The Philadelphia Eagles are one of the most successful franchises in the NFL during Jeffrey Lurie’s tenure as team owner. Lurie bought the team in 1994 and has since won 11 division titles, won 19 playoff titles, traveled four times to the Super Bowl, and won two championships, including this season.
Over this recent decade from General Manager Howie Roseman Re-Took Control of the Front Office, the Eagles have been even more successful. Since 2017, the Eagles have made the playoffs in seven of their eight seasons, going three Super Bowls and won two. They are model NFL franchises by all accounts and essentially continue throughout the entire time he owns the team.
And Lurie’s business sense is a big part of the team’s success. The willingness to spend money ahead of time signing bonuses and optional bonuses helped run the team in a way that allowed Roseman to become more active in adding talent. And that’s because Lurie’s business sense is more about soccer than money.
“You’re obviously trying to run a healthy business, but I think your success is determined by success on the field and success in the community,” Lurie said via Sports Illustrated. “And whatever you can do to maximize these two, the value of your team will be appreciated more than anything, depending on your performance and reputation in the community. Or three or four.
“There’s a reason we just sold limited partnerships at the best prices in sports history. It’s not based on being the most profitable team. It’s about performance and community reputation over time, and we It is based on a prediction of where it is. I hope we can maintain it in the next few years. “
Lurie realizes that it’s very obvious. The real value of owning an NFL team lies in the franchise’s evaluation, not the annual profit. And the more successful a team, the more star players on the roster, the more ratings the franchise will be.
By willing to run from that perspective, the Eagles can make difficult roster decisions, both financially and personally.
“It’s been realising when you maximize your roster and understand what you’re going to do, what you need to do, either get market value or plan (their departure). I did,” Lurie said. “All of these are potentially unpopular decisions. So, for me, I really, philosophically, you believe you do what you think is not something popular but something that correlates with a big victory.”
Lurie’s willingness to spend frontline cash means they don’t worry about things like dead money in the book. Philly paid more than $63 million in deaths in 2024, according to Spotrac, but still spent the fifth most active cash in the league with more than $255 million. And they said, “We’re paying James Bradbury and Bryce Huff and paying a lot (insert player X here), so they have to get a lot of play time.” I’m not worried about things like that. They cut players and deactivate him in the biggest matches of the season.
Ownership is the sport’s biggest competitive advantage, and the reason why Lurie has one of the long-term motivations.
