5 biggest zeroes on the Philadelphia Eagles roster in 2021

If this was anyone else on the Philadelphia Eagles roster, would this be acceptable?

The NFL season rolls on for the Philadelphia Eagles, and in terms of one of the franchise’s legends, there exists a trait by the game’s most passionate fans that we’ve never really seen before, a desire to make excuses.

Everyone gives Fletcher Cox a pass for what he isn’t currently doing because of what he has accomplished. As days and weeks come and go, no one seems to be comfortable with being brutally honest and holding him accountable for the fact that he HAS to be better.

There’s been a lot of complimentary spin on what he did in Week 15. You have to remember that he spent most of his time battling a backup, Saahdiq Charles, in Brandon Scherf’s absence. One could argue that we should have gotten more production and we should have seen more production all season.

If you disagree with that, here’s the evidence. For a moment, forget everything that you know about Cox. Forget about the First-team All-Pro nod in 2018, the three Second-team All-Pro designations, his six trips to the Pro Bowl, and his spot on the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team.

Picture him wearing another number if you have to. Just look objectively at the guy that’s played this season, and then go look at his salary. Does any of this change how you evaluate the job that Fletcher Cox is doing?

Is he one of the best Philadelphia Eagles of all time? He absolutely is. He’ll, no doubt, be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day, but here’s where the rubber meets the road.

This isn’t just an off-year. Some of the signs of this decline were obvious last season, and as we’ve moved through the 2021-2022 regular-season campaign towards a late-season playoff push, it’s becoming more and more obvious that his best days have come and gone.

He can still move the needle from time to time, but he isn’t going to be the guy that we all fell in love with again. 25 tackles and a single sack would be acceptable and satisfactory if we were discussing Tarron Jackson. He has ten tackles, a forced fumble, and a sack while playing 166 defensive snaps (451 fewer snaps than Cox has been given), but this is inexcusable when discussing the team’s highest-paid player who’s also a team captain.