Nick Sirianni, who grew up in the Buffalo area, found himself thinking about the Bills on Sunday.
The Philadelphia Eagles had just clinched a Super Bowl berth by putting up 55 points, the most ever in a playoff game, in an NFC Championship win over the Washington Commanders.
"What was the record before 55 points today?" Sirianni asked. "It was 51 because of the Buffalo Bills versus the Raiders, right? … I remember watching that game as a kid. Then being able to be around [former Bills QB] Frank Reich and then watching ‘Four Falls of Buffalo’ and how they did it."
The irony is that the Bills did not do it.
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By that, I mean: Buffalo lost in four straight Super Bowl appearances.
And it felt auspicious that Sirianni should mention the Bills’ history because his Eagles are about to make their second Super Bowl appearance in three years. They’re underdogs against the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the last two Super Bowls, including against the Eagles two years ago.
[Prepare for the epic Eagles-Chiefs matchup on FOX Sports' Super Bowl LIX hub]
There’s no question: The Chiefs are officially a dynasty.
The real question is whether the Eagles might be next.
Can they supplant the Chiefs? Or will Sirianni’s Eagles go the way of those 1990s Buffalo teams — making the Big Game but never taking home a Lombardi Trophy?
Let’s examine the pieces in place that would serve as the foundation of an Eagles dynasty.
A General Manager who sees the future
Go back to the offseason, when — as so many have discussed — GM Howie Roseman put the finishing touches on this team. There was no bigger transaction than the acquisition of running back Saquon Barkley, who inked a three-year, $37.8 million contract. And yes, Roseman did that after Giants GM Joe Schoen decided not to franchise tag and trade the RB, because New York didn’t anticipate anyone would want him for a one-year, $12.5 million, let alone three years at $12.6 million per year. We saw the whole thing on "Hard Knocks." But the point about the Barkley contract isn’t really about the Giants.
It’s about Roseman.
First, it’s what Roseman said to Barkley when the Eagles were pushing to sign him. They were talking about winning a Super Bowl back in March 2024.
"That’s why I came here," Barkley said. "That’s one of the first conversations I had with Howie. I came to Philly to be a part of games like this."
Say what you want about parity in the NFL. The league helps teams get out of the basement with draft order and compensatory picks. But that doesn’t account for the simple emotional dynamic: Players want to leave unsuccessful organizations (the Giants) for successful ones (the Eagles). When you’ve had as much success as the Chiefs and Eagles have had, the best players will want to sign with Kansas City and Philly — even when the contracts aren’t equal.
Barkley picked Philly over two other teams with bigger offers, according to the New York Post’s Ryan Dunleavy. The running back trusted Roseman, who had the reputation to back up the Super Bowl talk.
But here’s the other thing that makes Roseman’s decision interesting. There’s a reason why Schoen didn’t think anyone would pay Saquon. In 2023, no free-agent running back made more than $6.25 million per year.
At a time when just about every team around the league felt that running backs didn’t deserve big contracts (#runningbacksdontmatter), Roseman went for it with Barkley.
"From our perspective, you get to a situation where you kind of try to find, is something being undervalued?" Roseman told Adam Schein in May on Mad Dog Sports Radio. "Is there a way to zig when everyone's zagging? Or I don't know if it's the opposite, and you're freakin' zagging when zigging. But I think that it's hard to find difference-making players and people, and it's hard to find them for a cost. Those guys, they go for a lot of money, and we felt like there was an opportunity to get one of those guys in Saquon and bring him to the team."
The NFL is a copycat league. But that doesn’t make it smart to do what everyone else is doing. Because if everyone is zagging — and paying receivers obscene amounts — then that means the passing game will grow in importance. That means putting more defensive backs on the field. That means fielding smaller linebackers. And suddenly, the offensive linemen can play bully ball. Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu, for example, is a good run defender but an excellent pass-rusher. Saquon Barkley weighs the same as Luvu. And Barkley is much faster.
For years, Roseman has proven that he has a knack for seeing where the league stands. He drafted defensive backs Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean to serve as key starters on the defense. They’ll be key cogs in defending Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl. Roseman even has an aptitude for maximizing castoffs. He converted former Jets tackle Mekhi Becton into a high-end guard. This offseason, Roseman also signed former Saints linebacker Zack Baun, a guy who’d never had more than 30 tackles in his four years with New Orleans. Baun put up 151 with Philly this season and was named first-team All-Pro.
Roseman is on a hot streak.
But that’s not just because he’s meeting the league where it stands. The GM seeks opportunities to dictate where it’s going. The Barkley signing was like that.
A head coach and quarterback who do nothing but win
Jalen Hurts had an objectively quiet year. Even with his success on the ground, he scored 32 touchdowns (18 passing, 14 rushing), which is the fewest he’s scored since 2021. His career-best came in 2023, when he had 38 (23 passing, 15 rushing).
