Ranking every Philadelphia Eagles linebacker ahead of training camp

The Philadelphia Eagles may not be as desperate at linebacker as some believe.

Whenever the Philadelphia Eagles linebacker position is mentioned, it’s rarely done in a complementary fashion. It’s almost as if people are looking for reasons to be positive, and every attempt to do so is agonizing. Who’s to blame?

If you really think about it, a successful argument can be made that Philly never really cared about the linebacker position after Buddy Ryan left and Bud Carson came in and was charged with, pretty much, perfecting what Buddy started.

Gosh, we love Jim Johnson, but aside from lucking into Jeremiah Trotter a couple of times, Andy Reid didn’t really get him any. Chip Kelly saw some value, adding Jordan Hicks and, at one point, trading for Kiko Alonso. The problem was Alonso couldn’t play, and Chip traded LeSean McCoy to acquire him.

We won’t even get into Doug Pederson and Jim Schwartz’s era. Those horses have been beaten enough.

The point is this. The Eagles have treated the linebacker position like the fullback position, one that’s dying. Sure, ‘positionless players’ are cool, and versatility is needed. NFL teams still need a nice group of guys at the second level. Let’s hope Nick Sirianni’s coaching staff agrees with that. In the meantime, here’s a ranking of the Eagles linebackers from top to bottom.