PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Eagles spent the week at the beach trying to sell sand and sea water.
Nobody was buying it and, in both instances, that was OK. In fact, it was a reflection of how far this franchise has risen during Jeffrey Lurie’s 31 years of ownership.
A few decades ago, long before his team had won a Super Bowl or even played in one, Lurie mentioned at the start of one training camp at Lehigh University that many other owners around the league considered his team the gold standard.
It irritated a fan base scarred by consecutive losses in the NFC Championship, including one that closed down the Eagles’ stay as an unhappy tenant at Veterans Stadium.
This week, however, as Lurie roamed the meticulous grounds of the Breakers resort at the NFL Annual Meeting, he admitted feeling a sense of pride about his organization as many of his fellow owners congratulated him on the franchise’s second Super Bowl 52 days ago.
“You did some things right, let’s put it that way,” Lurie said late Tuesday afternoon. “I know the effort is always there. There’s no shortage of wanting to win on any of our part, but, yeah, you walk through and you know know how hard it is and every one is congratulating you and it is a good feeling.”
It’s good to be the gold standard, which Lurie could justifiably argue the Eagles are at this very moment for the first time in his tenure as the team’s owner. They’ve been to three of the last eight Super Bowls and won the last two, including this one in most convincing fashion against Andy Reid and the mighty Kansas City Chiefs.
“Beating a good friend,” Lurie said when asked about taking down Reid’s team two years after an excruciating last-minute loss in Arizona. “Well, he beat us. What I will say is two years ago, we probably talked internally about not winning that game.”
Lurie said there was a “bitterness” afterward.
“Not toward Andy, but some of the things that played out int he fourth quarter of that game,” the owner said. “We held on to a lot of that and it probably played toward our benefit this year. All of us felt that was an incredible missed opportunity and a feeling that there was a Super Bowl there to be taken.”
Lurie went on to compliment Reid and the Chiefs, but admitted it was “great to beat them” because “they’re a great team.” Lurie, however, suggested that the 2024 Eagles belong in the conversation among the greatest of teams.
“It was a damn good team,” Lurie said. “Just roster wise, it was incredibly capable. Very well coached. All sides of the ball, it was really hard to pinpoint a weakness and then the way it dominated the championship game (against Washington) and the Super Bowl. There have been some other teams. It’s right up there with those other teams. That’s something for (the media) and everyone else to decide. Not me.”
The Eagles became one of four teams to win 18 games in NFL history, albeit with a 17-game regular-season schedule, which started in 2021. They became just the third team to win 18 games and the Super Bowl, joining the 1984 49ers and 1985 Bears, both of which went 18-1. The Eagles went 16-1 after a 2-2 start, but don’t think they were in the same class as those two teams.
Lurie’s “damn-good” description of his team works, however.
As for selling sand, that’s what the Eagles have been doing since the start of the new league year last month. They’ve lost five starters and some other key contributors since bashing the Chiefs and they’ve added 13 guys in either trades or one-year free-agent deals.
It’s possible, maybe even probable, that not one of the additions opens the season as a starter.
“We want to win and we want to win big and the way to win consistently and to win big is to plan for the contracts you’re going to have to give to your best young players,” Lurie said. “We want to retain our best young players as we go forward. It’s impossible if you draft well to do that, so we want to make sure we’re aggressive at being able to sign players early that we think are core players for the future.”
That’s a sound strategy and an indication that hefty contract extensions are coming soon for players like Jalen Carter and Cam Jurgens.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Darius Slay are gone from what was the best defense in football last season.
“I think we had an incredible roster,” Lurie said. “I think we’ll still go into the next season with a superb roster. You know we didn’t talk last February about Zack Baun and Moro Ojomo, the list goes on and on and on. Where we stand now ... there’s no games for five months, the strategy of bringing in some players that have potentially great skills and great ability with our coaching staff and our culture to maximize that ... we hope to have a few (more Bauns) among all the signees and five months to go.”
That means there’s still a draft and a year ago the Eagles added key contributors there. The team has 20 picks in the next two years, including eight in the first three rounds.
“With (general manager) Howie (Roseman), trust me, every day is an excursion with what could be,” Lurie said. “I think we’ll have a good roster.”
That’s undeniable, but it’s hard to imagine it being better than the one that just outscored its opponents by 68 points in the postseason.
As for the sea water, the Eagles were trying to sell that all week to the teams that are so tired of drowning every time Lurie’s team lines up to run the tush push. No matter what they say about the play, the Eagles aren’t going to be able to convince them to buy into something they can stop.
Lurie made a great sales pitch Tuesday as to why the play should stay, but he knows the competition committee wants it banned so it could soon be gone. That’s just another nod to the Eagles that they do something better than everybody else in the league.
It was still a great couple days at the beach for Lurie and the Eagles because it’s good to be the king.
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Bob Brookover can be reached atrbrookover@njadvancemedia.com