Eagles offseason forecast earns top-five ranking among NFL teams

Despite the NFL’s constant efforts to create a league focused on parity, there’s seemingly been a few teams that didn’t get the memo. Life hasn’t been that bad as a Philadelphia Eagles fan. There have been ups and downs, but the Birds, more often than not, give their fans reason to smile. Their story isn’t the same as everyone else’s though.

Traditionally, over the past two decades, it’s felt like we can write much of pro football’s story before the season gets going. We know the Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots are always going to be pretty good. We know the Detroit Lions and New York Jets have no shot.

Hope springs eternal though. The Cincinnati Bengals are in the Super Bowl, so maybe there is hope for this dream of ‘parity’. For Birds fans, there’s also reason to be excited. Following a postseason appearance in a year that was supposed to be a throwaway or the first step towards a rebuild, Philadelphia has draft capital and money to spend.

ESPN gives the Eagles a top-5 ranking based on draft capital and financial flexibility.

Part of the reason that fans and the media can be hard on vice president/general manager Howie Roseman is because of the fact that, despite his job being more detailed than having two descriptions, everyone judges him based on his ability to manage the cap and draft talent. He’s never proven that he can do either job well and do so consistently.

Once Derek Barnett leaves, every member of the Eagles’ 2017 NFL Draft class will be a distant memory, but Howie has also had some success stories: Dallas Goedert, Jordan Mailata, Josh Sweat, DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, and Milton Williams to name a few.

Philadelphia’s future looks brighter than it’s been for a while, and that’s one of the reasons that ESPN’s Kevin Seifert, after stacking the offseason capital of every NFL team, gave the Birds a top-five ranking. They’re fourth behind the Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets, and Denver Broncos.

An ESPN+ subscription is needed to read this one, so we won’t share quotes here, but just know three draft picks in the first round of the next NFL Draft and the potential for almost $40 million in cap space has a lot to do with their ranking.

Rounding out the rest of the top ten are the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens, New York Giants, Detroit Lions, and Cleveland Browns. Get ready ladies and gentlemen. It’s going to be a fun offseason. The Super Bowl hasn’t even arrived yet. We’re going to have a lot of fun breaking down all of the possibilities.