Philadelphia Eagles players such as quarterback Jalen Hurts and linebacker Nakobe Dean previously mentioned how head coach Nick Sirianni, offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio “took their share of responsibility for the uneven start” after the Eagles entered their Week 5 bye at 2-2. 

Following the Eagles’ 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX on Sunday night, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated touched upon how Sirianni and his staff turned what was a .500 team into a side that won 16 of 17 games through Sunday’s action. 

“That week,” Breer explained, “Sirianni challenged his coaches and players to look hard in the mirror. …Moore used the bye week to watch the previous two years of Jalen Hurts’ tape, both with his offensive staff and with Hurts, himself. The quarterback was coming in on his time off, and the two talked every day of that week, after the rest of the players were cut loose for the break, to bounce ideas off each other. Fangio, in his words, ‘kind of figured out what the best style is for our guys, and we played to that style.’” 

Philadelphia was unquestionably the NFL’s best team from Week 6 through the Super Bowl. Running back Saquon Barkley ended Week 18 with a league-best 2,283 yards from scrimmage en route to becoming the Offensive Player of the Year, and ESPN stats show that Philadelphia finished the regular season with the NFL’s No. 1 defense in yards allowed per game (278.4) and No. 2 defense in points allowed per contest (17.8). 

Meanwhile, Hurts saved arguably his best football for the final two games of the postseason tournament. He earned Super Bowl Most Valuable Player honors after he became the first quarterback since Joe Montana (Super Bowl XIX in 1985) to record two-plus passing touchdowns, 50-plus rushing yards and a rushing score in a Super Bowl.

“Everybody wants to look at the bye week,” Fangio told Breer after Sunday’s win. “We didn’t even practice. We didn’t meet the whole bye week. It sounds good, but…nothing to it.”

That “nothing” resulted in Sirianni saving his job and could prove to be the start of the Eagles becoming the league’s next dynasty. In short, the break from this past fall could go down as the most important bye week in the history of the franchise.