• Gardner-Johnson led the NFL in INTs, with six, despite missing five games with a lacerated kidney, while Epps was a serviceable starter. Filling in for that duo will be some combination of Terrell Edmunds, Reed Blankenship, and rookie Sydney Brown.

• Edwards had 159 tackles on the season (10 for loss), including nine games in which he had double-digit tackles. He also chipped in two sacks and seven pass breakups. Those 159 tackles were good for seventh in the NFL, and the next-closest Eagles tackler (White) had 49 fewer tackles. Like Epps above, I'd put White in the "serviceable starter" category. Replacing those guys — pending further roster moves — will be Nakobe Dean (34 total snaps in the regular defense as a rookie) and either Nicholas Morrow or Christian Elliss (29 career snaps in the regular defense).

The Eagles may have reloaded in the draft long-term with the selections of guys like Carter, Nolan Smith, Brown, and Kelee Ringo, but it's still pretty difficult to argue that the defensive personnel didn't get worse this season.

I should also note that the Eagles can probably expect some regression from James Bradberry, who allowed a passer rating of 54.2 (via PFF) when opposing quarterbacks targeted him last season. That doesn't seem sustainable.

Offensively, the perpetually underrated Isaac Seumalo will be replaced at RG by either Cam Jurgens (who has only ever played center) or rookie Tyler Steen (a four year tackle in college).

2) A lot of their best players are getting pretty old

Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham are now 35. Lane Johnson is 33. Fletcher Cox (already in decline) and Darius Slay (maybe showed some signs of decline later in the season in 2022?) are 32. 

Four of those guys are starters. The only one who technically isn't is Graham, who is a key player who had 11 sacks in 2022. Still, even if we omit Graham as a starter, the Eagles have more 32+ starters than any other team in the NFL (using Ourlads' depth charts for each team):

Again, the Eagles have a succession plan in place for some of those guys long-term, but they have more "old guy decline risk" than perhaps any other team in the league.

3) They lost some coaches, too

Former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon left to become the Cardinals' head coach. He's a fraud, and the Cardinals are in for some rough seasons ahead. No loss there.

But, on the offensive side of the ball, former offensive coordinator Shane Steichen left to become the Colts' head coach. That's a loss. Steichen took over for Nick Sirianni as the Eagles' play caller about halfway through the 2021 season, and he cooked. Unlike Gannon, he will be missed. Taking over for Steichen will be new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, who will call plays in 2023. To be determined if there's dropoff in play calling rhythm.

Of course, Johnson was more than deserving of his promotion to offensive coordinator, and could very well be a hot head coaching name next offseason because of his work as the Eagles' quarterbacks coach, and his tutelage of Jalen Hurts. Johnson's focus will now be on the entire offense, and not just the quarterbacks. The new quarterbacks coach will be Alex Tanney.

While Johnson seems more than capable of running the offense and Tanney seems to have the credentials for his promotion to quarterbacks coach, it's worth noting that the Eagles' offense sputtered in 2018 after former OC Frank Reich left for the Colts' head coaching job and John DeFilippo left his position as the Eagles' quarterbacks coach to become the Vikings' offensive coordinator. Mike Groh became the offensive coordinator and Press Taylor became the quarterbacks coach, and the Eagles suffered from the "Peter Principle."

The Eagles had a great thing going with Steichen as the OC and Johnson as the quarterbacks coach. We know that that was a dynamic that worked. We don't yet know if the new dynamic will be as good.

4) Injury luck is going to run out

The Eagles had every starter available for the Super Bowl. That is insane, and irreplicable. 

5) They still haven't beaten any good quarterbacks

Here are the starting quarterbacks the Eagles have beaten the last two seasons: 

1. Washed Matt Ryan
2. Sam Darnold
3. Pre-resurgence Jared Goff
4. Teddy Bridgewater
5. Trevor Siemian
6. Zach Wilson
7. Garrett Gilbert
8. Mike Glennon / Jake Fromm
9. Taylor Heinicke
10. Jared Goff
11. Kirk Cousins in primetime
12. Carson Wentz
13. Trevor Lawrence before he became good last season
14. Kyler Murray
15. Cooper Rush
16. Kenny Pickett
17. Davis Mills
18. Even more washed Matt Ryan
19. Aaron Rodgers with a broken thumb
20. Ryan Tannehill
21. Daniel Jones
22. Justin Fields
23. Davis Webb
24. Daniel Jones
25. Brock Purdy / Josh Johnson

Of course, there's a valid argument that the Eagles could only play who was on their schedule, and they went 16-2 in games that Hurts started last season. There's also a valid argument that the defense looked helpless in the second half of the Super Bowl against the only great quarterback they faced.

6) Their special teams stunk last season

The Eagles finished 13th in special teams DVOA last season, but only because they have a good kicker. Otherwise, they had more than their share of special teams gaffes.

• Week 2: The Vikings blocked a Jake Elliott field goal: Patrick Peterson was able to get around the edge for a blocked field goal, and the Eagles were lucky that Arryn Siposs was able to chase down CB Kris Boyd on the return.

• Super Bowl: Kadarius Toney's punt return: In the second half of the Super Bowl, Siposs was supposed to punt the ball to the left side of the field, but he shanked a line drive to the right side. As you can see in the video below, the Eagles' gunners are running down the field as if they expect the ball to have been punted to the left. When the Eagles' punt coverage over-pursued to the right, Toney made a guy miss and then found wide open spaces with a convoy out in front of him. 

The Eagles not only kept special teams coordinator Michael Clay, but they gave him a raise. Also, there's no way in hell Siposs should be back in 2023 after devastating playoff performances in two straight seasons, but he probably will be. 

7) They have the toughest schedule in the NFL based on 2022 results

The Eagles' 2023 opponents had a combined record of 161-123-4 (0.566) in 2022, which is the hardest schedule in the NFL based on 2022 wins and losses. Here are the Eagles' opponents, and their 2022 records. I also added in point differentials.

I've seen it stated that the Eagles' schedule is sort of middle of the road when looked at in terms of their opponents' projected win-loss totals. That simply doesn't feel right to me, given that their opponents had a combined point differential of +430 last season.

And that stretch from Week 9 to Week 14... Good Lord! Those teams had a combined record of 64-20 (0.762) in 2022, with a combined point differential of +719! And then after that stretch they play a Seahawks team that they haven't beaten in their last seven tries.

The NFC East teams all play each other twice, as you're aware. They also play the entirety of the AFC East (great division) and the NFC West (meh). The NFC East teams each have three games on their schedules that their divisional rivals don't. The Eagles have a first-place schedule, and as such, they play first-place teams in the NFC North, the NFC South, and the AFC West. Those teams are the Vikings, Buccaneers, and Chiefs. The NFC East teams drew the following floating opponents this year:

• MORE ON THE EAGLES
• Eytan Shander: The three biggest NFC threats to the Eagles
  
• What they're saying: The Eagles' offense is a top-3 supporting cast
  
• Mailbag: Better Eagles defense, 2022 or 2023?
  

The Cowboys arguably have harder NFCN and NFCS opponents than the Eagles, but obviously the Eagles' road game against the Chiefs is as hard as it gets.

• The Eagles have their bye the week before the Chiefs game. The Chiefs also have their bye before that game. In other words, they're getting Andy Reid after a bye, which is never ideal, and if they lose, their extra rest will be wasted. 

• The back-to-back road games against the Cowboys and Seahawks are tough. I wonder if the Eagles will consider staying in or near Seattle for the week leading up to that game. (My guess is no.)

• The trip to Los Angeles followed by another road game against the Jets — even if only a short trip up the NJ Turnpike — is not ideal.

• It'll probably be hot AF in Tampa Week 3. Bucs players will be used to that Florida heat. Eagles players will not. Eagles and Bucs fans might recall that the Eagles lost a blazing hot game in Tampa Week 2 during the 2018 season despite being heavy favorites.

At a minimum, the Eagles' schedule is significantly harder than it was a year ago, when they played the garbage AFC South and the weak NFC North.

8) They're going to get everyone's best

In addition to whining for six months after their loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game, the 49ers had very little in the way of typical postgame-sportsmanlike talk, like, "Hey give them credit, they're a great team and deserved to win." Why? Because they pretty clearly hate this team, which is just kind of a vibe that I get from around the league that I didn't have after the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2017. And I kinda think it starts with the head coach. 

