Jason Kelce's advice to Eagles for dealing with expectations in Philadelphia

The Eagles’ home opener comes on a Thursday night seven months after their Super Bowl appearance. It’s a scheduling sequence that brings flashbacks to 2018, even if there are notable differences — the Eagles were defending champions and the game was in Week 1. What’s consistent is the memory of that being the last time expectations were this high. Both then and now, when fans file into Lincoln Financial Field for the first time, there will be an unequivocal belief that the Eagles will play into February. 

It brings to mind the words spoken by Jason Kelce last summer, when the hype surrounding the Eagles was soaring, but not nearly to the level that it is this September. 

“In this city, it feels like every year the media thinks we’re really good, we end up being shitty,” Kelce said then. “And every year the media thinks we’re going to be shitty, we end up being really good.”

“It didn’t hold up last year!” Kelce said by his locker last week.

But the message is still clear, even if the Eagles’ 25-20 season-opening win over the New England Patriots on Sunday offered enough of a warning. 

“When I was saying that last year, I think Philadelphia media is very strong,” Kelce said. “Fans are very vocal. Sports media is very much alive in this city. You have to really do your best to not listen to the outside noise. I mean if everybody’s telling you you’re great, and you aren’t attacking the day and you’re not where you need to be… It’s not like anybody comes in here trying to not get better, right? But if everyone’s telling you, ‘You’re great,’ maybe you’re not just a little bit anxious or nervous that you’re not going to perform well, you’re not going to put guys in the best position, you’re not going to do your job to the utmost ability, so you just slack just a little bit. And I think that that does carry over to years when either the outside thinks you’re going to be good or you yourself think that you’re going to be good.”

Good luck finding an athlete who has a better understanding of this market than Kelce. Philadelphia is his adopted hometown — he’s of here even if he’s not from here — and he’s seen enough seasons when the Eagles outpaced expectations and those when they fell short to know the difference. He also has a keen understanding of what resonates with Philadelphia fans. During the height of the Ben Simmons impasse, Kelce deftly offered a guidebook on how to become a beloved athlete in Philadelphia. 

“You just go out there and play hard,” he said in 2021. “Want to be loved in this city as a baseball player? Run to first base. They’re going to fucking love you.”

Kelce realizes how quickly a contender can become an underachiever in the NFL. There are real reasons why a team could lose a game. He will not allow it to be because a team believes its hype.

“The moment you think you’ve made it in this league and you stop fucking worrying about the guy behind you, you’re fucking done,” Kelce said last week. “And I really hope we’re very much of the mindset that we can very easily go out there and lose to anybody in the National Football League.”

The NFL’s Week 1 results offered an early indication. Kansas City and Cincinnati, two teams similarly considered Super Bowl favorites, are both 0-1. One of coach Nick Sirianni’s major points of emphasis from the first day of the offseason program was that last season does not matter. Motivation, fine. But it won’t win them a game. It won’t stop a blitz on third-and-10.  

So go back to the wisdom of Kelce. Last September, when Kelce was asked if Sirianni was more comfortable entering Year 2, he insisted that he loathes comfort. He considered comfort “a fucking terrible place to be if you’re in the league,” and said the only way the Eagles would become Super Bowl champions would be by eschewing comfort. They made it to the final game. 

This is a message the Eagles are sharing this season, too, even if it’s not explicit. Sirianni has been noticeably tougher on his players and coaches, unyielding about small mistakes in practice. Even Jalen Hurts heard Sirianni’s wrath for a procedure miscue in practice. 

Kelce picked a fight in a joint practice with Indianapolis. He said it wasn’t intentional — his temper is legendary, and it was a scorching day — but that’s not something that happens if a player is going through the motions.

“You get uncomfortable being comfortable,” Kelce said last week. “I believe when stuff is not stressful, you get anxious and I know that I feel that way, I know (offensive line coach Jeff) Stoutland feels that way. A lot of people in this building don’t like that feeling. Stout will come up and go on a rant in a meeting out of nowhere because he feels that I think some of the time. And I think that other players and coaches do that, as well. You can’t fall asleep.”

What about the Eagles’ uneven performance in Week 1? They faced a Bill Belichick-coached team on the road and they escaped with a win. But the offense had one of its worst performances of the Sirianni Era, with their fewest yards since 2021 and expected points added per drive of -0.95. They registered only one play of 20-plus yards. Dallas Goedert didn’t record a catch. D’Andre Swift finished with only two touches. There are enough issues for first-year offensive coordinator Brian Johnson to rectify in a truncated period that he’s likely not sleeping much. And you can be assured Sirianni’s sleep tracker isn’t boasting high numbers.

The defense has its own problems to solve. Linebacker was already a question mark before it was learned Nakobe Dean would miss multiple weeks with a foot injury. How does Zach Cunningham and Christian Elliss sound as the Eagles’ only two healthy linebackers? (Nicholas Morrow will likely be elevated from the practice squad.) The Eagles are still trying to figure out their best option at safety next to Reed Blankenship. And James Bradberry is in the concussion protocol, which makes it unlikely he will receive clearance in time for Thursday.

So there’s no reason to feel comfortable. As Kelce explained, maybe a little anxiety is for the best.