should be pretty easy for all of us to answer. Sam Bradford is signed to a remarkably team-friendly contract that not only allows the team an escape clause (which we’ve all focused our attention on), but a second year that would arguably pay Bradford less than the majority of backups in the 2017 season. Say what you will about general manager Howie Roseman, but he has removed the majority of the tarnish that Chip Kelly left on the Philadelphia Eagles.

Question the health, accuracy, or upside of Bradford until the conclusion of eternity. There will never be a satisfactory consensus on the former number one pick. Whether anyone chooses to believe it however, Bradford offers the most upside and potential out of any prospective quarterback the Eagles could have fielded next season. The parity the Eagles need is not at the quarterback position, it’s within the overall standings.

Twelve different teams have represented the NFC conference in the Super Bowl during the last 20 years. The Legion of Boom, the New York Giants, the Packers, and anyone else you’ve thought was a dynasty has had flaws great enough to prohibit them from winning each and every season. So why are the Philadelphia Eagles so far away from contention? The average win total of the last five NFC Super Bowl champions was 11 wins, and only the 2009 Saints and 2013 Seahawks surpassed ten wins. So despite the aesthetic beauty of Carolina’s 15 win season, it doesn’t translate to a guaranteed championship.

Next: Expect a Top-Ten Defense From The Eagles In 2016

Without looking, who were the only two teams last season to hold Cam Newton, the NFL’s MVP of 2015, under a 60.0 quarterback rating? If you guessed the Denver Broncos, you’d have one of the teams correct. If you said the Philadelphia Eagles, you’d have successfully guessed the second team. That’s right. The Eagles, those lovable losers that don’t have a chance in 2016, went to Carolina last season and spent a combined six minutes and five seconds trailing by more than one possession. Don’t compare the box score of the Eagles’ game however to the Super Bowl. After all, it’s not like the Eagles stood a chance on the road against a 5-0 Panthers squad in Carolina.

The follow-up will surely be: “But the Eagles couldn’t even win their division!” Well, since 2008, every single team in the NFC East has won the division twice. And since 1995 only the Giants have won the Super Bowl after winning the division. So the parity argument is stronger than your recency bias. Winning the division equates to postseason success, and the NFC East might prove to be the most difficult division in football to correctly project.

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There is no guarantee that Doug Pederson will have success as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. The staff he has assembled however indicates that he is fully aware of what is needed from an offensive-minded head coach. There is no threat of a mutiny on the offensive side of the ball, and hiring Jim Schwartz as the defensive coordinator establishes a dominant presence to cover what Pederson is unable to do.

That begs the primary question, and underlying point, of my rambling thus far: Are the Philadelphia Eagles good enough to win the NFC? If you are going off last season’s statistics, you’d likely answer with an unequivocal “no.” Statistics will only get you so far however. The top defense wins championships, except when it’s the recent championships by the Patriots, Ravens, or Giants. A champion needs a great quarterback, despite Peyton Manning‘s 67.9 quarterback rating last year. Statistics can be bent in a multitude of ways, all in favor of the author’s biases.

But just imagine a conventional offense where the Eagles keep Sam Bradford upright for 16 games. Imagine Schwartz making the Eagles defense into a top-15 defense. Imagine the Eagles draft an immediate contributor with the eighth selection in the draft. Finally, imagine the Eagles having a few balls bounce their way next year.

Are the Eagles better than the Panthers, Seahawks, or Cardinals? Not currently. I may be optimistic, but I am not completely delusional. Having said that, are you more or less confident that Sam Bradford will last the same, if not more, number of games as Carson Palmer will for the Cardinals? Will the Seahawks establish a running game without Marshawn Lynch and will their defense re-establish their imposing presence? Can the Packers’ offensive line protect Aaron Rodgers long enough to keep their high-powered offense functional? There are questions abound in the NFL. The absurdity of each will vary for those posing the question and the timing. As it pertains to the Philadelphia Eagles in the here and now, I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of acceptability to wonder whether they can cause some chaos in the NFC during the 2016 season.