The Eagles put the pressure squarely on themselves last year, hardly backing away from Vince Young’s “Dream Team,” proclamation.
But the guys who were central to those expectations know that with an actual offseason and a chance to get to know teammates, coaches and schemes, they might actually be able to do something about them this year.
“They’re more comfortable. I think they look at themselves more like they’re Philadelphia Eagles,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said, via Jonathan Tamari of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “They’ve walked this path now. They know what to expect. They know the demands.”
Key additions from last year such as Jason Babin, Evan Mathis, Cullen Jenkins, and Nnamdi Asomugha are all on the other side of 30, and of the group, only Jenkins has participated in a playoff win.
For guys such as Asomugha, who has never even posted a winning record after coming over from Oakland, the pressure is real.
“Never leaving a season with a record that the wins are higher than the losses is a very difficult thing to face as a professional athlete,” Asomugha said. “Words don’t express how difficult that is.”
Of course, the words aren’t the problem in Philadelphia. There have been plenty of those.