American Football
From Super Bowl glory to early playoff elimination: How the Philadelphia Eagles lost their way
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Less than a year after lifting the Lombardi Trophy, the Philadelphia Eagles closed the 2025 season not with celebration but with confusion, exiting quietly in the Wild Card round against San Francisco and then detonating part of their coaching staff in the hours that followed.
The fall has been jarring precisely because it was so unexpected. For a roster still thick with All-Pro talent, this was supposed to be a defence of dominance. Instead, it became a study in how quickly cohesion can erode.
Here, we break down where it all went wrong for Nick Sirianni's Eagles this season.
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The offense, the engine of last season’s Super Bowl run, never found a stable rhythm. Kevin Patullo’s elevation to offensive coordinator was framed internally as a continuity move, but continuity proved to be the problem.
Concepts grew stale, in-game adjustments were slow, and the Eagles too often relied on individual brilliance rather than structure. Even with one of the league’s most imposing offensive lines and elite skill talent, drives bogged down into predictable patterns.
The Wild Card loss to the 49ers felt less like an upset than an inevitability, and Patullo’s dismissal afterwards was an acknowledgement that the experiment had failed.
That failure spilt into the locker room, most visibly through AJ Brown. The star receiver’s public frustration with his usage was never about targets alone; it was about purpose. Brown was moved around less, asked to win in tighter windows, and frequently used as a decoy in critical moments.
His candour likely struck a nerve because teammates quietly shared the same concern: the offense no longer maximised what it had. Resolving that disharmony – whether that's by trading Brown or reimagining his role – will require not just smoother messaging, but a scheme that clearly reflects the strengths of its best players.
Jalen Hurts sits at the centre of the evaluation. Super Bowl MVP honours last February cemented his status as the face of the franchise, but the 2025 season exposed limitations that opposing defenses increasingly exploited.
Hurts remained a powerful runner and a resilient leader, yet his progression as a pocket passer plateaued. When reads were taken away, and the structure collapsed, the offense stalled.
The Eagles don’t need a different quarterback, but they do need more from him — and a system that challenges him to expand his game rather than lean on the same answers.
That makes the choice of Patullo’s replacement pivotal. Philadelphia needs an offensive coordinator with both authority and imagination.
Mike McDaniel, now removed from his Miami tenure, would bring motion, creativity, and a willingness to adapt each week. Todd Monken, no longer in Baltimore, represents a different appeal: structure, physicality and a proven ability to blend run and pass without suffocating playmakers. Either would signal a philosophical shift.
What has gone wrong for the Eagles isn’t talent or ambition. It’s alignment. Fixing that – between scheme and personnel, quarterback and coordinator, star players and play design – is the task ahead.
If they get it right, this season will be remembered as a painful detour. If they don’t, it will be the start of something far more concerning.
