May 15, 2024

Preseason All-NFC East team: Defense edition

Looking at the current rosters, how many of the NFC East's best defenders are Eagles?

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports

Eagles DT Jalen Carter

At this point in the offseason, NFL rosters are pretty much set, at least in terms of players expected to make any kind of reasonable impact. And so, let's take a look at the NFC East, and determine who has the best players at each position. Yesterday we started with the offense. Today we'll look at the defense.

Edge defenders: Micah Parsons, Cowboys, Brian Burns, Giants

Parsons is the best defensive player in the division, and it isn't even all that close. Haason Reddick would have been paired with him here, but he was shipped off to the Jets.

Burns is the best of the rest. He has 46 career sacks and eight forced fumbles in five seasons. His best year was 2022, when he had 12.5 sacks, the lone double-digit sack season of his career. He is a very good edge rusher, but one whose numbers don't match the hype.

Interior defensive line: Dexter Lawrence, Giants, Jalen Carter, Eagles

Lawrence was named second-team All-Pro each of the last two seasons. His placement here is obvious.

As for the second spot, there's a debate between Carter and Washington's two very good DTs in Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne. Allen and Payne had down years, in my opinion, while Carter looked like an All-Pro at times, finishing as the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year runner up in 2023.

Off-ball linebacker: Bobby Wagner, Commanders, Frankie Luvu, Commanders

Wagner will turn 34 this summer, but he led the NFL with 183 tackles in 2023. He is still a good player, particularly against the run.

Luvu is a fun linebacker to watch, and he racked up big numbers on a bad Panthers team. In his first two seasons as a full-time starter, Luvu had a combined 236 tackles and 12.5 sacks in 2022 and 2023. He is one of the best blitzing linebackers in the NFL.

The Giants' Bobby Okereke probably deserves a mention here as well for his coverage ability.

Cornerback: DaRon Bland, Cowboys, Trevon Diggs, Cowboys, Darius Slay, Eagles

Bland had an insane season in 2023, picking off 9 passes and returning 5 of them for scores. The original Cowboys ballhawk corner is Diggs, who led the the NFL in INTs in 2021 with 11, two of which he returned for scores. He missed 15 games in 2023 with a torn ACL, but should be good to go in 2024.

Slay gets in as the third guy.

The rest of the corners in the division are so bad that I had to include a couple of rookies on the second team.

Safety: Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Eagles, Malik Hooker, Cowboys

Gardner-Johnson is a handful off the field, but there's no denying his ability and versatility on it.

Hooker has been a solid safety for the Cowboys over the last three years. In the NFC East, "solid" is good enough to land on the All-NFC East first-team defense at safety.