What are the experts saying about the defending Super Bowl champs?
With Week 6 of the NFL season in the books, it’s time look at how various media outlets have ranked the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in their NFL power rankings. It’s always interesting to see how the Eagles stack up from an outside perspective. But first, let’s start by revisiting mine.
Bleeding Green Nation
13 - Philadelphia Eagles - The reigning Super Bowl champions just might be back on track after blowing out New York on Thursday night. The Eagles finally crossed the 24-point threshold with a 34-13 win. Now let’s see if Philly can build on this momentum. (LW: 16)
SB Nation
9 - The Eagles beat the Giants to kick off Week 6, but it seemed like New York lost more than Philadelphia won. Still, a win’s a win and Carson Wentz is doing well in his return from ACL surgery.
ESPN
6 - Playoff chances: 57.7 percent. Carson Wentz’s QBR has risen in each of his four starts, culminating in a career-high 95.9 QBR in the Eagles’ Thursday night win over the Giants. Wentz is averaging a career-high 39.5 pass attempts per game and might need to continue carrying the load with Jay Ajayi out for the season and Darren Sproles out since Week 1. (LW: 9)
NFL.com
12 - You would never know it if you didn’t glance at the numbers, but Carson Wentz is off to a better start in 2018 than he was in 2017. Perhaps it’s the lack of a running game for most of the season that has led to the dysfunction on offense, or the poor record prior to “Thursday Night Football” against the Giants. Wentz’s completion percentage through four games is up compared to his numbers through four last season (68.4 from 60.5), as is his yards-per-game mark (298.0 from 264.5) and TD-to-INT ratio (8:1 from 6:2). As encouraging as that might be, more encouraging is the fact that Alshon Jeffery got involved in a big way versus the Giants. With Jay Ajayi down and defenses honed in on Zach Ertz, Doug Pedersen needs Jeffery to have a big year. (LW: 15)
CBS Sports
13 - The team we saw against the Giants was the team we expected to see this season. They seem to be ready to roll now. (LW: 16)
Pro Football Talk
11 - When the best game of the year comes against the worst team in football, it’s hard to know how good to feel about it. (LW: 12)
Yahoo! Sports
6 - The best thing going for the Eagles is that the rest of the NFC East isn’t scary. Philadelphia looked last Thursday night like they’re ready to make a run. (LW: 7)
Washington Post
8 - The defending champs got well Thursday night against the Giants, and they play two of their next three games at home against the Panthers and Cowboys and meet the Jaguars in London in between. Will the Eagles make an effort to trade for Le’Veon Bell? They could offer one of their two second-round picks in next year’s draft. (LW: 12)
Bleacher Report
9 - From all indications, this is not going to be a banner year for the NFC East. Entering Week 6 no team in the division was above .500. But the Philadelphia Eagles appear to have established themselves as the team to beat in the East after pummeling the Giants in New York on Thursday night. The story of the smackdown was quarterback Carson Wentz. The third-year pro has improved steadily since rejoining the Eagles in Week 3, culminating in 278 passing yards, three scores and a season-best passer rating of 122.2. The Eagles aren’t perfect—the running game and pass defense remain areas of concern. This year’s squad, at the moment at least, probably isn’t as good as the Eagles team that won Super Bowl LII. But while the Redskins are all over the place, the Cowboys are a mess on offense and the G-Men are just a mess, the Eagles are getting better by the week. (LW: 11)
Pro Football Weekly
6 - Dominant win makes division look theirs for the taking. (LW: 8)
Sporting News
9 - Carson Wentz, Alshon Jeffery, Corey Clement and Zach Ertz, all healthy together, have the offense looking as explosive as it was in 2017. Now the defense needs to keep masking the secondary to lead to more dominant victories. (LW: 13)
11 - The Eagles seemingly returned to form on Thursday Night Football, all but erasing doubts that this team can play at a championship level. With a difficult 4 game stretch looming, all eyes will be on Wentz and Pederson to vie for the NFC East crown once again. (LW: 13)
Mile High Report
9 - The Eagles need consistency. I think by now we can all agree this team isn’t anywhere near the team they were last year, but they are still dangerous. They just don’t look like a hungry team anymore, and the more I see them, the more I am reminded of when they won the Super Bowl how they said (paraphrasing) “I’d rather win 1 super bowl than 5 like the Patriots because we had fun winning this one.” Meaning they don’t want to put in the hard work to win, and right now, it shows. (LW: 13) [BLG Note: Lol]
numberFire
13 - No explanation (LW: 16)
...
Analysis
The rankings range from as high as 6 to as low as 13. The most common ranking is 9. The average ranking is 9.6, which is up nearly three spots from last week’s average of 12.3.
The Eagles rebounded in the rankings this week thanks to their blowout win over the New York Giants. It’s too early to say the Super Bowl champions are fully back, though. The Eagles can build on their positive momentum with a win over the Panthers this week. A loss will have people saying that the Eagles’ win over the Giants was more about New York being bad.
from Bleeding Green Nation - All Posts https://ift.tt/2R24cOT
No comments:
Post a Comment