Eagles earn top-10 mention in recent NFL Power Ranking by NBC Sports

Patience… It’s a word that we’ve used constantly since time expired on that rear-end whooping the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hung on the Philadelphia Eagles during Wild Card Weekend last season. Typically, we thought that was a theory we’d have to employ while watching Jalen Hurts endure the growing pains that come with being an NFL quarterback. Who knew we were discussing the attitude we’d have to take as we watched the Birds march through their offseason?

Well, the initial stages and second waves of free agency and the NFL Draft are in our rear-view mirror. We’ve gone from a hot start (signing Haason Reddick) to subsequent dead silence and questions about why this team isn’t being aggressive enough. We followed that with frustration about what we perceived to be diffidence and a lack of urgency.

We were wrong. Howie Roseman was just being patient, and ever since NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stepped to the podium to announce the beginning of the most recent draft, Philly’s vice president/general manager has been lights out.

The Eagles’ A-plus offseason hasn’t gone unnoticed. Just ask Peter King.

We keep pinching ourselves every time that we think about it to see if it’s real. On the NFL Draft’s first night, they added Jordan Davis and pulled off a trade to bring A.J. Brown to town. On the second night, they landed Jason Kelce’s successor, Cam Jurgens, in Round 2 before staging the coup of the draft, the selection of a first-round talent, Nakobe Dean, in Round 3.

Everyone’s been asking if the Eagles are the best team in the NFC East now. According to NBC Sports’ Peter King, who dropped his first power ranking of the offseason in his May 23rd Football Morning In America column, the Birds are the ninth-best team in the NFL.

Here’s some of his reasoning for saying so:

"What I like about what the Eagles have done this offseason is this: They’ve created a team with a legitimate chance of winning now, with a legitimate offense to make a judgment on Jalen Hurts as the future quarterback. GM Howie Roseman has done it while still retaining enough pieces for the future to address the quarterback position if he needs in 2023. Roseman has three picks in the first two rounds next year, and three picks in the first two rounds of 2024. He’s done his job: He’s built a team for 2022, and he’s built a team that can do a U-turn in 2023 if need be."

King also mentions that Jalen Hurts, despite being what he describes as a C+ quarterback, has a  wide receiver corps (A.J. Brown, Quez Watkins, Zach Pascal, and DeVonta Smith) that he can lean on, one that’s “good enough to make the Eagles a top-ten offense”. Most would agree with that. Everyone can agree with this next statement: “The Eagles are better on both sides of the ball than they were in January”.

If you’re interested, King’s power ranking lists the Eagles as the fourth-best team in the NFC behind the L.A. Rams (4), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6). Their NFC East rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, and the Washington Commanders finished at 15th, 24th, and 26th respectively.