Predicting Eagles players who might make an All-Pro team: Saquon gets his first

It’s great that players take a lot of pride in being a Pro Bowler player. You’ll see them, their teammates, and their team accounts with posts that say something like, ‘One retweet is 1 vote. Let’s send ____ to the Pro Bowl.’ The fact that it is in part a popularity contest is only half of the problem. The bigger issue is players can opt-out and still be pro bowlers, and then the player that comes in for them is also considered a pro bowler. It’s ridiculous.

Being an All-Pro player is much more impressive than being a Pro Bowler. There are only 60 All-Pro players and it’s the best of the best from the entire league. Unfortunately, it gets significantly less attention because there are no All-Pro Bowl games; it’s just a list of guys who get the commendation.

In the Nick Sirianni Era, the All-Pro roster has been chock full of Philadelphia Eagles. In 2021, there were two Eagles, in 2022 there were six, and in 2023, there were four.

The Eagles roster is filled with All-Pro-caliber players

The best place to start is with players who are on an All-Pro streak, then we’ll get to the ones who are less likely, and then the hopefuls. For posterity’s sake, this is all about the AP’s All-Pro roster, which is the one every player cares about.

Right Tackle - Lane Johnson

Lane’s been an All-Pro four times: 2017, 2021, 2022, and 2023. He’s in his 12th season in the NFL and he’s not slowing down even a tiny bit. Thomas has started 15 of the 16 games this season and he’s still able to neutralize even the best edge rushers. 

If he’s not the best right tackle in the NFL, he’s the second behind the Lion’s Penei Sewell. There’s no way he doesn’t get the All-Pro nod.

Wide Receiver - A.J. Brown

A.J.’s been an All-Pro wide receiver for both of the years that he’s been in Philadelphia, and he’s probably going to keep that streak alive.

There are six All-Pro wide receivers every year, and you’d be hard-pressed to name six wide receivers who are better than A.J. this year. Hell, there’s pretty much just Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson. You could argue Puka Nacua and Amon-Ra St. Brown, but the point is that A.J. is definitely an All-Pro.

Running Back - Saquon Barkley

I had to look it up and double-check because I didn’t believe it, but Saquon has never been on an All-Pro roster. That’s wild. 

When he was a Pro Bowler in 2018, the All-Pro running backs were Todd Gurley and Zeke Elliott. When he was a Pro Bowler in 2022, they were Josh Jacobs and Nick Chubb. So it’s kind of fair, but it really just goes to show how his talent was wasted in New York for all of those years.

Left Tackle -  Jordan Mailata

Lane Johnson will get all of the praise in the world for being one of the best tackles in the NFL, and it kind of overshadows Jordan Mailata who is having an amazing season. 

If there’s one knock against him this season, it’s that he missed a handful of games with a hamstring injury, but that was long enough ago that voters probably won’t care. What he’s been doing recently has been impressive.

Say what you will about the validity of PFF grades, but Jordan Mailata has the highest PFF grade of all tackles in the NFL. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the best, but based on PFF’s relatively/arguably reputable metrics he’s literally at the very top of his position. That’s not nothing.

Linebacker - Zack Baun

Zack Baun has been playing at an All-Pro-caliber since the first game of the season when he recorded 15 tackles, two sacks, and one tackle for a loss. He only had one misstep in the Week 4 game against the Buccaneers, but he’s been a stalwart in every other game. 

Baun is fourth in the NFL in total tackles. He’s second in the NFL in forced fumbles. He’s first in the NFL in stops (per Next Gen Stats: Tackles that result in a successful play for the defense). He’s third in the NFL in hustle stops (Defensive stops where the player covers 20+ yards of in-play distance from snap to tackle). The dude is amazing. 

This is another situation where there are six all-pro linebackers. There might not even be three linebackers that are better than Baun this year.

Defensive Tackle - Jalen Carter

Jalen Carter is on the cusp of being an All-Pro player. His numbers don’t jump off the sheet the way that other defensive tackles do, and that might hurt him. Jalen’s elite level of play is clear when you just watch him. He commands double teams and beats them, lives in the backfield, and genuinely lowers the quality of opposing quarterbacks’ lives for 60 minutes every single week. 

He’s the best defensive tackle on the best defense in the NFL and he plays 83.9 percent of the defensive snaps. He’s an All-Pro, but he could easily be a big snub this season.

Cornerback - Quinyon Mitchell

It’d be a stretch for Q to be an All-Pro. If he plays in Week 18 and has a performance that wins him the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, he’d almost definitely be All-Pro-caliber. Unfortunately, that means he’ll need to get an interception or two and not allow Malik Nabers to catch anything. 

It’s a possibility, but pretty unlikely. There are some really awesome cornerbacks in the NFL right now.

Slot Corner - Cooper DeJean

It’s no coincidence that the Eagles’ defense started playing at an elite level at the same time Cooper took over at slot corner. He’ll have to compete with Trent McDuffie and maybe Kyle Hamilton for a spot as an All-Pro. 

It kind of depends on what voters like: Kyle Hamilton is more of a safety who can move to the slot, whereas Cooper is a slot corner who can be a linebacker… also the tackle he made on Derrick Henry deserves at least 1000 voting points.

Eagles All-Pro honorable mentions

Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens could also maybe find themselves on the All-Pro roster, but they’re also playing at positions where there are some very very good players too. If Cam did make it, that’d be fantastic. It'd be his first year as a starting center and he’d take Jason Kelce’s spot as an All-Pro.

That’s eight players who should/could make it. It’d be preposterous if at least four of them didn’t get their due… but given how there are snubs every year, it only makes sense that someone like Jalen Carter gets left off. That’d be awful, but at least we’d have something to complain about for the entirety of the offseason.