Jake Delhomme isn’t walking through that door. Previous lessons give Eagles a big edge vs. Commanders

One of the great thrills as a writer is the thought that you might write a sentence that will never be written again.

So, here goes.

I’m going to say a few words about Jake Delhomme.

In a lot of ways, he was the quintessential early-2000s quarterback, a perfectly mediocre thrower of the football in an era when such a thing could win a lot of games. From 2003 to 2008, only five quarterbacks in the NFL won more starts than Delhomme did. Four of them are current or future Hall of Famers: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, and Ben Roethlisberger. The fifth is Donovan McNabb. Which is the reason we are going to talk about Delhomme.

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Twenty-one years ago, McNabb and the Eagles won a playoff game that had some similarities to the one we witnessed on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The weather was a factor, with a game-time temperature of 25 degrees and a 13 mph wind that left the real feel in the low teens. The game itself was an epic. The Eagles battled back from a 14-0 deficit and eventually tied the score on a last-second field goal by David Akers after McNabb’s wild fourth-and-26 completion to Freddie Mitchell. Like Sunday’s win over the Rams, the Eagles’ overtime divisional-round win over the Green Bay Packers in January 2004 was one of the better playoff games you’ll see.

What really felt familiar was the aftermath. See, earlier in the day, Delhomme and the Carolina Panthers had walked into St. Louis as seven-point underdogs and walked out with a 29-23 win over the Greatest Show on Turf-era Rams. In doing so, they’d eliminated the team that most people felt was the biggest obstacle between the Eagles and a berth in the Super Bowl. The top four seeds in that year’s playoffs featured McNabb, a couple of Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Favre and Kurt Warner), and Delhomme. In beating Favre and the Packers, the Eagles had already passed their boss stage.

The NFC championship felt more like a victory lap. The Panthers were your classic third or fourth division champ. Adequate offense. Solid defense, but outside the top five in practically every major category. Hardly a team to fear.

Or, so we thought.

In hindsight, the Panthers probably were better than anybody realized at the time. Julius Peppers and Steve Smith went on to have Hall of Fame careers. (Peppers is already in, Smith was a finalist this year.) Defensive tackle Kris Jenkins retired with three All-Pro nods. The Panthers gave the New England Patriots a heck of a test in the Super Bowl, tying the game with 1 minute, 8 seconds left only to watch Brady march 37 yards down the field to set up a game-winning field goal in the closing seconds.

At the time, though?

The Super Bowl sure felt like a formality for the Eagles, same as it does this season with the sixth-seeded Commanders heading to Lincoln Financial Field as six-point underdogs in the NFC championship game.

» READ MORE: No question Eagles are NFC’s most talented team, at every position except one (or two).

But here’s the thing. Even after that dramatic retelling of the classic case study in chicken-counting, I still can’t envision a scenario in which the Eagles lose this game. Jalen Hurts and Quinyon Mitchell. Those are the only two variables, apart from the inherent randomness of playoff football (fumbles, injuries, officiating). As long as Mitchell and Hurts are healthy, the Eagles will have an overwhelming advantage.

I know, I know. Everyone always says that this time is different. Well, sometimes it really is. More accurately, they are different. The Eagles, I mean.

A lot of credit goes to Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie. Over the years, I’ve been critical of the lack of continuity in the organization in personnel and coaching, particularly on the defensive side of the football. So it’s interesting that, when I look at this roster, I see a lot that hearkens back to the early years of the Roseman-Lurie partnership. Really, I see a culmination of all of the lessons that the last 20 years have revealed.

The biggest lesson imparted by the three straight NFC championship game losses between 2001 and 2003 was the value that an elite receiving corps can have on a team with a young, imperfect quarterback. A.J. Brown is here because Terrell Owens or someone similar wasn’t there in 2003.

Another big lesson: There is no shame — or competitive disadvantage — in leaning on a power running game. Especially when you have a dominant offensive line and a very good defense. Andy Reid himself has learned that lesson. Fun fact: Reid called more run plays this season than in any previous season as a head coach. That’s partly because of the 17-game season, but only partly. On a per-game basis, the Chiefs ran the ball more this season than they have at any point in the Patrick Mahomes era. And their 3,780 passing yards are the fewest by far.

The Chiefs don’t have a dominant offensive line. Neither did the Eagles back in 2003. As good as Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan were, they never reached the level of Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata. And there is no comparison between the interior of the line now vs. then. The Eagles would not be where they are right now without Saquon Barkley. And Barkley would not be where he is right now if Roseman had not recognized the optimal identity for this offense.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Commanders matchups: Two Eagles game-changers have an edge. Will they be the difference?

Apart from those two philosophical shifts, the Eagles of 2024 are remarkably similar to the Eagles of 2003.

2024: Two rookie cornerbacks, a first-rounder and a second-rounder, who look like surefire franchise cornerstones (Mitchell, Cooper DeJean). A veteran former All-Pro still playing at a high level (Darius Slay). A top-10 pick at defensive tackle (Jalen Carter), an excellent gap-plugger in Jordan Davis, plus solid rotational pieces along the defensive line. A veteran defensive coordinator (Vic Fangio). A homegrown second-round pick at tight end (Dallas Goedert). Significant investment in the offensive line.

2003: Two second-year cornerbacks, a first-rounder and a second-rounder, who turned out to be surefire franchise cornerstones (Lito Sheppard, Sheldon Brown). Two veteran former All-Pros still playing at a high level (Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor). A top-10 pick at defensive tackle (Corey Simon), plus an excellent gap-plugger in Hollis Thomas, plus solid rotational pieces along the defensive line. A veteran defensive coordinator (Jim Johnson). A homegrown second-round pick at tight end (L.J. Smith). Significant investment on the offensive line.

The reason the 2024 Eagles are much better poised to avoid a letdown is mostly a matter of execution. Simon, the No. 6 overall pick in 2000, was never close to the game-wrecker that Carter is. Zack Baun turned out to be the guy the Eagles hoped Nate Wayne would be. The offensive line is better. Barkley and Brown are X factors on must-have downs.

I’m not saying the Eagles are unbeatable. Like I said before the postseason field was set: The Rams, Tampa Bay Bucs, and Detroit Lions were the three potential opponents to worry about. They presented realistic scenarios in which the Eagles fell short. We saw that with the Rams last week. But, well, all three are gone.

Washington? There is a reason the Commanders are the sixth seed. Sure, they beat the Eagles in Week 16, but they did it at home, against a team that had a banged-up Kenny Pickett at quarterback, and needed 22 fourth-quarter points to do it.

The big difference between the Eagles now vs. 2003 or 2023 or even 2022 is that they are built to win games like this.

They are built that way in large part because of the lessons of years past.