The Eagles are heading back to the Super Bowl! Before the Birds take on the Chiefs, here are five thoughts I currently have about the team…
Dallas Goedert has been crushing it in the NFL playoffs
Dallas Goedert had his most uneven regular season yet in 2024, playing in a career low 10 games. Injuries have always been an issue for Goedert. What makes him so good is his ultra-physical style of play with the ball in his hand after the catch and as a blocker, but it's that brute force that leads to lingering health woes.
In this playoff run to Super Bowl LIX, Goedert has been the best version of him, better than ever, really. Of course, he had his stiff arm-filled touchdown run against the Packers that stands as the signature moment of his career:
DALLAS GOEDERT ANGRY RUN 😡
📺: #GBvsPHI on FOX
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/rxRDVME91z— NFL (@NFL) January 12, 2025
He followed that up with five catches for 56 yards on a super efficient 14.0 yards per catch against the Rams in the Birds' snowy Divisional Round win. Then came his seven-catch, 85-yard performance in the Eagles' NFC title victory over the Commanders. He finished with 98 yards from scrimmage overall, too, a playoff career high for him.
Throughout this postseason, Goedert is Pro Football Focus' No 1 graded tight end. His 2.54 yards per route run are even more than Travis Kelce (2.43), per PFF. Kelce will obviously end up in the running for the greatest tight end of all time and it's not a real competition between them in February's Super Bowl, but Goedert has really lived up to his early career loft promise over the last month.
Jalen Hurts trusts him. That's huge. Goedert has been tagged 18 times in the playoffs, which is more than DeVonta Smith (12) and just as much as A.J. Brown. He's essentially their No. 2 pass-catcher right now behind Brown even with how undeniably talented Smith is with the success he's had in his own time with the Birds.
Can Saquon Barkley break the single postseason rushing record?
Saquon Barkley, in his first playoff run with the Eagles, has 442 rushing yards, good for a monster 147.3 yards per game. Could he ultimately break the record for the most rushing yards in a single postseason? Washington back John Riggins has the record, totaling a bonkers 610 yards across four games during his team's 1982 Super Bowl run.
Barkley would need to total 169 yards on the ground against Kansas City to do so. Barkley's bested that mark three times this season, including the playoffs. Never count him out!
The Eagles have wisely continued to build through their interior defensive line
Jordan Davis had his first career playoff sack on Sunday against Washington, forcing a key third down 12-yard loss on Jayden Daniels. Davis is only third in the defensive tackle pecking order behind All-Pro Jalen Carter and the ever-reliable Milton Williams, but Davis has been rewriting the narrative on his NFL career over the last three games with a chance to do something truly transformative against the Chiefs in a couple of weeks.
Davis is the No.2 graded pass-rushing interior defensive lineman during the playoffs, per PFF, trailing just Chiefs superstar Chris Jones. That's a massive step up for a guy who's essentially been just a run-stuffer. Williams and Carter aren't far behind him at fourth and fifth, respectively, as we'll.
- MORE EAGLES
- Eagles' Super Bowl LIX patch jerseys unveiled, available for purchase online
- Philadelphia is ready for a rematch with the Chiefs and for revenge
- Super Bowl LIX odds: Chiefs are slight early favorites over Eagles
The time is now for these young-ish guys. It's no longer about potential. It's about what's laid out there on the field on Feb. 9 in New Orleans. Kansas City has a tremendous interior offensive line who will no doubt be up for the task as the Chiefs go for a three-peat, but this is when legends and heroes are made.
The Eagles' 55-point playoff performance was historic
The Eagles scored 55 points in their NFC Championship Game throttling of the Commanders. It's the most points ever scored by a team in a Conference Championship Game, per Stathead. The Eagles beat Washington by 32 points. That was the highest point differential in a title game since the Panthers crushed the Cardinals 49-15 in the 2015 NFC Championship Game, per Stathead.
That's what happens when you rack up seven rushing touchdowns (plus a touchdown toss from Hurts to Brown for good measure).
When's the bootleg Eagles Super Bowl merch coming?
The Eagles' Super Bowl LIX patch jerseys are now available for purchase online and they look great. There's a ton of official merchandise for the Birds heading to the Big Game out there. I'll be honest though, I love seeing the bootleg merchandise that pops up around the city ahead of the Super Bowl. Janky? Sure. Endearing? Absolutely.
I think back to this shirt I came across before the Super Bowl two years ago:
buying bootleg Eagles merch outside a liquor store as the lord intended pic.twitter.com/Hc7lwdmwBJ
— shamus (@shamus_clancy) February 10, 2023
That's what Philadelphia is about. Maybe it's a little weird and off, but it certainly has heart and passion.
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