May 27, 2022
Are power rankings completely dumb and meaningless? Yes. Yes, they are. However, personally speaking, whenever I see them, I click. And now that I've sucked you in with promises of many power rankings, you'll read it and like it.
Here's where people around the country have the Eagles ranked after the 2022 NFL Draft. Oh, and here's our version of these sellout rankings, too.
To note, most of these rankings below were doled out soon after the draft.
Player who benefited most from draft: QB Jalen Hurts
The Eagles not only declined to draft a quarterback with either of their two first-round picks but traded a first-rounder to the Titans for receiver A.J. Brown, who is one of Hurts' best friends. He is also among the top receivers in the game. Hurts is entering a critical year in his career as he tries to prove he is the long-term answer at quarterback. With a solid offensive line and a group of playmakers that includes Brown, DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert, Hurts will be able to put his best foot forward.
#JimmySays: It's all there for Hurts — a very good receiving trio in Smith, Brown, and Goedert, and he gets to play behind arguably the best offensive line in the NFL. Expectations should be high in Year 3.
Howie Roseman is on a heater. Last month, the veteran GM pulled off an excellent draft capital swap with the Saints that set up the Eagles well in the years to come. In Vegas, Philly fortified its defensive front with first-round pick Jordan Davis, then pulled off what might be remembered as the Ocean’s 11 heist of the draft by landing Georgia middle linebacker Naboke Dean in the third round. A day earlier, Roseman pulled off another heist by landing star wide receiver A.J. Brown in a trade with the Titans. Given all the factors at play -- Brown’s age (24), his All-Pro ability, and the team’s struggles to identify wideout talent in the draft (outside DeVonta Smith) -- yep, just call the Iggles GM Danny Ocean.
#JimmySays: It really is kind of incredible that Dean somehow fell to the third round. I can remember doing one of those simulated mock drafts to include in a mock draft roundup, and Dean fell to me in the second round. I took him, but in my mind it was one of those "He'll never actually be available at pick 51" picks. Instead, the Eagles got him at pick 83.
The Eagles are entering the safest kind of prove-it year for their quarterback. Jalen Hurts enters Year 3 with a top-seven group of weapons and a powerful, veteran offensive line to keep him upright. The defense could be among the best in the NFC, with interior line pressure rivaling that of any team in the league. While the Cowboys remain somewhat stagnant, the Eagles are surging their way toward a divisional takeover.
#JimmySays: Quarterback aside, the Eagles' have a much better roster than the Cowboys, and it's not really close. And it's not exactly as if Dak Prescott is definitively a top 10 quarterback.
Captivating team that's set up to build on last year's playoff run with the acquisition of WR A.J. Brown and two Georgia defenders (DT Jordan Davis, LB Nakobe Dean) but could also make an interesting QB pivot in next year's draft.
#JimmySays: Howie Roseman has put himself in an enviable position in that the roster that he has built is very good, and he can attack any position he wants in the draft next year, whether that's quarterback if Hurts falters, or, say, continuing to build the defense if Hurts makes significant strides forward.
The Philadelphia Eagles made some serious noise in the 2022 draft.
It wasn't so much the players they drafted, although first-round pick Jordan Davis (a mauling defensive tackle from Georgia) and second-rounder Cameron "Beef Jergy" Jergens (a center from Nebraska with the best nickname in his draft class) have a chance to make an early impact for the team.
No, the headline-grabber was Philadelphia's trade with Tennessee that brought wide receiver A.J. Brown to the City of Cheesesteak. With Brown joining fellow wide receiver DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert, third-year quarterback Jalen Hurts now has an impressive array of passing-game weapons.
He's also fresh out of excuses if he can't produce.
Head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters that he thinks Brown's arrival could open the door for a huge second year from Smith.
"I saw it firsthand with [Chargers receiver] Keenan Allen, he had a little bit of a slip from Year 1 to Year 2 because defenses were keying on him a little bit more. Well, this is going to make that an awful lot harder for defenses to do with a proven commodity like A.J. Brown on the opposite side of him," Sirianni said. "I think most definitely this helps our passing game, this helps DeVonta. It's just good for the Eagles."
#JimmySays: Smith and Brown will be a fun tandem, because their styles are so different. I also thought this tweet from former Eagles scout T.J. McCreight was interesting.
Fantasy Football Tip:
— TJ McCreight (@NFLTJ25) May 16, 2022
Quez Watkins/Eagles.
Teams will focus on DeVonta, AJ Brown and Goedert opening things for Quez to see single coverage in 11 personnel….talented player with big speed. Tough matchup. A Hurts favorite.
Quez Watkins is sort of the forgotten guy in the mix, but he had a pretty good season last year. 43 catches, 647 yards (15.0 YPC), 1 TD. And he almost certainly would have had better stats, but he played in the most run-heavy offense in the league with a quarterback who didn't maximize opportunities to get him the ball down the field. He was a second-year player who was a sixth-round pick out of Southern Mississippi who has quickly adapted to the speed of the NFL. Are we underselling him?
They've had a heck of an offseason and really had a nice draft weekend. That means this season is all about Jalen Hurts and his growth, especially after adding receiver A.J. Brown in a trade.
#JimmySays: CBS with the 🔥 analysis, as always.
I see the Eagles as the best team in the East. I see Jalen Hurts doing enough to be a C-plus quarterback, with the addition of A.J. Brown. I see the receiving corps of Brown, DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins and Zach Pascal being good enough to make the Eagles a top-10 offense. I see Haason Redick returning to the scene of his prime (he played college football at Temple) and James Bradberry fortifying a corner depth chart to make this the best defense in the NFC East.
What I like about what the Eagles have done this offseason is this: They’ve created a team with a legitimate chance of winning now, with a legitimate offense to make a judgment on Jalen Hurts as the future quarterback. GM Howie Roseman has done it while still retaining enough pieces for the future to address the quarterback position if he needs in 2023. Roseman has three picks in the first two rounds next year, and three picks in the first two rounds of 2024. He’s done his job: He’s built a team for 2022, and he’s built a team that can do a U-turn in 2023 if need be.
The Eagles are better on both sides of the ball than they were in January, and that was capped by the Bradberry signing. In the end, they have a chance to win a game in January. The biggest addition was Brown, and I think he can be the difference in two or three games. “A.J. was a DNA match with us,” Roseman told me after the trade. “He was exactly what we were looking for in a receiver, and he matched our culture.” Good add.
#JimmySays: This power ranking was from Peter King, more specifically, who has the Eagles way up in the top 10. His is the only power ranking that was published after the Bradberry signing.
This isn't really a commentary specifically on King's placement of the Eagles in the top 10, but it is interesting to me that the Bradberry signing sort of feels like the moment when the Eagles became the cool team to like again, not when they acquired Haason Reddick or A.J. Brown or Jordan Davis or Nakobe Dean or any of the other acquisitions this offseason. In my opinion, Bradberry might not even be in the top 5 of Eagles' additions so far, but I think it's when the national folks took notice of the roster and realized that the Eagles don't have many holes, at least on paper. If the Eagles had a more definitive answer at quarterback, I think we'd be hearing more about their chances of competing for a Super Bowl.
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