September 02, 2025
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Lane Johnson and Jalen Hurts are two of the nine Eagles who were voted into the NFL's "Top 100" for 2025.
Each year the NFL releases its Top 100 list, "voted on by the players themselves." Nine Philadelphia Eagles players made the cut, and five players landed in the top 30.
As a disclaimer, in my former life in sales, I once worked for a company that kept a database of over 5,000 investment research firms. Hedge funds, mutual funds, and big banks would come to us asking where they could find very specific bits of information, and we would make recommendations from our research firm database. Many of the firms in our database were experts in performing surveys. I've seen how the NFL conducts their surveys, and, well, let's just say that they are not survey experts. In other words, the "Top 100" list should always be viewed with a grain of salt.
With that said, here are the nine Eagles who made the cut. (In my opinion, they're all worthy of being in the top 100.)
They were all actually in the top 70.
As we have seen, Mailata's career path has followed a steady upward trajectory. On a national level he went from "that huge Australian guy who never played football at a level lower than the NFL" to finally being recognized as a legitimately great player. It took a while for non-locals to catch up, but they finally got there. Mailata was also named second-team All-Pro in 2024.
DeJean's rookie season didn't get off to an ideal start. Before the start of training camp, DeJean injured his hamstring, landed on the NFI list, and missed the first dozen practices, forcing him to play catchup deep into camp. He then played just eight snaps in the regular defense over the first four games of the season.
But after the Week 5 bye, DeJean entered the starting lineup, replacing Avonte Maddox, and his presence in the secondary helped turn the season around. Like Mitchell above, DeJean didn't have a regular season INT, but he had 51 tackles, a forced fumble, and six pass breakups while solidifying the slot corner spot in the Eagles' defense, both in coverage and as a tackler.
Also like Mitchell, DeJean saved his biggest moments for the playoffs, with his interception of Patrick Mahomes serving as the signature play of Super Bowl LIX.
The Eagles selected Mitchell with their first-round pick in 2024 and it was pretty clear as early as Eagles spring practices that he could play. He worked his way up the depth chart from the spring into training camp, and by the time the season rolled around there was little doubt that he was going to start and probably play well.
Mitchell finished the regular season with 46 tackles and 12 pass breakups. He did not have a regular season INT, but he collected his first pick in the playoffs against the Packers, and added another against the Commanders in the NFC Championship Game.
If NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors were decided on regular season plus playoff performances, Mitchell probably would've won. As is, he finished second behind Rams edge defender Jared Verse. Mitchell is the Eagles' CB1, and should be a shutdown corner for the foreseeable future.
Carter doesn't have eye-popping stats, but he was a menace all season on the interior, despite facing constant double teams. He made his first Pro Bowl and earned his first All-Pro nod after his regular season performance, and made arguably the two biggest plays of the season in the Divisional Round against the Rams, when he sacked Matthew Stafford on a late third down and forced a quick, off-target throw on fourth down, saving the Eagles' season.
In the Super Bowl, Carter was a major reason why the Eagles' defensive line obliterated the Chiefs' offensive line, as he often occupied the Chiefs' two best linemen, allowing his teammates to dominate favorable one-on-one matchups across the board otherwise.
He was the best player on the best defense in the league. There are not 42 NFL players better than Jalen Carter.
The 2024 season was something of a "down year" for Brown as he missed four games, and the passing game took a back seat to the Eagles' rushing attack. He "only" had 67 catches for 1079 yards and 7 TDs after topping 1400 yards in each of his first two seasons in Philly. Still, he is recognized as a top five type of receiver, and rightfully so.
Baun went from a little-used edge rusher with the Saints the first four years of his career to a bona fide star player with the Eagles as an off-ball linebacker. During the regular season, Baun finished with 151 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 5 forced fumbles, 4 pass breakups, and an INT. He was named First-Team All-Pro, a Pro Bowler, and he finished in the top five in NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting.
During the playoffs, Baun turned his game up another notch as he led the NFL with 33 tackles and 2 INTs. He added a forced fumble, 2 fumble recoveries, and 3 pass breakups.
He probably had the best Eagles linebacker season this century, and was rewarded this offseason with a three-year contract worth $51 million.
The Eagles probably had the best offensive line in the NFL when they won it all in 2017, and they did again in 2024. The only lineman to start for both teams was Lane Johnson. He's been, in my opinion, the best offensive lineman in the NFL over roughly the last 8 years, but over that time has been criminally underrated, even with six Pro Bowls and five All-Pro nods. I mean, he was being left off of these silly NFL Top 100 lists completely when he was pretty easily a top 20 type of player.
Johnson doesn't have as many highlight reel blocks as a guy like, ohhh, sayyy, Penei Sewell, who is ranked ahead of him, but nobody else in the league can do what Johnson does, which is single-block the league's elite pass rushers on an island, week after week, year after year, and never give up sacks. He's one of the greatest Eagles of all-time and one of the best offensive linemen in league history.
He's also still at the top of his game, coming off an outstanding 2024 season. He is still being underrated at 23rd, in my opinion, even if this is his highest ranking to date.
Hurts played behind the best offensive line in the NFL; he handed off to the best running back in the NFL in Saquon Barkley; he threw to one of the best trios of pass catchers in A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert; and on the other side of the ball the defense consistently created takeaways, putting Hurts and the offense in favorable positions. He is in as good a situation as a quarterback can be. That is inarguable. As a result, when every Tom, Dick, and Harry puts out a quarterback ranking, Hurts is often ranked below far less accomplished quarterbacks.
But Hurts is really good too! He was the MVP runner-up in 2022 and the best player on the field during Eagles-Chiefs I. And, of course, he was the MVP of Eagles-Chiefs II. He's an already good quarterback who has raised his level of play in the biggest games. He was legitimately stellar during the 2024 playoffs. He completed 71.4% of his passes, he threw 5 TDs vs. 1 INT, he averaged 8.0 yards per pass attempt, and he ran for 194 yards on 5.7 yards per carry and 5 TDs. (Side note: Some will minimize Hurts' TD runs because a lot of them come via the Tush Push, even though Hurts is probably the biggest reason the Tush Push is the cheat code play that it is).
Hurts is also a major reason why Barkley had the year that he did in 2024, as he takes attention away from Barkley on zone read plays because opposing defense have to respect Hurts' ability as runner.
As you all saw, Barkley had one of the best running back seasons in NFL history in 2024, breaking the record for most rushing yards in a single season (regular season + playoffs). Along the way, he had iconic highlights, including his many long TD runs and his backwards hurdle over a Jaguars defender.
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