Eagles 2023 draft class ready to help their teammates avenge Super Bowl loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
NEW ORLEANS — Nolan Smith was coming off a national championship when the Eagles drafted him in the first-round a couple years ago.
As he arrived to the NovaCare Complex that spring, the Eagles were still getting over their Super Bowl LVII hangover after losing to the Chiefs in Phoenix to cap the 2022 season.
“Man, I just say it was a little bit of that sour tase in their mouth,” Smith said this week.
“And then it happened even worse last year with the first-round loss. I was on the team for that so I actually experienced that. Guys going home early. It just made me sad.”
It wasn’t like the Eagles were still talking daily about their Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs by the time the Eagles’ 2023 draft class arrived in the spring. The team was collectively trying to get over the loss and get ready for the next season. But that loss still lingered in the air a little bit.
And even some of the rookies felt it.
“I think everybody was really motivated,” third-round pick Tyler Steen said. “Even though they lost that game, I feel like there was a confidence there that we’re capable of going back there to that game and that we’re a really good team.”
It wasn’t necessarily pain by the time the rookies made it to the NovaCare Complex. And the loss wasn’t even really a topic of conversation.
“Guys were a lot more hungry for sure,” fourth-rounder Kelee Ringo said, “rather than hurting anymore.”
But it did come up.
“I think it was just talked about in terms of flushing it and trying to get back there,” seventh-round pick Moro Ojomo said. “That was the goal.”
The Eagles had an incredible season in 2022. They won 14 games in the regular season to earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC and cruised through their two playoff games, crushing the Giants and 49ers.
And they even had a 10-point lead at halftime in Super Bowl LVII before coughing it up in the second half.
“I think guys were hungry,” sixth-round pick Tanner McKee said. “It’s a tough thing to balance because you know the year went well because you make the playoffs and got to the Super Bowl but you just came up short at the end. You want to do everything you can to obviously get back to that point and actually finish through the finish line.
“I feel like this year, guys kind of feel that. We’ve been here before and we came up just short at the very end so let’s finish all the way through. Let’s do all we can to go out and play the game and do our thing.”
The thing that most of the members of the 2023 class said stood out about the Eagles when they arrived was the confidence. Even though they just lost the biggest game of their lives, the Eagles were confident about their roster and confident about building their way to get back there.
“I think there was a lot of motivation but I think they were kind of past that by the time I got in there,” third-round pick Sydney Brown said. “It’s all about the opportunity to get to the next one. I think the big thing is just going through adversity and they’ve been through adversity that year.
“Obviously, we lost in the first round of the playoffs the year after and now we’re back here with another opportunity to do it. How you get here is a journey. I think we’re influenced by the motivation of our losses and what we could have done, knowing that we could have been here. Now, we just have to execute at this point.
After a 10-1 start in 2023, the Eagles collapsed. They eventually lost in the first round to the Buccaneers in Tampa. In the offseason, Howie Roseman retooled, the Eagles got two new coordinators and turned things around.
And now the Eagles are back in the Super Bowl. The 2023 class — Jalen Carter, Smith, Steen, Brown, Ringo, McKee and Ojomo — is ready to help their teammates get over the hump.
“I know a lot of the guys who were super excited that we’re going to have the opportunity to play the same team,” McKee said. “I think it is a motivating factor just knowing we’re back here. We’ve been in the same position before and we’re going to do everything we can to have that good feeling after the game.”
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