Last Friday, we listed 10 reasons why the Philadelphia Eagles' 2026 season could go badly as part of our Dumpster Fire series. Here we'll do the opposite, as we'll take a look at 10 reasons why the Eagles could repeat as Super Bowl champions.

1) Vic Fangio is back

It took the Eagles' defense a little time to get its sea legs under Vic Fangio in his first season as the Eagles' defensive coordinator, but by the time it was all said and done they were punishing Patrick Mahomes and a completely overwhelmed Chiefs dynasty in the Super Bowl.

In 2025, again, it was a little bit of a slow start, but the defense was dominant at the end of the season. From December on, they held opponents to 256 yards per game, and they created 10 turnovers in 6 games.

That was all with an extremely young defense.

The 2026 season will be Year 3 under Fangio, and many of those young guys have matured into star players or at least had some sort of a breakout. They are also building continuity, as guys like Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Moro Ojomo, Zack Baun, Jalyx Hunt, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell, and Cooper DeJean will all be in their third season in Fangio's defense. There's no more thinking, and communication between those players should be easy. They can just play fast.

2) The defensive line is loaded

On the interior, is there a better trio in the NFL than Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, and Moro Ojomo?

Carter has some concerns that we addressed on Friday, but he is also an elite talent with potential to be one of the best defense players in the NFL. Davis is one of the league's premier run stuffers and he took a step forward as a pass rusher in 2025. And then there's Ojomo, who in my opinion played every bit as well as Milton Williams did in 2024.

I also believe that the edge defenders are being slept on a bit.

Jonathan Greenard is a really good pass rusher and run defender who has a chance to be an upgrade on Jaelan Phillips. Meanwhile Jalyx Hunt is a unique edge defender who is coming along as a pass rusher but who also makes game-changing plays in coverage. Nolan Smith as the No. 3 is a role that probably suits him well, as a hard-nosed, punishing player who throws his body around.

3) They probably have the best cornerback trio in the NFL

Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean are both First-Team All-Pros, but what's scary about both of them is that neither has reached his ceiling. If Mitchell in particular can start converting some of his pass breakups into INTs, I say with no hyperbole that he's a guy who could be on a Hall of Fame track.

The third corner this year is Riq Woolen, who has a low bar in trying to be better than Adoree' Jackson. Woolen had a fantastic spring, and raised expectations for this group.

4) Lane Johnson is healthy, while Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson are at least healthier than they were last year

We all know that the Eagles' record when Lane Johnson plays is very good and when he doesn't, it's not. He is recovered from a Lisfranc injury that kept him out almost half the season in 2025, and should be the elite player in 2026 that he has always been.

I believe Johnson has also been unfairly labeled as an "injury-prone" player. From 2022 to 2024, he missed a total of four games due to injury, and played over 1,000 snaps in each of those three seasons.

On the interior, Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens battled through a hard, injury-riddled 2025 season. Jurgens wasn't fully recovered from a 2024 back injury, and Dickerson's body has absorbed a lot of punishment over the years, particularly in 2025.

There's a chance that neither player will reach his peak performance again. We'll see. But what is at least encouraging is that both players were present and active during spring practices, whereas they both sat out for most of training camp last year. 

We should also note that each year there are a small handful of teams that return all five offensive line starters. The Eagles will be one of them, which should help in the transition from Jeff Stoutland to Chris Kuper.

5) The offensive scheme can't possibly be any worse

In the first bullet point our dumpster fire piece, we laid out a laundry list of the frustrating quirks of the Eagles' awful offensive scheme in 2025. We won't rehash all of that here, but there's a point to be made that it can't possibly be worse. I mean, right?

Ask any player what they think of a new offensive coordinator, and they're all going to have positive things to say. It would be shocking if they were critical. So, it's no surprise that players have had good things to say so far about new OC Sean Mannion. 

But the respect for Mannion feels a little different than it has with other past coordinators. Jalen Hurts, for example, is a player who wants to know the "why" behind what the coordinator is trying to do, and seems to be satisfied with what Mannion is relaying.

