September 11, 2024

Eagles power ranking roundup: Week 2

The Eagles are on the rise across the national media power rankings after their Week 1 win over the Packers.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Kirby Lee/Imagn Images

A.J. Brown, Kaylee Hartung, and Saquon Barkley

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 1 of the regular season. Oh, and here's our version of these sellout rankings, too.

NFL.com: 4th

Brazil was a great stage for two new Eagles, Saquon Barkley and Zack Baun. Barkley has had a three-TD game before, but this was about as good a debut as you could have expected to see. A gorgeous touchdown grab. Hard, instinctive running. You just hope he can stay reasonably healthy for the duration of the season. But with Baun, it was a truly surprising showing, considering he’s playing a new position: off-ball linebacker. OK, Baun did some of that in New Orleans, but his 15-tackle, two-sack performance displayed that new defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s instincts on Baun fully changing roles proved correct. So, between Fangio and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, plus Baun and Barkley, it was a great first game for four new Eagles.

#JimmySays: Free agent hits after the first week of the season: Barkley, Baun, Mekhi Becton. Free agent whiffs after the first week of the season: Bryce Huff, Devin White.

ESPN: 5th

Best newcomer performance: RB Saquon Barkley
Barkley stole the show in Brazil, rushing for over 100 yards and scoring three times against the Packers -- twice on the ground and once through the air. He became the second player in franchise history to score three touchdowns in his first game, joining Terrell Owens, who did it in 2004. "We're excited that he's on our team, and he starts the season off right," receiver A.J. Brown said.

#JimmySays: Trivia: Who was Owens' three-TD game against? Answer here.

USA Today: 5th

As good as RB Saquon Barkley (132 total yards, 3 TDs) was in his Philly debut, QB Jalen Hurts and the defense still have significant room for improvement as they adapt to the team's third set of coordinators in the past three seasons.

#JimmySays: I wouldn't say that Hurts' poor decisions were a result of a new offense. It's not like there were timing issues or quarterback-receiver miscommunications. He just made a couple of bad "hero ball" throws that got picked, and a couple other weird decisions unrelated to scheme that could have also been picked.

Yahoo: 7th

When the Eagles signed Saquon Barkley, it was surprising. Mostly because the Eagles have been one of the teams leading the charge in devaluing running backs, putting together RB rooms of cheap but effective options. Now we see why Philadelphia paid up. If what we saw in Week 1 is what we can expect from Barkley, that added dimension will change the Eagles' offense.

#JimmySays: Barkley's APY of $12.6 million represents 4.9% of the Eagles' 2024 cap, 4.8% on the projected 2025 cap, and 4.4% of the projected 2026 cap. (Disclaimer: Of course, the Eagles dumped a heavy portion of those cap charges into years beyond the life of the contract, as always, but for the sake of showing percentage of cap, APY vs. team cap makes some sense.)

Anyway, committing less than five percent of the cap to a guy who will touch the ball 300 times this season if he stays healthy — and not even using any sort of draft capital to acquire him — isn't really that big of a resource commitment, in my opinion.