Joe Banner

Welcome to the No-Lose Season for Jeffrey Lurie, even though some would portray 2012 as the most perilous for the Eagles' owner in the recent history of the organization. After watching the team fail to win a playoff game for three straight seasons, after betting the limit on quarterback Michael Vick, and after putting the head coach on notice that this is truly a make-or-break situation in his tenure here, Lurie certainly will be watched closely. The television cameras will peer into the luxury suites to catalog every cheer and every grimace.

Jeffrey Lurie set the tenor for this season on Jan. 3, when he offered an honest and chilling appraisal of his team. Lurie called 2011 "without question the most disappointing season since I've owned the team," all the while bringing Andy Reid back as coach and setting up a season in which Lurie shoulders an onus unlike any time in his previous 18 years as Eagles owner. The view from the owner's box has never included such lonely responsibility as it does this season, when Lurie's two-decade obsession with bringing a Super Bowl to Philadelphia approaches its most critical chapter yet. The absence of a Lombardi Trophy in the Eagles' trophy case has become a punch line for the franchise, although the glare often shines brightest on the coach and the quarterback.

When the 2011 season came to a merciful end, owner Jeffrey Lurie made it clear that 8-8 was not an acceptable record for a team with championship aspirations like the Eagles. Then he said Andy Reid would remain as head coach. In case anyone misunderstood, Lurie confirmed his opinion of an 8-8 record on Thursday night during his annual state-of-the-team news conference before the Eagles finished their exhibition season against the Jets. He used that word again: unacceptable. So unacceptable that if it happens again in 2012, the only thing Lurie will be accepting is Reid's resignation.

Coach Andy Reid's Eagles need to improve this season, and a second straight 8-8 finish would be unacceptable, the team's owner, Jeffrey Lurie, said Thursday. Lurie did not quantify how much Reid's team would need to improve this season. But the owner did say several times that another .500 campaign was "unacceptable. " "I don't have a level or anything like that," Lurie said Thursday during his annual state of the Eagles news conference. "I just want to be clear about that. You just try to make the best judgment you can after the season.

JEFFREY LURIE said Thursday he thinks it will be easy, once the season ends, to decide whether to continue with Andy Reid as his coach. "I think it will be very clear," Lurie said. This might have been the most surprising statement from the Eagles' chairman in 39 minutes of discourse over the state of the NFL, the Eagles, and how much Lurie appreciates the fans. (Lots.) In his annual state-of-the-team address, postponed by the Aug. 5 death of Reid's son Garrett, Lurie had a lot of ground to cover, and he covered it - assuring fans he would retain control of the team in the wake of his impending divorce, reflecting on "an offseason like no other," which included the departure of team president Joe Banner.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - They arrived in Lehigh on a July afternoon in 2005, a few months removed from Donovan McNabb's scoring drive in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl and a few weeks away from Terrell Owens' performing crunches for television cameras on his front lawn. They were the new batch of players joining a franchise approaching the apex of the NFL, members of an 11-man draft class on a team that had won four consecutive NFC East titles. After seven completed seasons, Mike Patterson, Todd Herremans, and Trent Cole remain.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Joe Banner has played a significant role with Tennessee businessman Jimmy Haslam's group in its efforts to purchase the Cleveland Browns, an NFL source involved in the negotiations said. Banner's role with the Haslam group if the purchase is finalized has not yet been determined, the source said. But based on Banner's comments last month when he stepped down as Eagles president and said that he wanted to run the day-to-day operations of an NFL team, it is likely he will have a senior position and possibly own a stake in the Browns.

BETHLEHEM — DeSean Jackson will arrive at Lehigh Wednesday with a spring in his step and a smile on his face, which is much different from the way he showed up at training camp last year. Last summer, we got The Unhappy DeSean. The selfish, pouty-faced little child who cared more about getting a new contract from the Eagles than he did about helping them win a Super Bowl. Last summer, we got the DeSean everybody warned us about when he came out of college. Upset over his stalled negotiations with the Eagles, Jackson skipped the first 11 days of training camp.

Is it possible that Andy Reid has less pressure coming off a "completely unacceptable" 2011 - Jeffrey Lurie's words, not ours - than he has in previous years? It would seem unfathomable considering last season's "most disappointing" 8-8 record - again, Lurie's words - if the NFL's longest-tenured active coach did not enter his 14th season without some sort of unspoken ultimatum from the Eagles owner. Such as: Win the Super Bowl or you're fired. Reach the NFC championship or you're fired.

SO, CAN THE Eagles manage the pressure? They didn't last season, after president Joe Banner declared them "all in" and backup quarterback Vince Young anointed them the "Dream Team. " (Notably, both Banner and Young have been relieved of their duties.) So, this year? Probably. Yes. If they do shoulder the pressure - and it will be unmatched - it will be the first time that has happened in Philadelphia in a few years. Not since the Phillies reached the World Series as defending champions in 2009 has a team performed to high expectations.