A seventh seed team with a first-year starting quarterback goes to the NFC playoffs. No, I'm not (yet) talking about the 2023 Green Bay Packers. It's actually the 2021 Philadelphia Eagles, in their first year with Jalen Hurts leading the offense, and it's an important parallel.

Curiously enough, Hurts was drafted in 2020 right after Jordan Love. But things in Philly changed fast, with Carson Wentz playing poorly in 2020, prompting an immediate change. Hurts started four games as a rookie, but it was in 2021 that he really took over. The Eagles went 9-7 and made the playoffs taking advantage of the second year of the expanded playoffs.

To be clear, it wasn't pretty. The Eagles lost to the defending Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-15, and the difference in that game felt bigger. Nonetheless, the experience that the young Eagles team had, the opportunity to measure themselves against a championship-level opponent, allowed them to have a big leap in the next year, reaching the Super Bowl.

"I know that we'll be back,” Hurts said after the loss in Tampa. "I know the hunger that we have, I know the feeling of that locker room and I know how we feel. I look at this season and no one expected us to be where we are and here we are. So this doesn't define us. And I know we'll be hungry and I know we'll come back better next year."

Doesn't it feel familiar?

Similarities and differences

The 2021 Eagles team was not as young as the Packers are now. They had some experienced pieces, like center Jason Kelce, tackle Lane Johnson, and initially they also had tight end Zach Ertz. But the young movement included trading Ertz away during the season to the Arizona Cardinals, allowing Dallas Goedert to have a bigger role. Hurts and left tackle Jordan Mailata had games as starters in 2020, but became preferred starters in 2021.

The wide receiver group had rookie DeVonta Smith, second-year Jalen Reagor, and mid-level players like Greg Ward and Quez Watkins. Howie Roseman hadn’t pulled the AJ Brown trade off yet.

The run game gave the Eagles more of a foundation. Jalen Hurts was 17th in EPA/play, while the Eagles offense was 12th.

This year, the Packers roster-construction was similar. They had some experienced players, but it didn't work out as well in that regard. Left tackle David Bakhtiari got hurt again after one game, and running back Aaron Jones spent most of the season out or limited with multiple injuries.

The entire pass-catching group was formed by first- and second-year players (except for Josiah Deguara, who had a minimal role). The weight over Jordan Love was more significant — and he delivered. He was more experienced too, to be fair, with three years as a backup to learn the system and improve. And he took advantage of it.

The Packers finished the season as the fifth best offense by EPA/play, and Love was the fifth best quarterback in the same metric. With Jones back at full health, it’s a dangerous unit.

Playoffs

The most likely path if the Packers want to win the Super Bowl will include games against the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, Baltimore Ravens. It's crazily difficult, and nobody expects a championship out of this season. But to a certain degree, it does not matter that much.

The lessons, the experience, the atmosphere of a playoff game are all a crucial part of this young team's development.

"We know all of the different things that we've overcome," Hurts said after the 2021 elimination. "We know the environment that we've built as a football team and an organization. We'll be back. And this is a feeling that will kind of simmer in our hearts, simmer for us all. With the youth on this football team, definitely coming back hungry."

Maybe the Packers will win one game or two this postseason. But the most important aspect of this playoff appearance is to build a foundation to extract more out of these players when the Packers are really ready to compete, a year or two from now.

It's a long-term process, and making the playoffs in year 1 couldn't have been a better outcome with future implications.

Jordan Love called his shot before the season

Packers QB had a really good first season as the starter