The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will look a bit different in 2025.
Six players who either started or played a sizable role for Philly in Super Bowl LIX are no longer with the team — and five of those six played defense.
Pro Football Focus named Philly’s roster the best in football despite the team parting with key players like C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Darius Slay, Josh Sweat and Milton Williams this offseason.
The Eagles are about to enter training camp with a number of young players — like Kelee Ringo, Sydney Brown, Tyler Steen and Moro Ojomo — stepping into enhanced roles, and Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports believes that’s a topic fellow analysts aren’t discussing enough.
Here’s why Benjamin called Philadelphia’s turnover on defense a red flag for the team ahead of training camp:
“Vic Fangio was the perfect man to oversee the Eagles defense in 2024, bringing discipline and tenacity back to a unit that had become practically lifeless,” Benjamin wrote. “Now he'll be charged with defending the Birds' crown while likely overseeing new starters at every level of the lineup. Returning youngsters like Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith Jr. and Quinyon Mitchell should keep the unit abuzz, but Fangio may need veteran Band-Aids like Azeez Ojulari and Adoree' Jackson to help keep the ship afloat early on. It's just the cost of fielding a championship roster.”
GM Howie Roseman’s work on Philadelphia’s roster is almost impossible to quesstion. Name the veteran player who left the organization this offseason, the Eagles have a player they drafted and developed to fill that spot — for a fraction of the cost.
It’s fair to question, however, whether the Eagles did enough in free agency this year to balance out their significant losses on defense.
The Eagles haven’t signed a single free agent from outside the organization to a multi-year deal in 2025. EDGE Azeez Ojulari has been their biggest “splash” so far, and he signed a one-year deal worth $4 million.
Philly will be relying on the savvy Vic Fangio and a handful of returning young players and rookies to help fill some serious voids. Couple that with one of the wackiest regular season schedules we’ve ever seen? The Eagles’ path to a Super Bowl repeat will be a lot tougher than it seems.
MORE EAGLES NEWS:
- Eagles’ Dallas Goedert shares incredible reason for taking restructured deal to stay in Philly
- Eagles predicted to cut ties with three of GM Howie Roseman’s 2024 draft picks
- Eagles $1.3 million free agent addition named serious ‘question mark’ to make Philly’s 53-man roster
- Eagles’ competition for last quarterback spot ‘not close’ with training camp looming
- Saints, Kellen Moore predicted to betray Tyler Shough for ‘most underrated’ quarterback