Philadelphia’s crimson corridor

The defending NFC power in Philadelphia is, quietly, an Oklahoma satellite. Jalen Hurts runs the offense. Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, who caught Baker Mayfield’s deep balls in 2017 and 2018, is back on the same sideline. Lane Johnson, who left Norman in 2012, is still kicking dirt on the right edge like a man who has not read a retirement brochure.

Three Sooners on one 53-man roster is rare. Three Sooners on a roster that just played for a Super Bowl is a column. Hurts’s 2019 in Norman was a one-year rental that felt like a full era: a Heisman race, a College Football Playoff, a quarterback who made Lincoln Riley’s offense look inevitable. Brown was the vertical answer in the Baker years. Johnson was the prototype of the modern tackle before the modern tackle had a name.

They open Sunday against Washington, which still employs Tress Way, the punter who has been booming it in the capital since 2014. If you squint, it is a four-Sooner game. The Eagles are favored at home. The more interesting subplot is whether Brown can be the third option Hurts has been missing on early downs.

Week 2 sends them to Tennessee. Week 3 is Monday night in Chicago. The crimson corridor is not a nostalgia act. It is a starting lineup.