Philadelphia Eagles shut out of recent Top 50 NFL players ranking

Okay, it’s hard to ignore this one. Love them or hate them (and if you know any Philadelphia Eagles fans, you know people on both sides), the stat experts Pro Football Focus always find unique ways to get you to peep over at what they’re doing. During the final full week of June, they had a pretty doggone good idea.

They decided to rank the top 50 players in the NFL, doing so in reverse order and countdown fashion. Each day, ten names were introduced to the list, but as Monday bled over into Tuesday and Wednesday led to another Thursday, something obvious was happening. Once Friday came, and the last ten names were placed on the list, there was no more wondering.

PFF hadn’t added one member of the Philadelphia Eagles to their top 50 ranking. Disrespectful? Umm, yes! One can definitely say that.

Here are three reactions Philadelphia Eagles fans may have after PFF’s ranking.

We won’t waste a ton of time here. Here are three immediate issues that one could drum up about Pro Football Focus’ top 50 ranking.

1. Where in Hades is Fletcher Cox?

For quite some time, the theory has been that Fletcher Cox is the best defensive tackle in the NFL not named Aaron Donald. Some started placing Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of him recently, and Jones is actually the second-highest rated defensive interior lineman on this ranking (Donald tops the list as PFF’s highest-rated player.

The other two DI players mentioned are Grady Jarrett of the Atlanta Falcons (42) and Cameron Heyward of the Pittsburgh Steelers (31). No one would complain about that. Both are deserving, but if Jones, Heyward, and Jarrett are all included, a strong case can be made that Cox should be as well.

2. Where is Miles Sanders?

Five running backs made the cut: Derrick Henry (12), Dalvin Cook (26), Christian McCaffrey (30), Nick Chubb (37), and Alvin Kamara (39). Like PFF’s list of guys that play along the DI, all of these guys are deserving. The same can be said about Miles Sanders though.

Without exploring the possibility of sounding disrespectful, there are a few names on the list that Sanders could replace. You all can debate about whose name should come off or be added on your own time, but if you take the time to actually look at what Sam Monson, the writer of this one came up with, you’re sure to find a few ways to work sanders onto the list.

That would be true if you’re not a Philadelphia Eagles fan.

3. How important is stuff like this really?

The short answer to the above question is it isn’t important at all, but even though most of us don’t share the same occupation as an NFL star, we’ve all watched how things like this go over from a distance.

Every year the NFL Network does a Top 100 Players ranking. It’s voted on by the players. Guys are always fired up about being named as one of the best by their peers. Come on. These guys object if they don’t like how fast they are on Madden.

They’re competitors. Everyone plays this game to win and to be good at it, and no, lists like these won’t help this team win a game. It could serve as motivation though. Maybe PFF is right. Part of the reason that the Philadelphia Eagles lost so often in 2020 is that they didn’t have enough good players. They have some valuable pieces though.

Look for this team to rebound in 2021 and have a better season. One reason why is there’s some renewed motivation. The second reason is that no one on this roster wants to see a repeat of 2020.