\n 1) Too many Eagles? Too many Eagles.<\/p>\n
In the months after Philadelphia won its second Super Bowl title, Saquon Barkley said the 2024 Eagles were a top-five team<\/a> in NFL history. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year makes a similar statement in the upcoming “America’s Game” documentary<\/a>.<\/p>\n Based on the “Top 100” voting, it appears players around the league wouldn’t dispute that the ’24 Birds had the best collection of players in at least the last 15 years.<\/p>\n Case in point: Ten members of the Super Bowl champion Eagles made the “Top 100” this year. Do the rudimentary math — that’s 10 percent of the list. Since the ranking debuted after the 2010 season, no team has seen its players represented in the double digits. The Tom Brady Buccaneers had eight in 2021. Kansas City has seen excellence in large numbers, as well, but at the top of the ranking (Patrick Mahomes<\/a>, Travis Kelce<\/a> and Chris Jones<\/a> each finished among the top 10 in 2023 and ’24). What Philly has accomplished, in the eyes of today’s players, is unheard of in recent NFL history.<\/p>\n But are there too many Eagles here? I’d argue yes.<\/p>\n The one Philly player to make the list but not return to the team, Cardinals OLB Josh Sweat<\/a>, snuck in at No. 95<\/a> — and he doesn’t need to be here. He played just 59 percent of the defensive snaps during the regular season, per Next Gen Stats. He didn’t have a career year by basic statistical standards. Not that such takes are anything Sweat needs to worry about. He cashed in on his big postseason performance, collecting $41 million guaranteed<\/a> from Arizona in the offseason.<\/p>\n It’s a joy to see Jordan Mailata<\/a> finally recognized in this ranking. A former rugby player from Australia, Mailata earned a major extension<\/a>, second-team All-Pro honors and a Lombardi lift in the span of 12 months, which is something special. But the star left tackle was topped in this year’s countdown by not one but two rookie defensive backs from Philly in Quinyon Mitchell<\/a> (No. 49) and Cooper DeJean<\/a> (No. 60). Howie Roseman hit two home runs by taking the CB duo in the 2024 draft, significantly fortifying an already-stout defense. But as much as Mitchell and DeJean were critical to Philly’s unit as first-year players, they benefited much more from the pieces surrounding them — an all-time DC in Vic Fangio, entrenched leadership in Brandon Graham and Darius Slay<\/a>, and a deep bench in the front seven.<\/p>\n This is not to discredit Sweat, DeJean and Mitchell, but the ’24 Eagles, apparently a top-five team of all time, more resembled a perfect sum of parts than a collection of individual standouts worthy of “Top 100” shine. The voters could have done better than to make their 2025 list so reliant on the champions, and the aforementioned three players would have been worthy casualties to make room for some forgotten players. Speaking of …<\/p>\n \n 2) Where have all the good guards gone?<\/p>\n Wanted: Interior offensive linemen to be recognized in this ranking — or anywhere, for that matter. With Jason Kelce breaking records<\/a> as this generation’s Edward R. Murrow<\/a> and Zack Martin and Frank Ragnow also in retirement, there’s a severe dearth of name-brand guards and centers to captivate the imaginations of “Top 100” voters.<\/p>\n This is an annual issue, but it was even more pronounced this time around. Only one guard or center made the list: Chiefs C Creed Humphrey<\/a>, an afterthought at No. 93<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why is there so little respect for interior offensive linemen? As Kansas City learned (again) in the Super Bowl, shoddy blocking can sabotage a championship campaign.<\/p>\n As a first-team All-Pro guard, former Chief Joe Thuney<\/a> — now with the Bears — could have made this list. The same goes for Thuney’s former teammate, Trey Smith<\/a>, and fellow first-team All-Pro guard Quinn Meinerz<\/a>. Quenton Nelson<\/a> or Chris Lindstrom<\/a>, who’ve seen this list before, are worthy candidates, as is rising guard Landon Dickerson<\/a> of the … Wait, never mind — no more Eagles.<\/p>\n Front offices are starting to pay top interior offensive linemen like tackles — and there are seven OTs on this year’s ranking. Why can’t guards\/centers’ teammates treat them with the same respect?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1) Too many Eagles? Too many Eagles. In the months after Philadelphia won its second Super Bowl title,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":192889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[529,532,8996,531,9000,9002,29333,11343,18268,68971,9004,1232,530,1105,62,9007,67,132,68,534],"class_list":{"0":"post-192888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-chicago-bears","12":"tag-detroit-lions","13":"tag-indianapolis-colts","14":"tag-jalen-hurts","15":"tag-jared-goff","16":"tag-jayden-daniels","17":"tag-marlon-humphrey","18":"tag-new-orleans-saints","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-no-minute","21":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-tennessee-titans","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115132115346609218","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}