There was not a single skeptic in the Eagles' dressing room after that game ended. There was disappointment, yes, but there also was a future that stretched ahead forever. Everyone could see it. No one doubted it. A few caveats were thrown in, for sure - you never know, the league is unpredictable, nothing is guaranteed, injuries, whatever - but that was NFL/CYA boilerplate and nothing more. No one really believed it. Caveats were for chumps that day.
Why? Because the Eagles' 22 regular starters that season combined for only 104 years of NFL experience. They were so young.
The Eagles are about to embark upon their sixth season since then, beginning with tomorrow's annual draft. There will be no predictions here about whom the Eagles are going to select. The biggest question any of us should have at this time of year is why they have not yet introduced a line of NFL Mock Draft toilet paper, so as to turn this nonsense into at least a marginal benefit for society. But that isn't the point here.
It is just this: that the Eagles are not a young team anymore and you still cannot say that they are likely to draft a player who will come in and start for them this season.
The Eagles are older, especially on defense. There is really no getting around that anymore. They are much older than they were that day in St. Louis. They are measurably older than any of the last three teams that won Super Bowls, as well as the team they themselves took to Jacksonville for Super Bowl XXXIX. The numbers are the numbers.
Yet they cannot get as many of their kids on the field as you might expect. They say they like offensive lineman Winston Justice and running back Ryan Moats but they can't get them near the field. They had a world of hope for first-round defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley last season, at a position of real need, yet they could barely play him at all.
