Finally the Gold Standard or Fool’s Gold? Former Eagles Executive Sounds Off

It’s a phrase Philadelphia Eagles fans and talking heads have thrown back in the face of the franchise with derision since owner Jeffrey Lurie uttered the now infamous words on August 7, 2003: gold standard.

“When I’m talking to other owners or other GMs in the league, we’re kind of the gold standard,” Lurie said at that 2003 press conference, according to Les Bowen, then with Daily News. “The goal is to win championships and do it with class.”

The Eagles would go on to lose their third consecutive NFC Championship Game that season, then fall in the Super Bowl in 2004. After that, they’d finish below .500 in six of the next 12 seasons. If the goal was to win championships with class, obviously they weren’t getting it done.

Along the way, team president Joe Banner – largely seen as a symbol of the “gold standard” approach – was ousted in 2012. Now, just over 10 years later, the Eagles have had their elusive first Lombardi Trophy for almost five years, and there’s a case to be made that they’re finally the NFL’s gold standard.

The Eagles are the NFL’s last undefeated team at 6-0, and one of the odds-on Super Bowl favorites. They’ve got a young, 24-year-old quarterback who’s near the top of the league in most of the important metrics in Jalen Hurts. They’re sitting on two first round picks in the next draft, one of which currently projects as the fourth overall pick, according to Tankathon.

The following year they’ve got an extra second round pick and an extra mid-round pick.

So, are they finally the gold standard? Banner was asked just that by Heavy NFL insider Matt Lombardo on The Matt Lombardo Show.

“I just want you to know my blood pressure immediately escalates when I hear that phrase, that’s a long history,” Banner said with a laugh. “Listen I think they’re one of the relatively small group of teams that really seem to understand how you separate yourself from the pack, and they stick to what they believe in, they don’t rationalize, they don’t deviate.”

And what do they believe in? One could easily argue their beliefs are the formula for the elusive gold standard.

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Eagles Play the Long Game

The infamous “gold standard,” line got all the press, but it’s a barely remembered quote that came later in Lurie’s 2003 press conference that perhaps should have been remembered.

“If you allocate [the cap money] with what you think is popular, then you’re going to find yourself in last place consistently,” Lurie said, per the Daily News. “You’ve got to allocate it on how the coaches and the player-personnel people view the tapes and production and chemistry and everything that goes into it.”

There are two interpretations of this quote, and both apply. One will come up later, but the first is that the Eagles are rarely going to make moves that prioritize the short-term at the expense of the franchise’s future. They operate with patience, often stockpiling future draft capital, and rarely overpaying for free agents.

“They’re not all-in in any given year, they’re trying to run it in a way that it’s not going to be a big roller coaster ride of ups and downs,” Banner told Lombardo. “I think every team in the league should be copying that model and frankly there’s only about six or eight teams that consistently have real conviction and stick to it and and have a smart conviction, which is what they have.”

Lurie also evaluates his front office and coaching staff based on the long-term outlook, not short term successes or failures that often involve a lot of luck. For the front office, that can be as complex of analyzing all of their draft evaluations instead of just their actual draft picks, or all of their scouting reports instead of just the ones on free agents they signed. For coaches, it means looking at multiple years at a time.

“With a coach, and almost any key executive, it’s important to really carefully evaluate and analyze,” Lurie explained after firing Chip Kelly in 2015, according to Philly Magazine. “Not to be impatient, not to react to a series of games. So every season I have to carefully look over everything, and this was really a three-year evaluation. A three-year evaluation of where we’re heading, what is the trajectory, what is the progress or lack thereof, and what did I anticipate for the foreseeable future. And that’s why the decision was made.”

That approach keeps the Eagles from letting short-term results and good or bad luck weigh too heavily in their decision making. It also means that Lurie bases decisions off of deep dives into data and information, not on the latest hot takes among the fans or media.

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Eagles Believe They Need a Great Quarterback

According to Banner, much of the Eagles approach to building a team starts with a belief in needing a great quarterback. Banner believes that while every team says they value the position, the Eagles actions speak louder than words.

When you look at the starting quarterbacks the Eagles have had over the last 24 years and compare that to most other franchises, it’s easy to see a difference.

While there have been a few other names along the way, since Donovan McNabb took over in 1999, the Eagles have primarily been quarterbacked by McNabb, Michael Vick, Nick Foles, Carson Wentz, and Jalen Hurts.

Of the 370 games in that stretch, those five started 309 or nearly 84%, according to StatHead. Quite a few of the others were backups getting spot starts due to injury or meaningless late season games. The Eagles rarely miss on their quarterback evaluations, and when they do, they move on quickly.

They’ve also made a habit out of having better than average backup quarterbacks, and drafting and developing backups behind their starter, often later trading them for draft capital.

Two principles seem to be working for the Eagles. First, they always go out and get a starter they truly believe in – even if that means paying to trade up to draft a player like McNabb or Wentz. You won’t see the Eagles trying to make-do with an average level quarterback.

The Eagles have also followed a principle of being willing to bring in a talented backup behind a seemingly entrenched starter. That gave them Foles, Vick, and Hurts.

It’s also worth noting that the franchise has also done a good job of scouting and developing quarterback talent. That’s surely not a coincidence – the Eagles almost certainly place a premium on the scouts and coaches who focus on the position.

All that said, the career trajectory of Jalen Hurts will go a long way into determining whether or not the Eagles are, in fact, the gold standard of the NFL over the coming years. If Hurts continues to play anywhere near the level he’s played at this season, the sky is the limit for him and the Eagles.

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Eagles Prioritize Winning in the Trenches

This is the other “unpopular” thing the Eagles do, in alignment with the Lurie quote above. When it comes to the draft and free agency, the fans and media want skill position players. They’re exciting, their highlight packages are fun to watch, and they sell jerseys and tickets.

The Eagles don’t care, because they want to win and they believe another position is far more important.

“The other thing they’ve done is they’ve prioritized their lines, they know that if you have a good quarterback and you can dominate the lines, you’re already going to be a good team,” Banner said. “Now you’ve got to do a few more things to get to great.”

Since Lurie bought the team in May of 1994, the Eagles have made 25 first round selections in the NFL draft. 72% of the time they’ve gone either with a quarterback or a lineman. They’ve selected 10 defensive lineman, six offensive lineman, and two quarterbacks with those picks.

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Eagles Working Towards New ‘Gold Standard’ Since 2017

Since the start of their magical 2017 season, the Eagles are 50-36-1 in the regular season. They’ve posted a winning record in four of the last five years, and appear well on their way to doing so again this season.

They’re 4-3 in the post-season in that stretch, and if they don’t improve those numbers this year it’ll be a surprise and a disappointment.

None of that is quite to the level of being the envy of the league, but only four teams have won more playoff games in that span than the Eagles: the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New England Patriots.

The Patriots and Buccaneers both needed Tom Brady to have their success, and New England certainly doesn’t look like the same franchise post-Brady. Nor do the Buccaneers look like a dominant franchise with Brady nearing the end of his career.

The Rams were built to win immediately, and do not appear poised for a long window of success with an aging and expensive roster.

That leaves the Chiefs, who were coincidentally built by former Eagles head coach Andy Reid – an iconic part of the Eagles first run at being the gold standard. They’re built in a similar way. There are also teams on the rise, like the Buffalo Bills, and those that are well-run, like the San Francisco 49ers.

Only time will tell who emerges as the dominant franchise of the next decade, but it appears nobody is better positioned than the Eagles.

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