Cullen Jenkins: “Dream Team” Label Made It Hard On Philadelphia Eagles
By Mike Dyce
Oct 28, 2012; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins (97) along the sidelines during the first quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field. The Falcons defeated the Eagles 30-17. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
As we all trumpet free agent signings of teams like Kansas City and Miami, it’s important to remember that a promising offseason with big free agents doesn’t always translate into on field success. It was a few years ago we were all shocked at how the Philadelphia Eagles amassed weapons and quickly bestowed the label of “dream team” upon them.
How’d that turn out?
They have the 4th pick in this draft. But Cullen Jenkins told WFAN in New York that the “dream team” label weighed down the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It definitely didn’t help,” Jenkins said, via Sports Radio Interviews. “Any time you put a label on yourself like that, you’re gonna have teams sitting there waiting to pick you off. And everybody’s gonna circle you, mark you on the calendar. And it definitely brought a lot of unnecessary attention and we got the best games from everybody. And everybody couldn’t wait to knock us down, beat us, and prove to us that we weren’t as good as we thought we were.”
The 2011 season was attributed to growing pains, but the 2012 season wasn’t any better.
“We just didn’t come together like we were supposed to. Anytime you bring in especially high-priced free agents like we did — you see a lot of that going on now with free agency — guys are gonna be expected to produce and win, and winning is the most important thing, and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that,” Jenkins said. “And any time you’re not able to win, that’s gonna be how you’re remembered. And for us, we weren’t able to win so it’s gonna be remembered as an epic fail.”
He has since been released and signed with a divisional rival that values the defensive front seven, the New York Giants.