Expectations are sky high around the Eagles right now. They are the favorite to win the division. They are viewed as being capable of being the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They are being picked by some to win the Super Bowl.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Eagles center Jason Kelce gave a strong message about expectations and the risk of getting too comfortable.
Kelce’s message started when he was asked whether he thought Nick Sirianni seemed more comfortable in his second year as head coach.
“Yeah I mean probably a little bit. I think that is going to happen regardless anytime somebody is going into a second year with the city, the team, the building. You are going to have that level of comfort go up,” Kelce said. “But to be honest, I don’t like comfort. I think comfort is a f***ing terrible place to be if you are in this league…I know everybody expects us to be Super Bowl champions in Philadelphia right now and I think that can definitely happen but it isn’t going to happen being comfortable I can guarantee you that. It is going to happen respecting your opponents, it is going to happen respecting the game and understanding if you don’t go out there and f**ing work every single day, if you don’t go out there with the mindset that there are things we need to work on and improve on even single day, you don’t get to that mindset being comfortable. So I hope he is not comfortable. I hope he is very uncomfortable.”
Kelce was not taking a shot at Sirianni, but his message seem to be a warning to the entire building about the work needed to succeed this season. Kelce went on to talk about needing to guard against the complacency that can come with the praise the Eagles are already getting despite not yet playing a single game.
“I think when the expectations are high you tend to let little things go. After a win the tape gets assessed differently. After a loss the tape gets critical very, very much because people start feeling it. You have to improve everything when you lose. After a win it is like ‘Eh well was that a bad play, it was 50/50, eh.’ It goes a little bit by the wayside,” Kelce said. “I think when you are expected to do well organizationally, player wise, team wise, coaching wise, all of those little things start to be like ‘Eh, we’ll get that fixed.’ As opposed to when the expectations are low it is ‘We have to fix everything right f***ing now otherwise we are getting fired. Otherwise people are going to be on the streets.’ I think we have enough older guys around this building. I think we have enough executives, coaches or players to understand that expectations are just that — they are fuc***g nothing. And we have to go out there and play. We have to go out there and the moment you are comfortable in this league somebody is coming for you. We got Mr. T in Rocky 3. He is going to be hunting us every single week. We haven’t won f***ing nothing yet. We aren’t even the champion. So we better work our asses off.”
Kelce said that he hasn’t conveyed this message to the team in a group setting yet. When Kelce speaks, however, everyone in the Eagles building listens — and there is no question that his words from Wednesday are going to reach the coaches and players in the building.