How the Eagles Went From Four Wins to Conference Championship in Two Years

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles under Andy Reid made going to conference championship games feel like a birthright.

Under Reid, the Eagles went to four in a row and five in nine years. He’s still doing it with the Kansas City Chiefs.

After the Eagles’ 38-7 win over the New York Giants on Saturday night, the Eagles are back in the title game for the second time in five seasons and for the seventh time since 2001, which is the second most in the league during that span behind the Patriots’ 13.

This run may be the most impressive.

Remember, it was just two years ago that the Eagles won four games. They were an organization in total disarray.

Doug Pederson was a mope and looked weary of it all.

Carson Wentz was a malcontent.

The Eagles had won the Super Bowl only three years earlier, yet Jeffrey Lurie got rid of them both. The owner kept GM Howie Roseman, and right away there was plenty of sniping about that decision from fans and some in the media.

All decisions proved to be the right ones.

Now here the Eagles are, again, one win away from another Super Bowl appearance.

“If there’s one thing you have to credit Howie Roseman and the Eagles front office,” said center Jason Kelce. “We’ve turned things around very, very quickly here, which is something that I don’t think you’ve seen too much from other organizations. We keep really good people around. …Really, it’s been a quick process and hopefully we can keep it going.”

The guys who have been kept include Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Lane Johnson.

“I think you’ve got to start with Howie and everybody after him,” said Graham. “Putting together this team. Doing all the due diligence on every player. How the personalities will fit. Who is good for who.

“The A.J. Brown trade during the draft. We get a guy like Jordan Davis to come in and who’s helping every week. Guys who will help in the locker room. We just have a bunch of good guys. Funny guys and ballers that come in. So, I’ve got to give it to Howie and everybody upstairs on putting together this team.”

Kelce, Johnson, Cox, and Graham are the cornerstone pieces Roseman chose to keep around after the Super Bowl window shut, the guys who helped deliver that Super Bowl title and remain key leaders in the locker room.

“I think it’s great when your best leaders on the team are the best workers on the team,” said rookie lineman Cam Jurgens. “Kelce and Lane are always working their ass off. If you see that from your best players, that they’re the hardest workers, that’s the best thing you can have.

“I’m always watching what they’re doing and seeing what all the vets are doing. You want to emulate what they do for when you get put in that (leadership) role, so seeing what they’re doing and how you can do it yourself is big help.”

Roseman has a pulse on the locker room and the culture inside that sanctuary have been a reason for the turnaround.

“That’s part of what they believe in upstairs,” said Kelce. “You have to turn it around, but the culture in the locker room, we’ve had a great culture with the Philadelphia Eagles ever since I’ve been here.

“We practice hard, we’re focused, and that was something I learned from the guys before me, Fletcher learned from the guys before him, and when you have too much turnover, it’s hard to kind of keep that stuff around in the locker room.

"They do it with coaches, too. Jeff Stoutland’s been here through three different regimes. I don’t know how many position coaches get retained across the league through three different coaching changes.”

The Eagles appeared to be a roster devoid of talent in that four-win season.

Nobody knew Jalen Hurts would develop into the quarterback he has become.

Roseman sunk his teeth into the draft, getting DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, Milton Williams, Zech McPhearson, and Kennny Gainwell with his first five selections in the 2021 draft. All of them are key contributors and Gainwell posted the first 100-plus rushing game of his young career with 112 yards and a TD against the Giants.

Roseman has transitioned the roster into one of the best in the NFL, at least for this season.

With so many free agents this offseason, he will need to find a way to keep on making good decisions, but who would bet against him doing that now?

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.