"You know, you can throw anyone under center,” Hurts said about one big change that's likely to come this season. “I think the question you ask is why. ‘Why are you doing what you're doing? What are you doing? What are you complementing? What's your M.O. behind what you do?’ And so philosophically, it's different than what we've done in the past."

Hurts pretty much has a new offensive coordinator every year. He'll be fine. But what is noteworthy this season is that a staggering 21 (!) teams this season have new offensive coordinators. Will the quarterbacks for those teams adjust?

6) A lot of players had uncharacteristically bad seasons in 2025, and some should bounce back

A whole lot of Eagles players did not play to their standard for varying reasons last season. We already noted that Lane Johnson, Landon Dickerson, and Cam Jurgens had injury-plagued seasons, and have a chance to return to form.

But there were others as well, like Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, Dallas Goedert (as a blocker), Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, and Jake Elliott.

Some of those guys will have better seasons in 2026 than they had in 2025. It's just a matter of whom and to what degree.

7) They have some legitimate breakout candidates

As usual, the Eagles have some young breakout candidates. My top three would be Jihaad Campbell, Andrew Mukuba, and Tyler Steen.

Campbell and Mukuba showed glimpses of long-term starting ability in their rookie seasons, but Campbell fell out of the starting lineup when Nakobe Dean returned from injury, and an injury ended Mukuba's season early. Meanwhile, Steen had a solid first season as a starter, and could take his game to the next level after getting his sea legs in 2025.

Others might include guys like Jalyx Hunt or Moro Ojomo as breakout candidates, but in my opinion they have already broken out.

We should also mention DeVonta Smith, who feels more than ready for his elevated role in 2026 as the focal point of the Eagles' passing offense.

8) They have solid depth

On offense, I like the Eagles' depth at quarterback, running back, tight end, and offensive tackle. Even at wide receiver, although the loss of A.J. Brown weakens the Eagles' starting lineup, I strongly believe they improved their overall pass catching depth. The only real concern for me is the interior offensive line. 

On defense, I like the Eagles' depth at edge defender, linebacker and cornerback. I do have concerns along the interior of the D-line and at safety.

But overall, the Eagles are in better shape depth-wise than the rest of the league at most of their positions.

9) They have an oddly easy first-place schedule

In 2025, the Eagles' opponents had a combined record of 162-127 (0.561) and a combined point differential of +456 during the 2024 season. It was a hard schedule. In 2026, their opponents had a combined record of 138-149-2 (0.481) and a combined point differential of -16 during the 2025 season.

If you prefer your "strength of schedule" to be measured by Super Bowl odds instead of last season's records, then well, it's a relatively easy schedule by those standards, too. Via Deniz Selman:

Their schedule is more manageable than usual, and it's also particularly easy for a first-place schedule.

The NFC East teams all play each other twice, as you're aware, and in 2026 they play the entirety of the NFC West and the AFC South. They also 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 North. The Cowboys finished in second place, so they'll play the second-place teams in those divisions. And so on...

The NFC East teams drew the following floating opponents this year:

The Eagles got about as easy a trio of first-place opponents in the Bears, Panthers, and Steelers as you'll ever find. By comparison, last year their three floating games were against the Rams, Bills, and Buccaneers.

One could argue that the Eagles' three floating opponents are every bit as easy as the Commanders' and Giants' third- and fourth-place floating opponents, much less the Cowboys' second-place opponents.

There's always some jabroni who will point out that things change from year to year, as good teams will be bad, and bad teams will be good. And sure, sometimes that happens. But it's also a lot more common that the good teams remain good and the bad teams remain bad.

10) Doubt Jalen Hurts at your own risk

Jalen Hurts is a flawed quarterback, and his scabs get picked at both locally and nationally to an excessive degree at times, at least relative to other quarterbacks around the league. And sometimes those criticisms are fair.

But he is also a skilled quarterback, who, you know, has a Super Bowl ring, and almost two. He is an ultra-competitive athlete who has proven repeatedly that he can rise up when doubters begin to accumulate.

In Philadelphia, in all sports (not just football), we have seen our fair share of players over the years who have been great during the regular season and then wilted in the playoffs. Hurts has played his best ball during two different playoff runs. There's ample evidence that it can happen again.

Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice

Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports

Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader