Eagles still sit atop CBS Sports’ NFC power rankings despite free agency casualties

Brian Cass
March 23, 2023
Eagles
0 Comments

Just in case you’ve been preoccupied with everything else going down in the Philly sports scene, here’s a quick rundown of the Eagles free agency period.

Losses:

DT Javon Hargrave
RB Miles Sanders
LB TJ Edwards
LB Kyzir White
S CJ Gardner-Johnson
S Marcus Epps
RG Isaac Seumalo
LT Andre Dillard
QB Gardner Minshew
WR Zach Pascal

Added/retained:

CB James Bradberry
DT Fletcher Cox
C Jason Kelce
DE Brandon Graham
RB Boston Scott
RB Rashaad Penny
CB Greedy Williams
LB Nicholas Morrow
S Justin Evans
QB Marcus Mariota

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If you’re a daily listener to 94.1 WIP or an active user on Eagles Twitter, you’ve probably seen or heard the dread from certain sections of the Eagles fandom. The team lost several starters from last season, that was to be expected. But it’s important to note that of the eight players the Eagles sent to the Pro Bowl in 2022, they only lost one of them (Sanders).

The core of this team is still very much intact, especially offensively, where the team already replaced Sanders with Penny and have an in-house replacement for Seumalo in the form of last year’s second-round pick, Cam Jurgens.

Luckily, there are still outlets out there that rightfully view the Eagles as the team to beat in the NFC. One of them being CBS Sports, who recently released their NFC power rankings after the first wave of free agency. Philly came in at No. 1 on their list – as they should.

CBS Sports on why the Eagles are still the best team in the NFC

“Losing Hargrave, T.J. Edwards and C.J. Gardner-Johnson will hurt, but the Eagles have young replacements in Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean and Reed Blankenship. The same can be said for Cam Jurgens replacing Isaac Seumalo. Philadelphia kept older players who are still productive while having promising talent from the 2022 rookie class in place.

Don’t forget the Eagles still have Jalen Hurts at quarterback — throwing to A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. They only lost Hargrave from the pass-rush unit that finished with 70 sacks last season.

The Eagles still have to improve at linebacker, safety and defensive tackle, but this is still the best team in the NFC. The Eagles arguably have the best quarterback in the conference.”

At the end of the day, we all have to remember that it’s only March. The Eagles brass still has about four months to construct this roster and get it up to snuff for another deep playoff run. Some of the key contributors last season weren’t acquired until July or August, like Bradberry and Gardner-Johnson.

I imagine we’ll all look back once September rolls around and wonder why we were so bent out of shape about some of these free agency casualties. Remember – in Howie we trust.