But Hurts doesn't care about the criticism surrounding his stats. Sirianni doesn’t care either. They care about only one metric for success.
"Winning at quarterback is more important than any stat," Sirianni said after the AFC Championship Game.
[McKenna: Jalen Hurts doesn’t care what you think of his stats: ‘I don't play for numbers’]
On one hand, Hurts has lived a charmed existence since joining the Eagles. During his career, he has played with some of the best playmakers in the NFL: A.J. Brown, Devonta Smith, Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, Miles Sanders and now Barkley.
It’s easy to wonder whether Hurts’ $255 million contract might eventually constrain Roseman's ability to keep and sign elite skill players. In turn, Hurts might have to evolve from his role as a point-guard distributor into a transcendent playmaker. We don’t know if he can do that. Nor do we know if he has to.
His salary cap hit sits at $31.7 million in 2026, a tremendous discount for a QB who has two Super Bowl starts. That number grows to $41.8 million in 2027 and $47.1 million in 2028. Philly has around $26 million in cap space going into 2025, per Spotrac. Barkley, Brown and Smith are under contract for at least two more years.
This is all to say that the Eagles are in a healthy spot. The only things that will separate Hurts from his playmakers are injury, age or a disintegration of their relationship. So far as we know, this core is here to stay.
The Eagles aren’t the 49ers, whose window is closing. No, this looks like a team whose window is opening. The Eagles entered the season with the sixth-youngest roster (25.5 years old). They entered the postseason averaging 27 years old, likely with an emphasis on more experienced players as they pushed for a Super Bowl. But there’s no doubt about the quality of the youth movement in Philly.
From the past four drafts, every one of their first- and second-rounders are high-end starters (Mitchell, DeJean, DT Jalen Carter, OLB Nolan Smith, DT Jordan Davis, center Cam Jurgens, Smith, OG Landon Dickerson). All those rookie deals will help keep Hurts’ contract from feeling bloated.
But it’s also not totally about the money. It’s about the guy. Do the Eagles have … The Guy? Or The Guys at quarterback and head coach?
Because as much as it’s easy to doubt Hurts, whose stats don’t look like those of an elite QB, and Sirianni, who sometimes comes off as abrasive, they are as good at winning as any current coach-and-quarterback tandem in the NFL.
Sirianni's 70.6 winning percentage leads all active coaches.
Hurts’ 68.9 winning percentage is 13th all time, just behind Peyton Manning (12th) and Joe Montana (11th)
"I don’t want anybody else leading this team at quarterback other than him," Sirianni said of Hurts on Sunday. "He’s a winner. Again, he deals with so much criticism, which just blows my mind because of the questions I have to answer. I don’t look too much into that. The questions I have to answer it’s just like, man, this guy wins. He’s won his entire life."
The wins and (lack of) losses are hard to argue. The proof is right there.
Doubt this duo at your own risk.
A Super Bowl win is the only way forward
If you think I’m glazing over the reportedly tenuous relationship between Sirianni and Hurts, then … well, we’ve arrived at that point. There were multiple stories last offseason that the QB and coach (both of whom I just vaunted) did not get along in 2023, which was part of why the Eagles collapsed down the stretch and made a one-and-done exit in the postseason.
Hurts’ occasional comments on Sirianni will leave you wondering whether everything is OK.
"He’s done a great job," Hurts said Sunday after a big performance. "I guess he let me out of my straight jacket a little bit today."
Oh? Earlier in the press conference, he was asked about his relationship with Sirianni.
"There’s a lot that goes into what we do every day. And thank God for the opportunity. Thank you for giving me focus, and resilience, steadfast within it all. Think it’s been a great group effort for us to be able to do what we’ve been able to do over the years, but in terms of a big reflection, I don’t know if the time is to do that right now," Hurts said.
Oh?
Look at Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. They clearly did not always get along, but they managed to win six Super Bowls together. That’s what makes winning a Super Bowl so important. Obviously, you can’t start a dynasty without one. But winning cures all, and if there are lingering tensions between Hurts and Sirianni, then a Lombardi Trophy would probably keep those issues at bay.
The Eagles have the GM. They have the coach. They have the QB. Those are the three most important elements of every dynasty. Those three can help sustain success.
At this exact moment, they have truly great players — perhaps the most talented roster in the NFL.
"One of them," tackle Lane Johnson said Sunday. "And I think it’s one reason why expectations were so high because of what you saw on paper. But we have a great group of guys that are friends off and on the field."
Winning the Super Bowl should improve all of the relationships — and keep the core intact. Winning should only help attract more talent in free agency, where Roseman is already successful. Winning should only make these Eagles more solid.
So, yes, this could be the beginning of a dynasty.
It starts with beating Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
Prior to joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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