The Super Bowl was over two months ago. However, being as that I am constantly surrounded by Philadelphia Eagles' fans, it feels a lot more like yesterday. They love to remind you, they LOVE to talk about it-- if they could scream it from the mountaintops, they quite literally would.
If there is one thing Eagles' fans love more than telling you how much your team sucks, it's telling you how amazingly fantastic their team is. Birds fans everywhere have been riding the high of their first ever Super Bowl win through the whole offseason. And I swear, if I have to watch one more Philadelphia Eagles hype video with Jason Kelce's speech dubbed over it I might just lose it. This upcoming NFL season can't come soon enough, but one major question remains, can the Eagles pull off a repeat?
The NFL draft is set for April 26th, about a week from today, and from there it's straight into work out programs and training camps. The NFL regular season doesn't kick off until September 6th, but many teams have already made tremendous strides this offseason that could potentially make them 2019 Super Bowl contenders.
Some teams on the rise include the San Fransisco 49ers, the Houston Texans, and the LA Rams. Any of these teams could give Carson Wentz and the Eagles a run for their money next season. Some other juggernauts the Eagles will have to fend off this season include the Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Stealers, Seattle Seahawks, and New Orleans Saints.
At the end of the day, the Eagles success is primarily determined by one man, the man behind center, Carson Wentz. Now as a diehard Jets fan it's hard to admit, but Carson Wentz is an amazing franchise quarterback. He's the type of quarterback the Jets have been desperately searching for since, well quite frankly, Joe Namath. Carson had an MVP season last year until his unfortunate injury, but both Carson and Nick Foles, as well as the rest of the Eagles Organization, know that Carson is their future.
So can he get back to his MVP form? Can he build off the success from last season and improve? Of course he can, he's a professional, and one of the best at that. But there are a lot of teams with young quarterbacks looking to make a big splash. And after the draft next week, there will be that much more.
Now we can't forget the Eagles have a potential all-star running back in Jay Ajayi, a solid receiving corps, offensive line, and defense. They have all the parts for a Super Bowl repeat, the main question now is what players can stay healthy for the duration of the season? Assuming all players remain healthy for the entirety, which is close to impossible, I'd rank the Eagles as the 4th most likely team to win the Super Bowl. Obviously, this is premature speculation, but as of right now I would rank the possible Super Bowl LIII contenders in order as such: Minnesota Vikings, LA Rams, New Orleans Saints, and in the fourth spot, the Philadelphia Eagles.