Lurie downplays Eagles as 'dream team'

BETHLEHEM - Eagles owner Jeff Lurie held his annual training camp state-of-the-team address yesterday, and boy, I gotta tell you, things don't look good for the home squad.

Forget all of this "dream team" talk, people. Forget all of this nonsense about them being the "team to beat" in the NFC. After listening to the Debbie Downer poormouth his football team for nearly a half-hour, I walked away wondering if they'll even win a game this year.

"As I look at the NFC, I laugh when people say, 'Are you the favorite?' " Lurie said. "Let's cut to reality. You've got Atlanta coming off the best record in the NFC. Terrific young quarterback in Matt Ryan. They've added Julio Jones and all those guys. They're loaded.

"New Orleans, great offseason, coming off a Super Bowl win 2 years ago. Spectacular quarterback in Drew Brees. They add [draft picks Mark] Ingram and Cam Jordan. Loaded for bear.

"Green Bay is going to get all of those star players back that were injured last year, with a quarterback that's off the charts. Then you've got a potential superstar quarterback in St. Louis [Sam Bradford], who could be as good as any of those guys.

"Not to mention the fact that going into last year, everybody said Dallas was the best team in the conference. And you've got the Giants, who manhandled us in the Meadowlands in the most important game of the year.

"That's how I see it when I go to bed at night. I see it as an extremely competitive NFC. I'm sure there'll be some surprise teams I didn't even mention. That's the dose of reality I have."

Lurie's comments were not unexpected. He was just trying to calm the waters in the wake of Vince Young's asinine "dream team" comment last week, and Jason Babin's equally asinine, "I feel like we are the Miami Heat of the NFL . . . except we win the final game" tweet that have prompted every dot.com and newspaper that still has a few bucks left in its travel kitty to send somebody up to Lehigh to chronicle the NFL's Next Great Team.

Like swallows to Capistrano and fat guys to Golden Corral, many of the league's top free agents have flocked here to join Andy Reid's never-ending quest for the Lombardi Trophy. And while this impressive influx of talent probably does make the Eagles the team to beat in the NFC right now, Lurie knows it's way too early for either he or his players to start going all Rex Ryan on people.