Eagles Power Rankings Roundup: Gathering where all the experts rank Philly after Week 11

The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl contenders and they deserve to be treated as such. They played last Thursday so we got to watch every other team play on Sunday and Monday. We saw that even though the Eagles struggle at times, (almost) every other team has trouble too. It’s just tough to compare those struggles to each other.

Luckily, that’s the exact reason power rankings were invented: we can see how people rank teams and wholeheartedly agree with the ones we like and look at the ones we don’t like and say, ‘No, that’s dumb. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

Where are the Eagles in everyone’s power rankings going into Week 12?

The Lions are somehow not unanimously at the top of everyone’s power rankings even though they deserve to be. Jared Goff had one bad game, but other than that he’s running an unstoppable offense. 

It gets surprisingly weird after the top spot, especially given the results of the Week 11 games. Let’s look at how NFL experts are ranking the Eagles in their power rankings.

Nate Davis, USA Today, Ranked 3:

USA Today has the Eagles behind just the Lions and the Bills. That’s perfect. The Lions just dropped 52 points right on the Jaguars’ heads, poured gas on the ground, threw a lit match, and walked away.

The Bills just ended the Chiefs’ 15-game-win streak that started on December 31, 2023. You have to give them some respect for that. 

Nate Davis’ blurb about the Eagles says: “If anyone but the Lions are going to be kings of the NFC jungle, it might be these increasingly tough birds – who, remarkably, have five winning streaks of at least five games over the past three seasons. They'll likely continue leaning on their best player, RB Saquon Barkley (the first Philly back in a decade with at least 100 total yards in eight games) as this show hits a tough road that next winds through LA (Rams) and Baltimore.”

That’s hard to argue with. It’s cool that they’re saying the Birds are “increasingly tough” because that means Nate recognizes that the Eagles haven’t reached their final form yet. 

Thomas Valentine, PFF, Ranked 5

Pro Football Focus has the Eagles behind the Chiefs, the Lions, the Bills, and the Ravens. For a website that focuses on Pro Football, you would think they would trust their eyes more. 

Despite their record, the Chiefs have been a real stink-fest this season, and the Ravens aren’t even the best team in their division. Putting those two teams in front of the Eagles is wild, but putting the Chiefs above the Lions is criminal.

Crazy Tom writes: “The Eagles opened up a two-game lead over the Commanders in the NFC East with a big win on Thursday Night Football. The defense, which has been so good since the bye week, held the Commanders' passing game in check before the Eagles’ offense took over in the fourth quarter. There’s a feeling of optimism growing in Philly, and for good reason: the Eagles are top-10 in EPA per play on both sides of the ball.”

The growing optimism about the Eagles isn’t about how they are “top-10 in EPA per play.” It’s about how the running game is soul-crushing, how the passing game is on the verge of being dominant, and how the defense simply refuses to allow other teams to throw the ball. 

Sure, the numbers probably say that same thing, but if you just go strictly by the numbers you end up putting the Eagles two to three spots too low on your power rankings.

Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports, Ranked 4

Yahoo Sports has the Eagles behind the Lions, the Chiefs, and the Bills. There are a couple of ways to take this one: at least the Ravens aren’t ranked higher, but also putting the Chiefs up that high is phoning it in.

Sure, they won back-to-back Super Bowls, but this year that team is STRUGGLING. They have the 10th-best point differential (+49). Teams that are constantly in close games and making you say, ‘Wow, how did they pull that win off?’ should not be ranked that high, despite their success a year ago. Also, it just seems lazy to rank a team at No. 2 when the team at No. 3 JUST beat them.

Frank wrote this about the Eagles ranking: “The biggest difference in the Eagles this season, aside from Saquon Barkley, might be their linebackers. Zack Baun is having a tremendous breakout. Nakobe Dean has improved tremendously. They’ve transformed Philly’s defense.”

It doesn’t really address why they got that rank. It kind of just highlights that the Eagles have two Pro-Bowl caliber players in the spine of their really, really good defense and a first-team all-pro running back. 

