Eagles Wake-Up Call: A Philly Slant To the Super Bowl

Like you, we spent most of Sunday taking in all the Super Bowl 50 festivities. Here are some of our observations (with a Philly slant):

*What a crazy year for Evan Mathis. Makes waves this offseason in search of a pay bump; gets cut by Chip Kelly, who has no tolerance for boat-rocking; ends up signing in Denver for less than he was slated to make in Philly; has a bumpy year for the Broncos and is in and out of the lineup; ends up winning a Super Bowl as Peyton Manning‘s starting left guard. Guessing he’s OK with the way things played out.

.@EvanMathis69 Super Bowl champ. Had camera ready. #SB50 pic.twitter.com/CmzdFZMg0l

— John Clark CSN (@JClarkCSN) February 8, 2016

*Did you catch the graphic showing the top picks in the 2011 draft? There was Cam Newton and Super Bowl MVP Von Miller at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, with Marcell Dareus, A.J. Green and Patrick Peterson (whom Joe Banner says the Eagles nearly traded for) rounding out the top 5. The broadcast mentioned that Julio Jones and J.J. Watt were also part of that loaded first round.

What’s the over/under on the amount of Eagles fans who simultaneously grumbled, “And we got Danny f-ing Watkins“?

*Those “cities that win the Super Bowl experience a baby boom” commercials were pretty smart on the NFL’s part, and also made for an easy punch line — which my wife jumped all over. “We wouldn’t know,” she deadpanned. Yet another grievance to lay at the feet of the Eagles.

*Some quality local representation in this one. Temple product Brandon McManus connected on all three of his field goal tries and finished the postseason a perfect 10-for-10…Corey “Philly” Brown led all Carolina receivers with four grabs for 80 yards (including a spectacular 42-yard grab) despite leaving early in the second half with a concussion…Broncos’ Jordan Norwood, the Penn State product who had a cup of coffee with the Eagles in ’09, set a new record for longest punt return in a Super Bowl with his 61-yarder.

*”I’m going to drink a lot of Budweiser tonight, Tracy, I promise you that.” — Manning on his priority list (which included  kissing his wife and kids and thanking the man upstairs) before making any public declarations about his likely retirement.

*I liked the halftime show and thought Lady Gaga nailed the National Anthem. That’s really all I have to say about that.

*For all the rule changes to assist the offensive side of the ball, defense can still win championships. Though the quarterback is the star attraction in Denver, Manning is the first to admit that the defense carried this team all season long. This was two of the league’s top defensive units going at it. Before Ron Rivera and Sean McDermott‘s Panthers, it was Seattle and the “Legion of Boom” representing the NFC in the Super Bowl the two years prior. The notion that defense is dead or less meaningful in the NFL has been turned on its head by recent Super Bowls.

*Wasn’t blown away by the commercials, though I’ll give the nod to Apartments.com for creativity.

*Fifty Super Bowl seasons have now come and gone without the Eagles hoisting the Lombardi, and frankly, there are few signs that the drought is set to come to an end anytime in the near future. And yet Eagles fans continue to be the most invested, passionate and hopeful in the game. It’s a testament to all of you. May confetti fall on all your heads one day soon (and may you get lucky as a result of it).

WHAT YOU MISSED

No tag for Sam Bradford; interest in Nick Foles? Here’s what we’re hearing.

Marvin Harrison gets in, no dice for T.O. Josh has the Hall of Fame details.

“The last thing this city needs is another team in rebuilding mode.” Weekend Reading.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Jimmy Kempski writes that a DeMarco Murray-for-Foles swap could make sense for both sides.

Foles’ new salary cap number would be $7,750,000, as noted above. That’s the bad part — they tend to come with any trade. However, trading Murray saves the team $4 million. Therefore, trading an otherwise impossible-to-trade Murray for Foles would be the equivalent adding just $3,750,000 to the payroll by obtaining a quarterback the head coach likes, with the added bonus of getting an unhappy malcontent in Murray out of the Eagles’ locker room.

Add in that the Eagles can save $3,500,000 if they cut Mark Sanchez, and the Eagles would essentially be adding a mere $250,000 to go from Sanchez to Foles. The following offseason, the Eagles could then get rid of Foles with no penalty.

Tommy Lawlor writes that the Bradford-Foles buzz is just the start of it.

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely looking forward to more of this nonsense for the next 30 or so days.

Howie Roseman will use the media to get info out in the open. Some of this is true and some not. The goal is to either confuse other teams on what the Eagles want to do or to help create leverage with agents when it comes to bargaining on contracts.

So you have Howie playing his games and agents playing their games. Add in the fact that the top free agent QB is Sam Bradford of the Eagles and you can see where this is going to be Rumorgeddon.

COMING UP

We’ll get you your fix.