Eagles' defense with zero top 10 players from ESPN's NFL personnel survey
Jon Johnson is worried about the Philadelphia Eagles defense, which had zero players ranked inside the top 10 at their position in a recent ESPN.com survey of NFL personnel (executives, coaches, scouts).
"It's not surprising at all!" Johnson said (filling in for Joe Giglio) on Thursday's 94WIP Midday Show of the ESPN.com survey of NFL personnel ranking zero Eagles inside the top 10 at their respective positions.
"There is a widespread belief that the simple subtraction of [Sean] Desai and [Matt] Patricia and the addition of Vic Fangio will simply fix the defense. 'Oh it's fine now!' I'm here to tell everyone it is never, ever that simple!"
Hugh Douglas isn't worried about the defense, in large part due to his renewed confidence in the Eagles' high powered offense—which consists of all six of the Eagles' ESPN.com top 10 players, which is less than just four other NFL teams in terms of overall top 10 players (49ers 9, Lions 7, Chiefs, 7, Ravens 7).
"But whole thing since I've been here is defense is a luxury, not a necessity," Douglas said. "All they need to do for me this year is get one or two stops a game. Just flip the field just once or twice."
The Eagles will enter 2024 with a very young and unproven defense, across the board. Their defensive line consists of a second-year Jalen Carter and a third-year Jordan Davis, the latter of the two enters the season with many question marks. While the defensive ends of Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat and Milton Williams (and even veteran Brandon Graham) will have a lot of work to do in terms of getting to the quarterback one season after the Eagles finished with just 43.0 sacks, 19th in the NFL.
The projected starting linebacking core of Nakobe Dean, Devin White, and Nolan Smith may be the most worrisome position group on the team.
And in the secondary, the Eagles have undergone a major revamping. While veteran Darius Slay remains as the backbone, the Eagles will have to figure out how the secondary rotation will go with Slay, rookie first-round pick Quinyon Mitchell, rookie second-round pick Cooper DeJean, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Reed Blankenship, Avonte Maddox, Isaiah Rodgers, and James Bradberry (at least for now).
