Philadelphia Eagles: Four Players Who Deserve A Pro Bowl Spot
The Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas and are sitting atop the NFC East. Mark Sanchez, LeSean McCoy and the other offensive players pounded the Cowboys defense at a high tempo, leaving them exhausted and sucking air from the second quarter of the game. The defense, led by the beastly force that is Flecther Cox, dismantled the offense of Dallas and put Tony Romo in a constant phase of pressure.
Not only the Eagles have nine wins in 12 games and lead their division, but they are also tied for the best record in the NFL. The teams sharing the Eagles’ record are the New England Patriots, the Denver Broncos, the Green Bay Packers and the Arizona Cardinals. In other words, the Birds are hanging around with the best in the league.
For any team to have won 75% of its games deep in the season, it takes some high-level effort and impressive performances from a number of players. And the Philadelphia Eagles have been fortunate to have some of their own guys dominating the league. These guys deserve to go to the upcoming Pro Bowl, but our hope is they won’t make it there becasue they will have something more important to attend.
Connor Barwin has been an absolute stud for the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2014 NFL season. Both against the run and as a pass rusher, Barwin has done an excellent job at setting the edge as the team’s left outside linebacker. He is the Eagles’s leader in sacks with 12.5 and only Justin Houston has more sacks than hin in the NFL.
Barwin has forced two fumbles, seventh among linebackers. Additionally, he is on pace to match his tackle total from the 2013 NFL season, which was his career high.
Barwin has also been a very relable player for the Philadelphia Eagles. He has played the most snaps on defense than any other player on the roster.
A season away fron his ACL injury, Jeremy Maclin has been everything the Eagles fans had hoped for and more. The 26-year old wideout has already surpassed the 1000-yard mark for thr first time in his career. He is ranked ninth overall (eighth among wide receivers) for receptions with 71 and seventh for touchdowns score with nine.
Maclin’s average of 15.3 yards per catch is also a career high and good for 11th among wide receivers with 30 catches or more.
It goes without saying that Maclin has been the number one reason why the Philadelphia Eagles and their fans do not miss DeSean Jackson – even though someone has to wonder how this offense would look like with Maclin and Jackson outside and Jordan Matthews in the slot.
Overall, J-Mac has been one of the best receivers so far in the 2014 NFL season and if he keeps playingthis way, a spot on the Pro Bowl rosters looks guaranteed.
3) Fletcher Cox
It’s hard to make a case for Fletcher Cox as a player worthy of getting voted to the Pro Bowl based on his stats. As with most 3-4 defensive ends in this leage, Cox is charged with eating up space and drawing a lot of double teams, so others can make the plays. His main responsibility is to make sure the opposing running backs don’t have a shot running through the gaps he has to guard.
Cox does a very impressive job in that aspect. The Eagles allow only 3.9 yards per carry to their opponenets and the biggest factor in that has been Cox and the other two starting defensive linemen, Bennie Logan and Cedric Thornton.
Individually, Cox ranks 10th in tackles among 3-4 defensive ends (or 11th, if you count Rob Ninkovich as a defensive lineman and not as a linebacker). He has three sacks and he is one of the five defensive linemen to have scored a touchdown from a fumble recovery.
The players that get to the Pro Bowl are usually the ones with the fancy numbers. However, Cox has been receiving more and more attention from the media since Thursday night, when he was all over the field and constantly pressured Tony Romo.
4) LeSean McCoy
After a less-than-average first half of the season, LeSean McCoy has been making strides every week. The elusive running back has now rushed for more than 100 yards in three of the last for four games of the Philadelphia Eagles. Against Dallas, he had his best game of the season with 159 yards, which also helped him climb over 1000 rushing yards in a season for the fourth time in six years as a pro.
McCoy has scored just four touchdowns and he averages a pedestrian 4.2 yards per carry. Despite the that, defenses keep stacking the box to contain him. They’ve found little success lately, as “Shady” has been running with more confidence behind a much improved offensive line.
Even in what is an average season for his standards, McCoy is ranked third for most rushing yards, behind only DeMarco Murray and Le’Veon Bell. If he keep his form in the last quarter of the regular season, he won’t have any problems getting voted to his third Pro Bowl.