December 20, 2023

Eagles power ranking roundup: Week 16

The Eagles continue to slide in the national eye.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Jalen Hurts and the Eagles have been a mess the past three weeks.

Are power rankings completely dumb and meaningless? Yes. Yes, they are. However, personally speaking, whenever I see them, I click. And now that I've sucked you in with promises of many power rankings, you'll read it and like it.

Here's where people around the country have the Eagles ranked after Week 15. Oh, and here's our version of these sellout rankings, too.

NFL.com: 5th

Jalen Hurts was playing after dealing with an illness, Matt Patricia was taking over defensive play-calling duties from Sean Desai and the Eagles were facing a desperate Seattle team on the road, so there were some tangible hurdles to overcome on Monday night. But Philadelphia was also taking on a backup quarterback, and the Eagles certainly knew how big this game was. For the first 58-ish minutes, Patricia's defense responded in a big way with Darius Slay out, allowing 205 yards in Philly's best effort in months. The final two minutes didn't go as well, with Drew Lock driving 92 yards for the go-ahead TD and Hurts being picked for a second time in a nightmare of a fourth quarter. This wasn't the catastrophe of a loss that some will make it out to be. Had the Eagles won, I might have bumped them over Dallas. Instead, they slipped a little. They're still in decent shape to take the NFC East, but the defensive issues haven't gone away.

#JimmySays: The New York Times playoff predictor has the Eagles at 63 percent to win the division. Inpredictable has them at 66 percent. So, sure, the Eagles are still in position to win the NFC East. Three weeks ago they had 1 loss when every other team in the NFL had at least 3. In very short order they went from highly likely to be the 1 seed to potentially being the 5 seed, all while getting blown out by their two biggest threats in the NFC and losing to a third team they might now see in the wildcard round.

ESPN: 5th

We're No. 1 ... in fourth-down conversion rate.
The Eagles convert on 72.7% of their attempts. It helps that they are just about automatic on their tush push tries from a yard out, picking up a first down more than 90% of the time. Philadelphia has a success rate of 50% on third and fourth down combined, which also leads the league. -- Tim McManus

#JimmySays: ESPN should stop doing these themes and let their writers sum up what is happening with the teams they cover in the current moment.

The Athletic: 6th

The Eagles are the most hand-wringing 10-win team in the NFL. They already have clinched a playoff spot and still have a good chance to win the NFC East, yet the team and its fans believe the sky is falling because it has hit a rough patch against talented opponents. The Eagles took control of the defense away from coordinator Sean Desai and handed it to Matt Patricia for Monday’s game. That didn’t work so well on the final drive as Drew Lock took the Seahawks 92 yards for the game-winning touchdown, but Philadelphia still has some of the most talented offensive and defensive lines in the league and will be fine in January.

#JimmySays: Yeah stop overreacting everyone! They'll be "fine," lol.

USA Today: 3rd

Yes, they've lost three in a row, including one to the Niners and another Monday with a less-than-healthy quarterback. Still, they should be fine with two games against the Giants and one versus Arizona and still control the path to the NFC East throne. But not having Big Dom on the bench hurts.

#JimmySays: I'm trying to decide if that Big Dom comment is serious or not. But speaking of Big Dom, what this Seahawks staffer did Monday night was very clearly worse than anything Big Dom did.

Them Ole Miss products wanna fight someone every week 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/2OqPIXp6CM
— Video from: @TSV__1 (@TSV__1) December 19, 2023

He has eyes on Brown, and takes multiple steps toward him for the clear purpose of bumping him with his shoulder. If the NFL is consistent that dude has to go, too.

Yahoo: 6th

It's probably time to just call it: The Eagles' defense is going to keep this team from going very far in the playoffs. Philly was 28th in points allowed and 23rd in yards allowed before Monday. They played a little better, but when it mattered the Eagles allowed a 92-yard drive to Drew Lock in the final two minutes. It seems weird to say about a team that was 10-1 (and still has a good shot at the NFC East title due to a soft remaining schedule and tiebreaker edges), but it's hard to see them winning a Super Bowl.

#JimmySays: Yeah, I would advise not booking a trip to Vegas.