The Eagles are the best team in the NFC. No one should expect them to return to the Super Bowl.

The losing team’s locker room after a championship game is the loneliest place in sports, so State Farm Stadium’s, in the hours following Super Bowl LVII, was full and somehow still empty.

As media members in the room asked their questions in low voices, the Eagles’ players dressed and tried to reconcile the months of terrific football that had earned them the right to play in the big game with the mistakes they made once they got there. The Kansas City Chiefs had beaten them, 38-35, but there had been plenty of game-changing moments — a turnover from the otherwise-brilliant Jalen Hurts, a few defensive breakdowns — that the Chiefs did not inflict upon the Eagles but that the Eagles had inflicted upon themselves.

“On an individual level,” defensive end Josh Sweat said, shaking his head throughout his answer, “you’ve just got to take it into the offseason. … We just did uncharacteristic things, man. We didn’t play together. I don’t know, man. I don’t know.”

In the trite, Hollywood-movie version of what happens next, the memory, the lingering pain, of that heartbreaking loss inspires the Eagles throughout the 2023 season. Whenever the going gets tough, they will think of 38-35, and the thought will propel them to victory. Whenever the chips are down, Hurts will remind his teammates about 38-35, and they will rise to the occasion.

If you’ve paid even passing attention to any coverage of professional sports, you know very well that, sometime after the Eagles report for training camp Tuesday, someone will ask Hurts or Jason Kelce or Brandon Graham just how much 38-35 is motivating the players this season. And you know very well that whatever player gets asked that question is likely to say, It motivates us a lot. We got close. We got a taste. Now we want that ring.

And in this trite, Hollywood-movie version of what happens next, the Eagles get there. Of course they get there. They get back to the Super Bowl, and they get that ring. And the best part of this prospective narrative is that the Eagles don’t have to be underdogs in it, because they aren’t underdogs. They are, on paper, the best team in the NFC. They have, in Hurts, the best quarterback in the NFC. They are the betting favorite to represent the conference in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Feb. 11.

» READ MORE: ESPN host says Jalen Hurts is the NFL’s ‘most disrespected player’ — but the rankings say otherwise

The team that is regarded as their primary challenger in the conference, the 49ers, has as its starting quarterback a seventh-round draft pick who is coming off reconstructive elbow surgery (courtesy of the Eagles’ Haason Reddick). The team that is regarded as their primary challenger in their division, the Cowboys, has as their head coach a guy who has won one playoff game in three years and who lost six of his last 10 postseason games with the Packers — with Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback.

So yeah, expectations for the 2023 Eagles are stratospheric. Everyone knows it, and just about everyone thinks they’re going to be great. I don’t. Like the fast-talking real-estate salesman Ricky Roma, I subscribe to the law of contrary public opinion. If everyone thinks one thing, then I say bet the other way. In this case, the other way is this: The Eagles will be very good. And very disappointing.

» READ MORE: Eagles training camp: Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and other issues that could sabotage the 2023 season

That prediction sounds like a contradiction. It’s not. It’s a reflection of the reality of and around the Eagles.

Just three NFL teams have won a Super Bowl after losing one the year before, and only one of them, the 2018-19 New England Patriots, has accomplished that feat in the last half-century. There’s a reason that trite, Hollywood-style narrative plays out so rarely: No matter how talented and deep a team might be, it’s exhausting to come that close to winning everything and fall short. It’s difficult enough to produce the outstanding performances and enjoy the good fortune that make one Super Bowl run possible. Matching or improving on them is inherently harder.

Why? Because there is a greater chance for imperfections or bad luck or runoff, and the effects of those flaws tend to magnify over time. Think Dr. Ian Malcolm’s “chaos theory” in Jurassic Park.

Kelce, Graham, Lane Johnson, and Fletcher Cox are a year older. Will A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith continue holding their tongues about who’s getting the ball and how frequently they’re getting it? Will Reddick rack up 19 sacks again? Brian Johnson and Sean Desai have one season worth of NFL coordinating experience between them. Isaac Seumalo and Javon Hargrave will not be easily replaced.

The most imposing obstacle, though, promises to be not who is or isn’t playing for the Eagles but who will be playing against them. Last season, against the three best quarterbacks they faced, the Eagles benefited from some favorable conditions. Trevor Lawrence committed five turnovers amid a rainstorm at Lincoln Financial Field. Rodgers left the Eagles’ 40-33 victory over the Packers early because of an injury. Dak Prescott missed the first Eagles-Cowboys game.

This regular season promises to be something different, a true gauntlet: Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs; Rodgers and the Jets; Josh Allen and the Bills; Prescott (twice, one would assume) and the Cowboys; Matthew Stafford and the Rams; Geno Smith and the Seahawks; Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins; Kirk Cousins and the Vikings; the 49ers, who might have figured out their QB situation by the time they come here in early December.

With that schedule, the Eagles could be just as good this season as they were last season … and have a worse record. They could finish 12-5 or 11-6 and have fans and media asking themselves, What the hell is wrong with this team? Given these circumstances, if the Eagles merely return to the Super Bowl, never mind win it, it would be as great an achievement as any in their history. Set your standards and expectations accordingly.