It was supposed to be a victory lap. Late November 2023, the Philadelphia Eagles sat at 10-1, looking like the undisputed kings of the NFC. They’d just beaten the Chiefs in Arrowhead and outlasted the Bills in a rainy thriller. The vibes? Immaculate. But then, the floor didn’t just creak; it vanished. When fans talk about the eagles already gone from that Super Bowl window, they aren't just talking about retired legends like Jason Kelce. They’re talking about the soul of a team that vanished in real-time over six weeks of historic ineptitude.
Philly didn't just lose. They disintegrated.
Watching a championship contender turn into a high school varsity squad is a specific kind of trauma for a fan base that lives and breathes green. You’ve got Nick Sirianni’s bravado suddenly looking like a liability instead of an asset. You’ve got Jalen Hurts, usually the stoic leader, looking legitimately confused as the blitzes rained down. It was a total system failure. Honestly, it was one of the most statistically significant collapses in the history of the modern NFL, and the scars from that "already gone" version of the team still dictate how the front office operates today.
The Numbers Behind the Nightmare
If you look at the DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) rankings from that stretch, it’s genuinely haunting. Through Week 11, the Eagles were finding ways to win close games. By Week 18, they were a bottom-five unit in almost every meaningful metric. They finished the season losing five of their last six regular-season games, capped off by a playoff blowout in Tampa Bay that felt more like a mercy killing than a competition.
The defense was the biggest culprit. Sean Desai was stripped of play-calling duties in favor of Matt Patricia—a move that, in hindsight, was like trying to put out a grease fire with a bucket of gasoline. Under Patricia, the secondary played so soft you’d think they were socially distancing from the receivers. Baker Mayfield looked like prime Joe Montana against them.
Think about the talent on that field. You had James Bradberry, who just a year prior was an All-Pro, suddenly looking like he was running in sand. The veterans were tired. The young Georgia Bulldogs on the defensive line, like Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, hit the "rookie wall" at 100 mph. When we say the eagles already gone, we're acknowledging that the 2022 magic—the relentless pass rush and the "keep everything in front of us" discipline—simply evaporated.
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Why the "Already Gone" Roster Needed a Total Reset
Howie Roseman doesn't sit still. He saw the rot. The 2024 offseason wasn't just about getting better; it was about an exorcism.
- Farewell to the Core: Jason Kelce’s retirement was the end of an era, but Fletcher Cox leaving was equally massive. These were the pillars. Their departure meant the "old guard" was officially gone.
- The Vic Fangio Factor: You don't hire a guy like Fangio unless you realize your previous defensive scheme was a disaster. The Eagles needed a "grown-up" in the room to fix the communication issues that plagued the 2023 squad.
- Kellen Moore’s Arrival: Brian Johnson took a lot of heat for the stagnant offense. The "already gone" offense was predictable. It was basically "Jalen, go run around or throw a 40-yard bomb to A.J. Brown." There was no middle of the field. No hot routes. Kellen Moore was brought in to provide the structure that was missing during the collapse.
The locker room tension was palpable toward the end. You could see it in the post-game pressers. Hurts’ cryptic "we just need to be better" lines started to wear thin when the team kept making the same mistakes. It wasn't just a physical decline; it was a mental one. The swagger that defined the 2022 run turned into a weird, defensive arrogance that didn't match the product on the field.
The Myth of the "Easy" Schedule
A lot of national media pundits like to say the Eagles were "frauds" from the start of 2023. That’s a bit reductive. They beat the Dolphins. They beat the Cowboys. They beat the Chiefs. You don't do that by accident.
However, they were living on the edge. They had a negative turnover margin for a significant chunk of the season. They were winning games by one score that they probably should have lost. When the schedule toughened up—facing the 49ers and Cowboys back-to-back—the cracks became chasms. The 49ers game was the blueprint. Kyle Shanahan basically showed the rest of the league that if you attack the Eagles' linebackers and safeties in the passing game, they have no answer.
And they didn't. For two months.
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Saquon Barkley and the New Identity
The signing of Saquon Barkley was the loudest signal that the the eagles already gone era of 2023 was over. For years, the Eagles prioritized the "running back by committee" approach. But after seeing the offense stall out when Hurts was hobbled by a knee injury, Roseman realized they needed a true blue-chip engine in the backfield.
Barkley isn't just a runner; he’s a release valve. The 2023 Eagles lacked a way to get "easy" yards. Everything felt hard. By bringing in a guy who can take a screen pass 60 yards or grind out a 4-yard gain on 3rd-and-2, they've fundamentally changed the math for opposing coordinators. It's a pivot away from the boom-or-bust style that failed them during the collapse.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Coaching Change
People love to blame Nick Sirianni. And yeah, he deserves plenty of it. His "CEO coach" role becomes very awkward when the coordinators he's overseeing are failing. But the real issue with the eagles already gone in 2023 was the lack of internal evolution.
In the NFL, if you aren't changing, you're dying. The league figured out the Eagles' RPO (Run-Passive Option) game. They realized that if you blitzed Hurts from certain angles, the Eagles didn't have a "hot" read built into the play. It's a coaching failure, sure, but it’s also a player-execution failure. The 2024 iteration of the team had to spend the entire summer relearning how to handle pressure. If they haven't fixed that, the ghosts of 2023 will keep haunting Lincoln Financial Field.
Assessing the Damage: Was the Window Ever Open?
Some analysts argue the Eagles' window closed the moment they lost Super Bowl LVII to the Chiefs. I don't buy that. The talent was there in 2023. What died was the chemistry.
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You had A.J. Brown visibly frustrated on the sidelines. You had DeVonta Smith—the ultimate pro—looking dejected. You had a defensive backfield that seemed to be arguing after every single play. That’s the "already gone" element that is hardest to fix. You can draft fast corners like Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, but you can't draft "want-to" and cohesion.
Actionable Insights for the Future
To move past the the eagles already gone stigma and return to true contention, the following shifts are non-negotiable for the organization:
- Prioritize the Middle of the Field: The defense must stop giving up "easy" completions to tight ends and slot receivers. This means the linebacker play, specifically from guys like Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean, has to be vastly superior to what we saw in 2023.
- Offensive Variance: Kellen Moore has to keep defenses guessing. If the Eagles revert to being a "ISO" team where they just hope their stars win 1-on-1 matchups, they will hit another wall in December. Pre-snap motion is your friend.
- Jalen Hurts' Decision-Making: The turnovers have to stop. Hurts had a career-high in interceptions in 2023. Some were bad luck, but many were forced. He has to trust the system and take the check-down.
- Youth Development: The "Georgia Eagles" (Carter, Davis, Smith, Ringo) have to become the leaders. The veteran safety net is gone. These guys are the core now, and they need to play like it for a full 17-game slate, not just the first ten weeks.
The 2023 collapse was a historic outlier, a perfect storm of coaching stagnation and veteran regression. But in Philly, you don't get a pass for "trying." The 2023 team is already gone—scrubbed from the highlights and replaced by a younger, faster, and hopefully more humble roster. Whether they’ve actually learned the lessons of that cold December remains to be seen, but the blueprint for the rebuild is at least logically sound.
The most important thing to watch is the body language in the fourth quarter of tight games. In 2023, you could see the "here we go again" look on their faces by mid-December. If this team has truly moved on, they'll play with the chip on their shoulder that defined the 2017 and 2022 runs, rather than the entitlement that doomed them a year ago.