Eagles power rankings Week 3 highlight the reasons why I hate power rankings

The Eagles are 2-0, the defending champs, and just walked into Arrowhead to take down Patrick Mahomes. Yet if you look at the national power rankings, you’d think this team is limping around .500. Everyone agrees the Birds aren’t clicking on offense yet, but the tone around the league is the same tired “yeah, but…” treatment Philly always gets.

I don’t like Power Rankings.

Why anyone would give a shit what ESPN, USA Today, or Yahoo thinks just two weeks into the season when the NFL basically treats September football like the preseason these days is beyond me. The part I do like about power rankings is the fact that it gives our Philly sports echo chamber a little insight in to what the national audience thinks about the Birds.

Granted, it’s pretty obvious what they think given the outcry about the Tush Push, the AJ Brown trade propaganda, and the constant discrediting of Jalen Hurts, but you get my point. Let’s round ’em up, shall we?

Philadelphia Eagles Power Rankings – Week 3

NFL.com has the Eagles at No. 1. They actually gave the Birds credit for a monster win on the road against Mahomes, who was 44-11 at home before Sunday.

Rookie Andrew Mukuba flipped the game with a huge interception, Jake Elliott nailed two bombs, and DeVonta Smith came up clutch late. If we’re being honest, a “narrow win” at Arrowhead is still as good a statement as you can make in September.

ESPN slotted Philly at No. 2. Their focus was on Jalen Hurts. He only threw for 101 yards, but he made the throws when it mattered, kept mistakes to a minimum, and scored on a tush push.

ESPN noted his head-to-head record against the league’s supposed elite QBs. That list includes Mahomes, Burrow, Allen, Lamar, Stafford, etc. Hurts is 13-4 against those guys. That’s not just good, that’s elite but sure, keep talking about passing yards.

USA Today put the Eagles at No. 1. They point out the same thing everyone in Philly already knows. This team hasn’t hit that scary 2024 stride yet. Not to mention, they’ve got a brutal schedule stretch coming up with Rams, Bucs, Broncos before things lighten up. Still, they’re 2-0 after beating Dallas and Kansas City in back-to-back weeks.

That’s not “meh.” That’s ruthless.

Yahoo dropped them to No. 3. Their logic was elementary at best. Basically, the offense hasn’t been impressive. They even said the Eagles “should have torched the Cowboys like the Giants did”… except the Giants didn’t beat the Cowboys.

Solid analysis there. It’s almost like there’s an agenda at play. Whatever.

The Athletic also went with No. 2. Their hot take was about as liberal as the people in charge of them (NYT) in saying that the Eagles are “boring.”

Apparently suffocating the Chiefs on the road is tedious football now. If anything, it was a gritty road win. Nothing pretty about it, but soul-crushing defense, big special teams, and capitalizing on mistakes.

Call it boring if you want, we’ll call it 2-0.

CBS has Philly back at No. 1. “They haven’t looked as crisp, but they’ll get there.” Not exactly Shakespeare, but at least they aren’t docking the Birds for beating the Cowboys and Chiefs in consecutive weeks.

We are 1’s and 2’s across the board. I’m willing to leave the kids over at Yahoo off the list because the rankings they dished out weren’t even accurate so how could their reasoning be anything different?

Overall, the Eagles are technically slipping, but only because people are nitpicking about style points instead of acknowledging what this team is actually doing, which just so happens to be a little thing called winning.

The Birds have looked a little clunky on offense, sure, but the defense is carrying, Hurts is making the plays when they matter, and the Eagles are undefeated with wins over two heavy hitters.

If this is “underwhelming,” the rest of the league is in trouble once they figure it out.

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