Sure, there are pretty new banners hanging on the outside of the Linc these days but the confetti is all gone, with each day the parade becomes a more distant memory and the 2017 Eagles are no more.
But there's no time for sentimentality. A team looking back fondly at its first Super Bowl championship won't be looking forward to its next one.
"It's not like we can just bring the band back together and expect the same result," Howie Roseman said to reporters a couple weeks ago at the Combine.
When Roseman spoke in Indy, it seemed like he had already moved on from the first championship in team history. He seemingly lamented the fact that the deep playoff run allowed other teams to get a head start, saying if they didn't get to work, they were "going to get (their) butt kicked."
Roseman pulled off a trade this week to bring in Pro Bowl defensive lineman Michael Bennett. He added a Pro Bowler to what was already one of the best defensive lines in football. It was a good move; it won't be enough. And with free agency and the draft rapidly approaching, Roseman is far from done.
A quick spin around the NFC shows why the Eagles can't afford to sit on their hands and expect that returning most of their 2017 team will be good enough to compete for the title next season. On Thursday night, the Rams pulled off their fourth trade before trades can even become official on March 14. This time, they brought in veteran cornerback Aqib Talib from Denver for a fifth-round pick. Talib will join forces with also-recently-acquired Marcus Peters to form a formidable cornerback duo.
Some of my Twitter conversation on Thursday night with various Eagles fans devolved into them telling me they aren't worried about Talib because, after all, he's not that good anymore anyway. Didn't you see what the Eagles did to him last year? They picked on him. Well, sure, but that's not really the point. The point is that the Rams were a playoff team last year and they're trying to get better. Everyone is now gunning for the Birds.
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That includes the Giants, who traded for linebacker Alec Ogletree and will have the No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft.
And when free agency kicks off next week, the Vikings will be overwhelming favorites to land Kirk Cousins, a move that should (greatly?) improve last year's No. 2 seed in the NFC.
Unlike some other teams, the Eagles don't have any salary cap room and have a dearth of draft picks, so they'll have to get a little creative this offseason. They'll have to find a way.
The Eagles can't sit on their hands because other good teams are getting better and it's not easy to stay on top.
