EAGLEMANIACAL.com

SOMEBODY (Jeffery Lurie) has to come out and declare the floor for this season. The goal is always a Super Bowl, but we’re a rebuilding team coming off of two straight 7-9 seasons. A championship would be nice, but realistically speaking, it would be an unfair expectation to have at this moment.

Still, some sort of benchmark must be set for this season. Otherwise it will leave the issue of our success or failure open to interpretation, and that can’t happen. There needs to be a clear indicator that we’re a better team than we were a year ago, so that the Front Office, coaching staff, and players all have an idea of what to build on and what to cut away.

Nine wins (at a minimum) would be a great indicator. Having just been 7-9 (sub .500), the knee jerk reaction is that 8-8 (.500) is the next step up. You know what? Maybe eight wins is the next step up. Maybe it is. But we aren’t talking about taking a step, we’re talking about a turnaround.

We’ve been losers for two years now. (Don’t argue with me. Being sub .500 is losing.) The idea is to show that we’re done with being losers, and are now winners. The best way to show that you’re a winner, is to go out there and be a winner. So a 9-7 (winning record) not an 8-8 (tied record), is the logical the benchmark.

Make no mistake, going from being a loser to being a winner requires fundamental changes. In the event that we don’t see 9 wins, we will know that enough hasn’t fundamentally changed from our 7-9 season two years ago. The changes have to be fundamental not merely statistical.

The last thing we need is to go 7-9 again, with people saying we’re better now because QB Carson Wentz‘s TD/Int ratio went from 16/14 to 26/12, or because the Defense amassed 48 sacks over last year’s 34. Better cannot be measured increments for a team serious about winning a championship.

We need a turnaround, not a step up. We need at least 9 wins, not 8. We need winning, not tied. We need that benchmark.