Ed Edholm, NFL.com, Ranked 4

NFL.com has the Eagles ranked behind the Lions, the Bills, and the Chiefs. Ed says, “We've learned to accept their slow offensive starts; in nearly every game since the Week 5 bye, they've slow-cooked their way to a roiling boil by the final whistle. Defensively, they're also vastly improved. The Eagles mauled the Commanders on both lines of scrimmage. That's a sign of a playoff-ready squad. Philly looks like a different -- and far more dangerous -- team than last year's Eagles, whose 10-1 start was revealed to be fool's gold.”

It seems like everyone is weighing the 2023 season into their power rankings. For clarification, it’s not 2023, it’s Week 12 of the 2024 season. The Eagles defensive coordinator is Vic Fangio, not Sean Desai/Matt Patricia. There’s no reason to bring up the two months of hell from last season.

A whole gang of people, ESPN, Ranked 4

ESPN has the Eagles ranked behind the Lions, the Chiefs, and the Bills. They don’t just have one person doing these rankings. On their page it says, “Our power panel of more than 80 writers, editors and TV personalities evaluates how NFL teams stack up against one another, ranking them from 1 to 32.”

Power Panel? More like, Coward Cabinet. How did 80 people see the Chiefs allow a 26-yard, game-ending Josh Allen touchdown and then say, ‘Yeah, but they’re still better than Josh Allen’s team.’

Tim McManus wrote: “A 2-2 start and some questionable in-game decision-making did nothing to cool Sirianni's seat on the heels of a 1-6 collapse down the stretch last season. But the Eagles have since rattled off six straight wins to establish themselves as NFC contenders. The fuse is always short in Philadelphia, and particularly so with this head coach. There's little to complain about right now, however, with the Eagles boasting a top-10 scoring offense (25.7 points per game) and a top-10 defense (allowing 17.9 PPG) and with the team vibing under Sirianni.”

It’s good that Tim brought up the numbers and the vibes. That being said, it sounds like he was making an argument to get the Eagles ranked higher. 

For what it’s worth, the part written about the Chiefs doesn’t acknowledge their loss at all, which is super lame.

Pete Prisco, CBS Sports, Ranked 5

CBS Sports has the Eagles behind the Lions, the Bills, the Chiefs, and the Steelers. What? How did the Steelers weasel their way up there? Yeah, they just beat the Ravens, but they always beat the Ravens. Pittsburgh could go 2-15 in a season and those two wins would be over Baltimore Not to mention, they won in Week 11 without getting in the endzone.

Prisco said this about the Eagles: “They have righted things to take firm control of the NFC East. Do people still want Nick Sirianni fired?”

Get real. There haven’t been any real calls for Sirianni’s job since Week 6. Sure, he gets guff for dumb calls and not taking easy points, but putting the Eagles behind four other teams because Nick did dumb things a month ago is a tired take.

BR NFL Staff, Bleacher Report, Ranked 4

Bleacher Report has the Eagles behind the Lions, the Chiefs, and the Bills. It’s more of the same as everyone else who is wrong. ‘Chiefs stumbled but don’t worry, yadda yadda yadda. They’ll get right this week against the Panthers, blah blah blah.’

Gary Davenport wrote the snippet about the Eagles: “Their pass defense, which unraveled over the second half of last season, has also rebounded nicely. The Lions may be the NFC's best team, but the Eagles aren't far behind.”

“Rebounded nicely,” he says. Buddy, this isn’t a rebound. They changed the game. They went from allowing 252.8 passing yards per game in 2023 (31st in NFL) to allowing just 173.2 (2nd in NFL). 

Jake Beckman, Fansided.com, Ranked 3

Jake has the Eagles behind the Lions and the Bills because he’s right. After 11 Weeks, those are the only two teams that are playing more dominant football than the Eagles. 

Sure, the Eagles don’t have the strongest passing game right now, but you don’t need that when the defense is allowing the fewest yards in the NFL and your fourth-quarter running game is unstoppable.

The only reason the Chiefs should be allowed in the top three is if everyone unanimously decided to not give them bulletin board material. Other than that, it’s disingenuous to say that the team is better than the Eagles right now. We can talk again in the playoffs… that’s a different story.