PALM BEACH, Fla. — Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie spoke with reporters for around 40 minutes to wrap up the NFL’s annual league meetings on Tuesday.
In addition to making his support known for the Tush Push, the Eagles’ longtime owner answered questions about a variety of topics as the Birds move past their latest Super Bowl victory.
Here are some key takeaways from Lurie’s media session:
1. Nick Sirianni’s contract status
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is set to enter the final year of his contract in 2025 but he isn’t going to go into a lame duck year. Not after winning a Super Bowl. Lurie made that abundantly clear.
“Nick's going to be our coach and we don't talk publicly (about contracts), never have,” Lurie said. “I'm sure we'll find out soon enough that Nick will be our coach going forward and he's done an outstanding job.”
Last year at the NFL owners meetings, a key topic of conversation with Lurie was about his decision to retain Sirianni following the collapse of the 2023 season. That decision paid off in a major way in 2024 that led to a parade down Broad Street.
“Everything that I had hoped for with Nick, he embodies,” Lurie said. “Whether it's connection, intelligence in so many ways, from football intelligence, emotional intelligence, managing of people, hiring of assistant coaches, growth mindset at all times. It's one of the reasons Howie (Roseman) is so good, incredible growth mindset. Neither are risk averse.
“These are all the things that we embody, appreciate and are a big contributor to the culture we have. So everything that I had hoped for early on, identifying Nick as the next head coach has come to pass and great to work with and he has a growth mindset, he'll get better.”
2. A better spot than 2018?
The Eagles are coming off their second Super Bowl win in franchise history. And it seems like they are in a better spot as they come off their Super Bowl LIX win than they were after winning Super Bowl LII.
That first experience gave the Eagles some important perspective.
“It's incredibly difficult to repeat,” Lurie said. “I think in any sport you don't see it very often. I think that maybe we didn't plan as well for 1, 2, 3 years out as we are now. Maybe it's just more obvious now. We've got an exceptionally young both roster and talent level that's at a very high level, players that are about to really emerge on the scene that are not necessarily national names. We want to keep as many of those people as possible. Maybe at that stage we kept more in the short run and didn't quite maximize where we'd be 12, 24, 36 months out.
“So if anything, and I think Howie is just really on top of that and I do rely on him for roster construction and the ability to plan out what are we going to have to be doing next February, next February, and it's just from experience.”
The Eagles’ theme of this offseason has been prioritizing which young players they want to keep as cornerstone pieces as those big contracts near. Recent drafts have left the roster full of young talent and they still have around 20 draft picks over the next two years.
If you think back to when the Eagles came off the last Super Bowl win, they had some success in 2018 and 2019 before bottoming out in 2020. The Eagles are probably in a better position to sustain a higher level of success this time around.
3. A balanced offense
Lurie has always been a proponent of having a cutting-edge passing offense but the Eagles’ offense in 2024 was built a little differently. They had a 2,000-yard rusher in Saquon Barkley and really leaned into that run game after they came back from their early Week 5 bye.
The key? It’s balance, Lurie said.
“I’ve always said to our play callers, our coaches, our entire organization, I don't care if you throw the ball 30 times in a row or run the ball 30 times in a row, it's about effectiveness,” he said. “There's going to be periods of games and periods of defensive mechanisms or strategies. The Super Bowl was a great example. I mean Kansas City did an outstanding job stopping our running attack and if we weren't a dynamic passing attack and our passing game wasn't outstanding, who knows what would've happened and vice versa.
“Let's say they shut down our passing game, we better have a damn good running game. So I've always felt you've got to have excellence all around. It's still a sport where most teams pass the majority of the time, us included. But I always feel I want us to be great passing the ball. Great running the ball and we were.”
4. The next Eagles owner
It has been a few years since the Eagles gave Julian Lurie (Jeffrey’s son) an official role in the front office. And as business and football operations strategist, Julian has become increasingly visible in the last couple of years.
What has Jeffrey Lurie seen from his son?
“So he's been involved in the business operations, football operations,” Jeffrey Lurie said. “He's sort of been a part of getting to understand and know every aspect of the operation. It's the best way to prepare him.
“He's humble and smart and gaining experience. And most importantly, loves the specialness of the culture, the Eagles, the NFL, and the incredible fanbase. He gets it. And it could have been a different way. I hoped as a father he'd be incredibly obsessed and excited the way I get. He's that way. He grew up in Philadelphia, unlike me, so he has a real appreciation for the fanbase and the region.
“But you know what? I think I'm still a young kid, so I don't want to go further than that.”
5. Visiting the White House
The Eagles are scheduled to visit the White House on April 28 to celebrate their Super Bowl win and Lurie said he’s looking forward to it.
When the Eagles won Super Bowl LII, the Eagles did not visit the White House and they were eventually disinvited by President Donald Trump.
So why go this time?
“We just felt this is a time honored tradition being invited by the White House,” Lurie said. “So there was no reticence whatsoever. To be celebrated at the White House is a good thing. There were special circumstances back then that were very different, and so this was kind of an obvious choice and look forward to it.
“When you grow up and you hear about, ‘Oh, the championship team got to go to the White House,’ that's what this is. And so we didn't have that opportunity and now we do. I think we're all looking forward to it.”
Lurie said the visit will be optional for players. He also said he views this as a visit to the White House and they are “not politicizing it in any way.”