Ranking Philadelphia Eagles top 12 starting duos by their position

We may not know how many of the Eagles’ ten draft picks are going to make the final 53-man roster. We may not know if any of the team’s undrafted rookies can sneak onto the squad. We may not even know who’s starting opposite of Rodney McLeod or Darius Slay, but there are three spots that we can hang our hats on.

We’ve got the specialists nailed down. Rick Lovato is the long snapper. Cameron Johnston has the punter’s job locked down. He also serves as the team’s holder during kicks and extra points. Jake Elliott is this team’s kicker, especially after he signed a five-year, $21.8 million extension on November 27th. That makes him the league’s highest-paid kicker by the way.

Expect that fact to be brought up every time that he misses, but he should be fine and reliable. He made 22 of 26 attempts in 2019’s regular season, including a perfect 15 of 15 inside of 40 yards before making all three of his attempts in Philly’s lone playoff game.

He also made 35 of 37 of his extra-point attempts, good for just under 95 percent. Add that to an average of 62.4 yards and 52 touchbacks on 81 kickoffs.

Just in case anyone’s wondering, Johnston averaged 46.4 yards on 71 punts with a net average of 42.3 yards, a long of 61 yards, and 28 punts downed inside the opposing team’s 20-yard line. As stated earlier, the specialist’s jobs are pretty much locked up.