Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles appear to have started a new era with the same old people at the top. With the likely departure of David Akers and Quintin Mikell this offseason, there will be no members of the 2004 squad that made it to the Superbowl left in Philadelphia. The one guy who has survived that stretch is head coach Andy Reid. It's almost unprecedented in today's NFL for a coach to be able to do what Reid has done. He built up the team from nothing, made it into a contender, fell short for a four years and then began to completely tear it down to start again. Amazingly, he's been able to do so while also still making the playoffs with regularity.

When next year begins, it will be likely that the Philadelphia Eagles will only have about four positions players that are 30 years old or over. Reid has completely built a new core, which began to pay off last year by reclaiming the NFC East title. They did fall short in the first round of the playoffs against the eventual champions, Green Bay, but the general feeling around the Eagles has remained positive. People in Philadelphia see them as a team on the way up and seem willing to to not panic over the mythical "window closing" as so many did during Donovan McNabb's tenure. That said, after last year, the expectations have started to ratchet up.

Much of that is due to the breakout of Michael Vick, which no one, Reid included, probably could have seen. While there's no doubt that the team needs to improve on defense and they could get better offensive line play. Vick probably remains the #1 question surrounding the team. Not because there's any good reason to think that Vick couldn't pick up where he left off, but just because it was so unexpected to see him play the way he did, it's just not something people are used to yet. If he starts off next year like he last year, the expectations for the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles squad will go through the roof.