Finality. That’s the feel of days like Wednesday, when players meet for the last time as members of the 2023 Philadelphia Eagles and clean out their lockers, filling trash bags with personal belongings, take their exit physicals, sit down with coaches, and exchange handshakes and hugs with their teammates.
“It’s a terrible feeling now that it’s over. We didn’t play up to our standards and our expectations and this isn’t any fun at all,” said defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, who finished his 12th season as an Eagle.
Cox, one of more than a dozen players whose contracts will expire in March, said he’s still processing the emotions of the season, which ended on Monday night in the Wild Card Playoff round at Tampa Bay. Center Jason Kelce didn’t take questions about his future, instead reflecting on what went wrong in a season that started so right.
A 10-1 opening to the year melted in the end as the Eagles lost 5 of their final 6 regular-season games before stumbling in Tampa.
“Obviously, a very disappointing season. Whenever you get to this day, you’re having exit meetings, you’re talking a lot about ideas that could have, if the outcome was different, improved performances, fixed the offense, and you’re having a lot of those discussions,” Kelce said. “Obviously, it’s a very underperforming season for us as a whole that didn’t live up to the potential that we think that we had. It’s a frustrating close on what was a probably even more frustrating season.”
On this day, players headed off to their private destinations for some rest and relaxation before working on 2024. The goal is to return bigger, faster, and stronger for every player.
“Staying healthy, that’s the key to this game,” safety Reed Blankenship said. “We had so many injuries in the secondary. Guys in and out. It’s hard to establish consistency when that’s happening.”
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