Four Eagles who can find motivation in some recent bulletin board material

There may not be a more loving phrase in the English language than ‘you can do it’. Ask many of the Philadelphia Eagles on the current roster, and they’ll no doubt offer tales of loved ones or past coaches who inspired them. For many, they may not have reached the heights they attained had it not been for a pat on the back.

Studying the alpha male’s psyche for decades has taught us something, and it’s true of competitors in every professional sport. For every person motivated by hearing positive feedback, there’s another fueled by doubts and criticism.

Five Eagles can transform bulletin-board material into unforgettable seasons.

What’s the point? The answer is simple. Some guys are motivated by hearing ‘you can’, and there are others motivated by hearing ‘you can’t…’

Here are a handful of Birds who aren’t strangers to criticism. They have heard it constantly. It’s been heard as recently as these past few months, and they’re more than capable of transforming bulletin board material into breakout or very successful NFL seasons.

Bryce Huff, EDGE

Raise your hand if you sometimes forget Bryce Huff is still on the Eagles’ roster. Yep! That seems to be pretty common. After signing a three-year deal in March 2024, he’s seemingly been given up on by fans, the media, and even important people in the organization.

No one in-house is going to bash him publicly. They’re saying the right things, but what we have seen speaks volumes.

Playing time decreased. He was a healthy scratch during the Super Bowl, and the leadership structure has stocked its cupboard with guys who can rush the passer in the NFL Draft and during free agency. We’re about to learn a lot about Bryce Huff’s intestinal fortitude.

Jalen Hurts, QB

It’s hard to believe the anti-Jalen Hurts agenda is still churning, or is it still churning? Maybe we shouldn’t base an entire theory on the words of Chris Simms and a few other familiar detractors.

Jalen Hurts is a proven winner and one of the best players at his position. Deal with it. There’s another side to the coin, though. It seems nothing he does will ever be good enough.

He’s 46-20 as a starter during the regular season. He has won six of his nine playoff starts. He’s led his team to two Super Bowls and has won one of them.

If that were Trevor Lawrence or Justin Herbert’s resume, we’d be calling them future Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees. While it seems Jalen may never get the credit he deserves, the winning will continue. He’ll continue to feed off the doubters as he has always done.

Nick Sirianni, head coach

Much of what has been said about Jalen can be stated about Nick Sirianni. Philly’s head coach has constructed one heck of a football team since that flower speech.

If the most significant criticism of Coach Sirianni is that he’s emotional, something tells us the Birds can live with that. So, Nick Wright can leave him off his rankings of the top NFL head coaches. The Eagles know what they have, even if no one else does.

No one could fake it, live off the efforts of others, or hide behind the ‘CEO head coach’ moniker and keep doing what Sirianni does if he weren’t a special type of leader.

Nolan Smith, EDGE

Hours after reading Pro Football Focus’s ranking of the NFL’s top edge rushers, Nolan Smith’s ranking (28) is still a head-scratcher. How is he ranked so low? He served up 6.5 sacks, 11 additional QB hits, and eight tackles for loss in 16 games with ten starts.

He turned up the volume during the 2025 NFL playoffs, almost equaling his regular season total for sacks (four) and leading all postseason defenders with four tackles for a loss.

28th? Yeah, that sounds very disrespectful and worth a mention to Philly’s budding star as he enters year three as a professional.

His competitive nature has never been questioned, and this seems like a great way to bring more of it out of him.

Jordan Davis, interior defensive lineman

Two months ago, many asked questions about whether or not the Eagles might move off Jordan Davis soon. Arguments were made for why Philly might exercise its fifth-year option on his rookie contract (and why they wouldn’t). Eventually, the Birds decided they would exercise that option, making Davis a free agent in 2027.

Think about all of that for a second. We’re discussing the 13th overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft. A member of the PFWA All-Rookie Team that season, some discredit him due to a lack of splash plays. PFF even left him off its top 25 players under 25 years of age.

That would catch the attention of any young NFL star, and even though Davis hasn’t admitted to such, there is minimal doubt that the slight didn’t catch his eye. Everyone has seen flashes. Here’s a bold prediction. In 2025, Jordan breaks out with a dominant season where he puts it all together to become one of the more feared interior defensive linemen in the league.

This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Placing some recent Eagles criticism on the bulletin board

Four Eagles who can find motivation in some recent bulletin board material

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