Grantland: Eagles could win Super Bowl or go 5-11

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Perhaps the most exciting thing about this time of year is hope. Football fans all across the Delaware Valley feel hope heading into the 2015 NFL regular season.

We all hope for the best from the new batch of guys Chip Kelly has assembled by way of a dramatic overhaul. We all hope Sam Bradford can stay healthy and live up to the hype associated with him back when he was selected No. 1 overall. There's great promise at many positions, lack of depth at others, and a couple of new guys who most expect really big things out of.

Hope is a beautiful thing on September 8th. But nobody really knows how things will go for the Birds in 2015. 

But, as they say, that's why they play the games.

Putting hope aside for a moment, even many of the more logical fans expect the Eagles to be pretty good in 2015. Perhaps even as good as 12-4 and a trip to the NFC Championship game

Based on nothing more than general feeling, I'd guess most Eagles fans expect progress in 2015. That Chip will take this team to greater heights this season.

But some experts don't.

Bill Barnwell, a writer for Grantland typically viewed as very astute in his analysis, somewhat surprisingly picked the Eagles as one of eight teams to see a decline from 2014 to 2015.

That said, his "best case" for the Birds looks pretty chipper:

Best-Case Scenario: The maybes in the previous paragraph actually occur, the Eagles win 14 games, Sam Bradford wins comeback player of the year, Chip Kelly wins coach of the year, the Eagles win the Super Bowl. No big deal.

The worst, not so much.

Worst-Case Scenario: All the injury-prone guys get hurt, Maxwell is a bust when he’s not surrounded by the Legion of Boom, the offensive line disappoints, the wideouts don’t break out, the Eagles go 5-11, Kelly goes back to a college gig. No big deal.

Isn't that why we love football so much? As of today, even the smartest football minds think the Eagles could either win the Super Bowl or see an injury deluge that could sweep them into the top of the 2016 NFL Draft.

Grantland's nerdy cousins over at FiveThirtyEight like the Birds to win the NFC East. Nerds are smart.

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