Hatred specifically for Sirianni really seemed to accelerate last season was when he nodded approvingly in the direction of a television camera during the Eagles' 38-7 stomping of the New York Giants in the divisional round of the playoffs. The FOX television crew showed the moment in slow motion, lol.

Giants players bristled at Sirianni's hamming for the camera, and he even got the attention of popular comedian Bill Burr.

"At one point he was hamming it up so bad the NFL literally did a 360 shot around him, the same shot Tarantino used on Pam Grier in f***ing Jackie Brown when she was coming out of the g**d*** dressing room," Burr said. "They did that to an NFL coach who looked like some j***o** who's out there shoveling a driveway. I was just trying to picture Tom Landry nodding vigorously with his fedora, saying, 'I know what the f*** I'm doing.'

"I never saw Vince Lombardi do that. I never saw Chuck Noll. I never saw Don Shula. I didn't see Bill Parcells. I didn't see Joe Gibbs. I didn't see Bill Belichick. I've never seen any of them nod vigorously, even after they were destroying the other team and say, 'I know what the f*** I'm doing. And What I hate about that behavior is one of these days he's going to get his f****** ass kicked, because that's what happens, and he will not then shake his head 'no' vigorously into the camera and say 'Evidently, I don't know what the f*** I'm doing.' That's not how that games works."

Lol 😂. You can watch Burr's full Sirianni rant here. 

And, of course, rival fans hate him, too. After the Eagles' playoff win over the Giants in the divisional round, we scoured comment sections for the live game threads at other NFC East fan websites, and Sirianni was a common target of hate. A sampling (grammar and spelling left uncorrected):

• "Siirianni embodies all that Philly is about - compete douche bag."

• "Siriani has the most punchable face ever."

• "Sirianni has to be the biggest a****** in that stadium"

• "Ugh they earned it but holy s*** Sirianni has to be the most unlikeable coach ever."

• "Siriani looks really seems like a douche"

• "Sirianni does have the most punchable face ever, he acts like a frat boy"

• "Sirianni seems like such a tool. Perfect for Philadelphia."

• "Nick Sirianni is one of those mouthy punks that I used to end up punching out in a bar a million years ago when I was a young man."

• "I must punch Sirianni"

• "Jalen Hurts is an easy guy to root for... i hate he is on the eagles and i cant root for him. Philly doesnt deserve him. Nick Sirianni on the other hand entails the eagles fanbase: Toxic, stupid, stubborn, arrogant fool"

If you search "Sirianni punchable" on Twitter, you'll get an absurd number of hits.

The nodding incident certainly wasn't the first time that Sirianni angered a rival fan base, and (probably) opposing players. Near the end of the Eagles' Week 6 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Jason Kelce was tackled after the whistle by frustrated Cowboys DE Osa Odighizuwa. The ensuing unnecessary roughness call gave the Eagles a first down, and allowed Jalen Hurts to kneel down twice to seal the 26-17 win. After the late hit, Sirianni was caught on camera yelling, "That's f****** game! F*** you!" presumably at Odighizuwa and other Cowboys players.

And then there was the time he yelled to the crowd after a win in Indy after the Colts fired his boy Frank Reich.

And then there was the time that he was screaming at Robert Saleh after Jalen Hurts was hit late out of bounds by a Jets defender during a preseason game.

And honestly, that's just a sampling, lol. Those kinds of in-game outbursts are very funny and Philly fans love that stuff, but there's also little doubt that a lot of their opponents this season would absolutely love to beat him and the Eagles. Count on them having their matchups with Philly (metaphorically) circled on their calendars.

9) They faced pretty much no adversity in 2022

Jalen Hurts was sidelined with a shoulder injury for a couple of games late in the season, which they lost. That put their 1-seed in jeopardy for a hot second, but they ultimately wrapped that up. Otherwise, the following was basically what the Eagles' 2022 season was like, up until the second half of the Super Bowl:

The Eagles handled some adversity when they got out to a 2-5 start in 2021, but expectations were low that season. It's a lot different when the city of Philadelphia is thinking Super Bowl or bust. The Eagles have a veteran team, as noted above, but it will still be interesting to see how they handle adversity, which is coming.

10) There hasn't been a repeat NFC East champion since 2004

The last time a team repeated as NFC East division winners was when the Eagles did it in 2004. In each of the last 18 seasons, we've seen the previous year's division champion dethroned. 

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