Philadelphia Eagles wrongly left off of list of 2019’s top NFL defenses
The Philadelphia Eagles were wrongly left off of a list of the NFL’s top defenses recently.
All we’ve heard all through the offseason and throughout training camp is how good the Philadelphia Eagles pass rush and secondary is going to be. A quick trip around a few search engines will lead you to some rave reviews that place Jim Schwartz‘s guys on top of the other NFL defensive units or right around the top of the list with them, that is except for one.
Adam Schein of NFL.com recently ranked his top nine defenses for the 2019 NFL season. This one might surprise you. There are some surprise entries and one very noticeable absence.
His list shakes up like this. The Los Angeles Chargers, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Chicago Bears round out the top three. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills follow them. The defending World Champions, the New England Patriots round out your middle tier of those top nine teams. He concludes his list with the Minnesota Vikings, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Green Bay Packers.
Did you see that one defensive unit was noticeably absent? What’s interesting is Schein didn’t roll out a conventional top ten, but to be honest, had he done so, the way this list appeared to be unfolding just makes you feel like Philly still wouldn’t have cracked the list had he done so.
Maybe it’s the way the injury bug seems to have swarmed Philly like mosquitos in the Summertime. Philly’s seen two of their top defensive lineman battle injuries throughout camp, Derek Barnett and Fletcher Cox. They’ve had to reshuffle the deck after injuries to Joe Ostman, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Cre’Von LeBlanc. None of that should matter much though.
All that seems to have done is allowed Philly to find some valuable diamonds in the rough that most of us would call the Eagles depth chart.
Much has been made about Philly’s defense and for good reason. Ronald Darby, Jalen Mills, and Rodney McLeod have all been among the obvious absences, though McLeod seems to be working his way back onto the field. Philly’s done what they’ve always done. They’ve found opportunities to get some work in for some guys that may pay dividends later.
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Andrew Sendejo has been a nice pickup. Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox, and several of the young guys along the defensive line are enjoying some nice camps. When guys begin to heal and start working their way back onto the playing field, including everybody we’ve already named (except for Ostman), this unit will truly capitalize on all of that potential we keep hearing about.
We expect to see a retraction sometime around midseason.