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 Week 9 of the regular season. Oh, and here's our version of these sellout rankings, too.
NFL.com: 7th
Don't look now, but Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the Eagles' offense have been cooking since their Week 5 bye. In the past four games, Hurts has completed 72.3 percent of his passes for 844 yards, six TDs and no interceptions, also rushing for 159 yards and six more TDs. Over that same stretch, Barkley has run 84 times for 490 yards (a 5.8-yard average) with two TDs, plus another TD catch. He's on pace for nearly 2,000 rushing yards and 17 total TDs. DeVonta Smith has been a steady producer most of the season, and A.J. Brown's return has added some juice -- luckily for Philly, it doesn't look like the knee injury that caused Brown to leave Sunday's win over the Jags is serious. The addition of Barkley and Hurts' improvement over his 2023 play (I suspect the latter development goes hand in hand with the former, in some respects) have opened things back up. Barkley has been well worth the money the Eagles handed him so far, with or without his reverse hurdle play, which was easily one of the coolest runs of the 2024 season.
#JimmySays: The Eagles have no shortage of bigtime playmakers. They also have an elite offensive line, and a young defense that has played well over the last month. It's fair to note that their four-game winning streak has come against weak opponents, but maybe they're good? We'll see. Long way to go.
MORE: Eagles stand pat at the deadline
ESPN: 9th
Most important game remaining: Week 16 at the Commanders
The Eagles play the Commanders twice in the second half of the season: on Thursday, Nov. 14, at home and on Dec. 22 at FedEx Field. Those games could very well determine the division winner with Washington (7-2) and Philadelphia (6-2) neck and neck right now. As it stands, the Commanders have a 50.6% chance of winning the NFC East compared to 48.2% for the Eagles, according to ESPN's FPI.
#JimmySays: 50.6% plus 48.2% = 98.8%. It's not a surprise that the Cowboys are having a bad season given their awful offseason, but I certainly didn't think they'd have less than a 2% chance of winning the division in the first week of November.
USA Today: 10th
With WR A.J. Brown's knee apparently OK, they evaded a desperate plunge into the market to shore up a thin position on their depth chart – an especially fortuitous turn with Dallas and Washington next up on the schedule.
#JimmySays: Brown is the Eagles' best player, in my opinion, and yeah, the offense looks different without him. #Analysis.
Yahoo: 6th
The Eagles are playing well. The second half vs. the Jaguars was concerning, with game management errors that allowed Jacksonville to stay in the game and almost win it. But a weird second half will keep the Eagles under the radar. Pretty soon, everyone will be talking about them.
#JimmySays: From a process standpoint, the game management decisions were mostly fine, as we laid out in our postgame 10 awards post. Sometimes when you're aggressive on fourth-down decisions and such, you will turn the ball over on downs. Those decisions are not always going to work. That's football. The Eagles just happened to have a lot of those decisions on Sunday, and they all failed. In hindsight, it's very easy to say, "Should've kicked the FG" when you already know the result. But more often than not, the aggressive teams are rewarded for their aggressiveness, you know, like the 2017 Eagles.
CBS: 9th
They made it interesting against the Jaguars, but found a way to hold on. Their game management leaves a lot to be desired.
#JimmySays: That game likely would've never been "interesting" if the Jaguars hadn't gotten a gift 7 points on Barkley's non-fumble. When viewing that game as a predictor of future success (or lack thereof), I'd put it in the positive column. The Eagles dominated, outgaining the Jags 447-215 and possessing the ball for 38 minutes vs. 22.
PFT: 7th
Saquon’s backward hurdle should be the model for the NFL’s version of a Heisman Trophy.
#JimmySays: Wouldn't the NFL's version of the Heisman Trophy be the MVP?
Average power ranking of the six media outlets above
- Week 1: 7.2
- Week 2: 5.7 📈
- Week 3: 9.2 📉
- Week 4: 5.8 📈
- Week 5: 12.3 📉
- Week 6: 11.5 📈
- Week 7: 12.5 📉
- Week 8: 10.3 📈
- Week 9: 9.5 📈
- Week 10: 8.0 📈
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