Exclusive: Chris Long’s Bold Take is Good News for Eagles...

By Jenn McGrawShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

When a Super Bowl champion says “don’t panic,” most people tend to listen.

When that player is a Super Bowl LII champion, you especially listen – that Philadelphia Eagles team knows a thing or two about adversity.

It’s pretty clear that despite the Eagles’ 8-4 record, they’re being seen as a struggling team right now, when the extent of their struggles is really just the way the offense is working.

This should not be a surprise to fans, if anything, it’s a pattern. After the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, they began the next season struggling. Former defensive end Chris Long compared the current 2025 team to the 2018 team.

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“In [2018], we started four and six and we looked a lot worse than this team," he said in an exclusive with Newsweek. "The year we tried to repeat, we ended up within a minute or two of being back in the Super Bowl. We played New Orleans down to the wire on the road.”

The Eagles were one game short of making the NFC Championship Game that year on a 20-14 loss to the New Orleans Saints, but they were never officially down and out during the season.

One concerning comparison is the fact that in that Eagles-Saints divisional game, the Eagles were held to only two touchdowns the entire game – something opponents are more than capable of doing to this current team. Despite those struggles, Long believes the Eagles can get back on track.

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“A lot can change," he stated. "And it is getting late, but the field’s not that great this year. It’s deeper, but there are no super teams. No great teams.”

Long would approach fixing the offense by looking at it as one cohesive unit, like an organism. He thinks the offense is at its peak when everyone is doing their job. He dove into the idea that when the offensive line is healthy and when the quarterback is doing his thing, the team is unstoppable.

He also wishes to see different routes -- something the Eagles have notoriously struggled with. Seeing more creative and action-packed routes he thinks would spark the Eagles to do a little better.

Nonetheless, Long knows adversity all too well and knows the Eagles will really need to put their heads down now and work.

“You kind of rejoined the pack a little bit with some of the better teams in the NFC. It's not going to be easy, but they can do it.” Long said.

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With uncertainty in the Eagles’ playoffs looming, Long reassures fans that the Eagles are really fine, alluding to the idea that they set the standard last season for good football.

“They have not been playing like a good football team, but you have to keep in mind: over the last year, they set a standard that’s really hard to live up to.” Long said. “I would say, for the fans — they’re a good football team. They really are. There's a good football team in there.”

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