The Philadelphia Eagles once again show that building the trenches leads to success.
The Super Bowl has come and gone and the one clear thing that has come from the last, well forever, continues to be clear.
You have two paths to winning a Super Bowl: Fall ass backwards into generational quarterback or build an actual team.
The Philadelphia Eagles are the epitome of that build.
They now have won two Super Bowls in eight years, and while the space in between tells a story, it’s the story that needs to be understood.
Dynasty’s are mostly driven by who you have under center.
There’s been two in the last 25 years that can lead you to a dynasty and that was Tom Brady and is still Patrick Mahomes.
There have been great, Hall of Fame level quarterbacks in between, but Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning are the only two with two for the same franchise.
No, what the Eagles have shown once again, and playing in the NFC West should also hammer this home because it has been the San Francisco 49ers calling card, is that you compete to win a Super Bowl with a team.
The Cardinals have built one team since their Super Bowl and we saw how that worked.
One playoff win, no Super Bowl appearances, and a complete teardown and rebuild two times.
Hell, the owner has more lawsuits against him than the team has playoff wins since Kurt Warner retired.
Building to win a Super Bowl is hard, it takes time, patience, a lot of luck, and health.
Yet, the franchise and the fans have wanted to expedite it at every turn.
Now, Monti Ossenfort entering year three has seemed to be building the right way.
Not trying to fill the void at the important positions with overpriced free agents, but instead trying to build through the draft. You and I can definitely disagree with the names selected, there wasn’t a bigger Cooper DeJean fan last draft than me, but he’s addressing the issues along the offensive line, defensive line, at cornerback.
Think about the last guy.
Top 75 picks used:
2013 – one OL, Tyrann Mathieu (does he count as a CB, genuinely asking)
2014 – ?
2015 – one OL, one edge
2016 – One DL
2017 – ?
2018 – ?
2019 – One CB, one edge/DL (again how would we label Zach Allen)
2020 – One OL
2021 – ?
2022 – ?
He whiffed on almost all offensive line and edge picks. Drafted one corner early and ignored the DL.
The new guy needs the picks to payoff, but he’s already matched most positions in two years.
Building the offensive line, defensive line/pass rush, and then adding cornerbacks is what you do.
When you are finally good, you add the skill players to compliment the quarterback, but you saw what happened with Minnesota and Cincinnati with elite wide receivers.
They combined for the same amount of playoff wins as the Cardinals.
Oh sure, the Vikings at least made it, but no one bought them as a threat.
You’ll have bad luck, see the Detroit Lions this year, the Cardinals in 2015, and that may be your window with a team.
But the good organizations and the well run teams don’t then go into scramble mode, they may have a down year, but they’ll already have started to reload upfront and then be back.
Can Monti get it right enough to help the Cardinals get there?
Will he be able to re-sign guys?
Will he be able to fill in gaps in free agency?
Those are all good questions he needs to answer, but so far, he at least knows where the game is won and lost.
We’ll see if those picks work, but he needs to continue to stack talent at those positions.