Stat experts theories on who the Eagles best players are may surprise you

At the time of this story being written and published, one full month has passed since the Philadelphia Eagles closed the book on a successful NFL Draft. It was definitely one to remember, one in which a future star was landed (Jordan Davis), the Birds may have found Jason Kelce’s successor (Cam Jurgens), and we threw the words ‘potential steal’ around twice (Nakobe Dean and Grant Calcaterra). They may have even found a special teams star in the form of speedy linebacker Kyron Johnson.

As good as that was, Philly did themselves a few more favors by adding a phenomenal undrafted rookie free agent class, perhaps one of the best we’ve seen. There are theories that a few of those guys can make the roster, but you can’t talk about the Eagles’ offseason without discussing the post-draft acquisition of James Bradberry or the trade in Round 1 that brought A.J. Brown to town.

For the first time in a long time, we’re hearing a word describing the Eagles’ roster that we haven’t heard in a while… loaded. What if we told you that, of the guys we’ve already mentioned, only one is statistically one of the top three players on the Eagles’ roster?

Pro Football Focus does a deep dive on three Eagles they believe are the top three players on the roster.

Here’s something worth checking out when you have a moment. Pro Football Focus’ Ben Linsey cooked up a nice write-up on every NFL team’s top three players entering the 2022 season. Right tackle Lane Johnson, left tackle Jordan Mailata, and the aforementioned A.J. Brown got mentioned in this one.

Here’s some of what Linsey had to say on the subject.

"The Johnson-Mailata tandem at tackle is one of the NFL’s best and speaks to the strength of the Eagles roster in the trenches. Johnson and Mailata were both top-10 tackles last season in PFF grade, and they’re two of the better athletes in the league at the position.The Brown addition gives the Eagles the big-bodied, elite receiving option who can work over the middle of the field that their offense was missing. His 2.61 receiving yards per route run since 2019 rank fifth among all players with at least 500 routes run over that stretch."

Yeah, we’re convinced. Games aren’t won based on how teams stack up on paper. There’s still work to be done, but this team is loaded. The acquisition of a difference-maker at the safety position will really send the fan base into a frenzy, but in terms of the way this team has built its roster so far this offseason, it’s hard to find anything to complain about.

Think about it, in a story about the best players on the roster, PFF could have gone with one of Philly’s five Pro Bowlers: center Jason Kelce, cornerback Darius Slay, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, defensive end Josh Sweat, and/or kicker Jake Elliott. They elected not to talk about any of them.

They could have talked about how good Slay and James Bradberry will look together. They could have mentioned DeVonta Smith, but they didn’t. That doesn’t mean those guys don’t deserve a mention. This is more of a tip of a cap to something we’ve all beaten the drum about for quite some time… the need for depth and the fact that Philly finally has some.

We’ll tell you this. You have to feel like the Philadelphia Eagles are headed in the right direction when you can talk about the best players on their roster and get to the end of the discussion by mentioning guys like Dallas Goedert and Fletcher Cox and do so in passing. We haven’t been able to do that in a while!