The Philadelphia Eagles trounced the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, securing their second championship in franchise history. The lopsided game was over by halftime, as Philadelphia dominated Kansas City in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was visibly rattled early, and the entire offense looked ready to quit by the third quarter. When Mahomes wasn’t missing easy reads, he was missing easy throws. When he wasn’t missing easy throws, he was being harassed by Philadelphia’s defensive front.
While many of Philadelphia’s core players will return for the 2025 season, the defensive line that pummeled Kansas City has already undergone significant changes. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman will have to rebuild the defensive front this offseason after defensive tackle Milton Williams and defensive end Josh Sweat signed elsewhere in free agency. Along with longtime Eagles’ defensive end Brandon Graham’s retirement, those losses have left significant holes on the depth chart.
Eagles could pour salt in Chiefs’ wound with recent signing
The Eagles began to restock their defensive front by signing outside linebacker Joshua Uche to a one-year deal on Thursday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Kansas City’s humiliating Super Bowl loss will already be difficult to cope with, but the Eagles could pour salt in the wound if Uche thrives in Philadelphia.
Uche was selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, but he was traded to Kansas City in exchange for a sixth-round pick last October. The deal didn’t work out well for the Chiefs, as Uche was inactive four times during the regular season and did not play a single snap during the postseason. He played just 87 snaps in the regular season after the trade, and over half of those came when Kansas City rested their starters in Week 18.
The deal didn’t make too much sense to begin with. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has primarily relied on a 4-3 base defense, which primarily generates edge pressure with defensive ends instead of outside linebackers. He could prove to be a better fit in Philadelphia’s scheme under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who has a history of utilizing outside linebackers in a 3-4 front.
If Uche thrives in Philadelphia, his success wouldn’t be entirely unprecedented. The 26-year-old is just two years removed from an 11.5-sack campaign during the 2022 season. He also generated 49 pressures and a career-best pressure rate of 18.5 percent, per NBC Sports Philadelphia.