It’s never easy to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but the feat has been done before, most recently by the Kansas City Chiefs, who the Eagles’ obliterated seven months ago, preventing them from winning three straight titles.

The joy from that game, and just how the Eagles won, still feels amazing. But a new season is upon us, and the Eagles’ focus now has to be on becoming only the 10th team to repeat as Super Bowl champions. 

And there is no reason that can’t be done. 

The Eagles open their season against the Dallas Cowboys at 8:20 p.m. Thursday at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles will unveil their championship banner while Jerry Jones and the rest of their rivals are in the building.

That moment will be sweet. And even though the Eagles will be in the locker room for the ceremony, the energy will be in the building the entire game and, hopefully, help them win.

This game is actually very important. The Eagles can start out the year with a division and conference win, something that could make a difference at the end of the regular season, in regards to seeding.

I don’t think this game will be a blowout, despite other opinions I saw and the Cowboys being a mediocre team. Dallas’ defense took a massive hit with the Micah Parsons trade. They won’t get much pressure on Jalen Hurts, that’s for sure. 

The thing is, it’s Week 1. Teams are usually rusty and figuring things out. These Week 1 games are always unpredictable. But the Eagles are 4-0 under Nick Sirianni on opening day and they have won three straight games at home against the Cowboys. 

The Eagles will win this game. They are the better team, but it will be somewhat closer than we think. I am thinking the Eagles will win 29-17. 

Say what you want about Dak Prescott, but he’s 8-2 in his last 10 games against the Eagles with 22 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. He’s not a very great quarterback, but he seems to perform well against the Eagles, for whatever reason.

That brings me to my biggest concern this season — the Eagles’ defense.

The Eagles have two of the best receivers in the NFL in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, a top offensive line, a top-five QB in Hurts and one of the best running backs in the league, Saquon Barkley. The offensive did not change much at all from last season, so that side of the ball should be just as dominant. 

The defense, however, is young. It was young last season, too, but this year, the unit is arguably the youngest talent in the NFL. But before last year, the defense was my only concern, and look what happened.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio is legit. He turned that defense around as the season unfolded. Yes, the defense is young, but Fangio is a great teacher and knows how to develop players. He will have them making plays soon enough. 

Still, the Eagles outscored their playoff opponents last season by a combined 68 points, the best by any team since the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Technically, it was even better because the Eagles led the Chiefs 40-6 with under three minutes left in the Super Bowl. The final score may have been 40-22, but we all know the Chiefs’ final points were meaningless.

But last season’s talent was just stacked.

This year? The depth chart shows either Adoree’ Jackson or Jakorian Bennett as the starter opposite Quinyon Mitchell at cornerback. Cooper DeJean will be playing in the slot. Kelee Ringo, who has struggled, also weakened the secondary from what it was.

I mean, Darius Slay and Isaiah Rodgers are better than Ringo. I wish the Eagles would have kept Rodgers. I thought they would after Slay left, and he would have been a better option to have.

Then there’s the pass rush, which was so dominant last season. But that was with . Josh Sweat, Milton Williams and Brandon Graham. The pass rush will look very different, and Nolan Smith will have to make an even bigger jump than he did last season, which I think he will.

The Eagles also need major contributions from Moro Ojomo and Jalyx Hunt. The Eagles also brought in Joshua Uche and Azeez Ojulari, who are also questionmarks going into the season.

At linebacker, Zack Baun and first-round pick Jihaad Campbell are tasked with manning the middle. Baun is coming off an All-Pro year in 2024, and Campbell has a lot of potential. They should be an exciting duo, and hopefully they grow together with every passing game. Hopefully Nakobe Dean can join them at some point, but he continues to recover from a torn patellar tendon suffered in the playoffs. The Eagles also have second-year linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, Jr., who had a solid offseason.

So, the Eagles have a deep linebacker room, and that is promising.

It’ll be interesting to see how the offense looks under new coordinator Kevin Patullo, who was the Eagles’ passing game coordinator from 2021-24, working with Hurts the last few seasons. I wonder if that means they will pass more?

The Eagles dropped back on just 47.9% of their plays last year, the second-lowest rate by any team since 2010. They had extreme success running the ball, but Brkley should not get as many carriers again. The Eagles cannot risk injuring him, and need to involve Hurts more. They need to be more pass heavy, and Hurts has shown he can pass, and so very well. That doesn’t mean to completely avoid the run, which they shouldn’t. It just means there needs to be more passing to take pressure on Barkley.

I think Hurts will have a great season. He won his first ring, and now can put aside that “redemption” from 2022. Now, I think Hurts can relax more and just play his game, which is dangerous.

So, yes, there are things to worry about. But there are also things to be excited about. It all starts Thursday, and the Eagles should open their season with a win. But the main thing to pay attention to is how they get that potential win and how they perform overall.