Eagles' lack of young talent glaring in ESPN ranking

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Eagles' lack of young talent glaring in ESPN ranking

Back in May, I wrote about the Eagles’ alarming lack of young talent. I ranked the

 Eagles’ top-10 players under 25 and as you can see the list drops off quickly once you get past Miles Sanders at No. 1.

The Eagles have reached the playoffs the last three years and won a Super Bowl in 2017 with a veteran roster, but Howie Roseman went to great lengths this offseason to re-stock the roster with talented young players. But just about every one of them comes with a giant question mark. 

People have noticed.

ESPN on Monday released an analytics-driven ranking of the under-25 talent on each of the 32 NFL teams, and the Eagles finished 29th, ahead of only the Vikings in 30th, the Patriots in 31st and the Falcons in 32nd.

The No. 29 ranking is actually an improvement over last year’s No. 32 ranking.

And while the analysis was flawed in one way and kind of ridiculous in another, the piece does correctly illustrate the concerning absence of proven young talent on the Eagles’ roster.

One absurdity in the ESPN piece: The Eagles are one of three teams listed with no so-called "blue-chip” players under 25.

Last we checked, Sanders is 23.

Sanders led all NFL rookies last year with 1,327 scrimmage yards, was 9th in the NFL in rushing average and had the 12th-most catches of all NFL running backs yet wasn’t one of 79 players listed as a blue-chipper.

That’s just silly.

Another absurdity: In explaining why the Eagles improved from 32nd to 29th, the piece credits the Eagles’ success with players drafted in "later rounds” of the draft and uses Sidney Jones as an example. But Jones was a 2nd-round pick and played more than 3 snaps in only two of the Eagles’ last nine games.

But despite the piece’s flaws, it does correctly highlight a general lack of young, proven talent on the roster.

As of now, the Eagles have only four slam-dunk projected under-25 starters: Sanders along with Andre Dillard, Derek Barnett and Avonte Maddox, who are all 24. T.J. Edwards, who is 24, is a likely starter, and either 23-year-old J.J. Arcega-Whiteside or 21-year-old Jalen Reagor will likely start as well.

For the sake of comparison, the Giants rank second in the ESPN piece after being No. 5 last year. They are listed with five "blue-chip” players under 25 (Will Hernandez, Saquon Barkley, Daniel Jones, Dexter Lawrence and Andrew Thomas). 

Washington is No. 11 with five blue-chippers (Chase Young, Montez Sweat, Daron Payne, Dwayne Haskins, Terry McLaurin).

And the Cowboys are No. 24 with four blue-chippers (Leighton Vander Esch, Connor Williams, Michael Gallup, CeeDee Lamb).

The five teams with the most under-25 talent according to the piece are the Ravens, Giants, Cards, Bills and 49ers.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-lack-young-talent-glaring-espn-ranking

Going in to this season the NFL experience this team has may prove really important. Yes we do need to get younger but ahead of this year of all years it may be no bad thing. 

[weko]

You have to be hopeful with Dillard hearing he's worked hard to put on muscle mass this offseason, but he's a bit of a question mark at this point.  Maddox is good in the slot and undersized for the outside.  We'll have to see how he does out on an island covering much taller WRs.  He struggled to do that last season.  Sanders is a young star, Barnett if he can stay healthy is a good DE and on his best days a very good DE.  Reagor has the skill set to contribute right away.  They forgot Goddard, one of the better TEs in the league.  Sweat might be a rotational piece if his knee holds up, but I see him as more of a 3-4 OLB.  Not a fan of undersized DEs. Right after we took the QB in the 2nd, Buffalo took a stud powerful DE/DT that would have fit nicely into our rotation for a long time.  Starting at DE and moving inside on passing downs.  I like both 4th round picks this year too.  Maybe one of the two 5th & 6th round WRs can contribute.  

[QBhunter58]

Yeah it is scary to me when good teams have young players (Ravens, Bills, Niners, etc.). I understand when teams are in win now mode and allocate their resources elsewhere (i.e. the Vikings) but you need to have a strong pipeline of talent and depth to keep the ball rolling, especially when you have a franchise QB.

[eagle45]

The Eagles have done a bad job drafting under Howie.  It's just the way it is.  This reflects that.

But it's also a flawed analysis for more reasons than it's worth getting into.

[NYEagle]

Ok....so drafting later in rounds MIGHT affect this?  So the Giants which have sucked draft high, the Washington Swamp Eaters have sucked and have drafted high....is this any shock?  I do think the Ravens have always had an incredible front office and in my opinion are one of if not the best at drafting.  But again, the Niners?  4 and 12, 6 and 10, 2 and 14, 5 and 11 and 8 and 8 prior to last year with all of those high draft picks...yeah...you should have a bunch of young talent.

[time2rock]

On 8/11/2020 at 4:46 AM, weko said:

You have to be hopeful with Dillard hearing he's worked hard to put on muscle mass this offseason, but he's a bit of a question mark at this point.  Maddox is good in the slot and undersized for the outside.  We'll have to see how he does out on an island covering much taller WRs.  He struggled to do that last season.  Sanders is a young star, Barnett if he can stay healthy is a good DE and on his best days a very good DE.  Reagor has the skill set to contribute right away.  They forgot Goddard, one of the better TEs in the league.  Sweat might be a rotational piece if his knee holds up, but I see him as more of a 3-4 OLB.  Not a fan of undersized DEs. Right after we took the QB in the 2nd, Buffalo took a stud powerful DE/DT that would have fit nicely into our rotation for a long time.  Starting at DE and moving inside on passing downs.  I like both 4th round picks this year too.  Maybe one of the two 5th & 6th round WRs can contribute.  

They probably didn't include Goedert because he is 25 years old (the piece focused on players under 25).  

[weko]

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

They probably didn't include Goedert because he is 25 years old (the piece focused on players under 25).  

Good point...but he's about the only other good young player we have unless you count Barnett as young.  Not much young talent on this roster.

 

 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

13 hours ago, weko said:

Good point...but he's about the only other good young player we have unless you count Barnett as young.  Not much young talent on this roster.

 

 

There's hope with Reagor though. There's reason to be optimistic with Hightower I think too.

[time2rock]

3 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

There's hope with Reagor though. There's reason to be optimistic with Hightower I think too.

When I saw Lamb included on the list of Cowboys players, I thought I don't see how any player that hasn't taken a snap in the NFL yet could be added to that list.  So in my view that would apply to our 2020 draft picks too.  They need to prove themselves to be included rather than be added based on potential IMO.

[20dawk4life]

12 hours ago, time2rock said:

When I saw Lamb included on the list of Cowboys players, I thought I don't see how any player that hasn't taken a snap in the NFL yet could be added to that list.  So in my view that would apply to our 2020 draft picks too.  They need to prove themselves to be included rather than be added based on potential IMO.

I think this whole list is based on potential though. Barkley is the only giant to prove worth anything and they’re ranked 5th. 

[eggs]

Look, we traded a lot of picks in the past few years to get Wentz, now it is time to maximize the number amd quality of draft picks. Trading Ertz will be the biggest step to fix the problem and get is a couple extra top draft picks, but letting a veteran or two sign elsewhere every year will net an extra mid round comp pick or two.