All-time Eagles offense: Best players of the past 25 years

Last week, ESPN came out with their All-NFL Quarter Century team, and there were four Philadelphia Eagles on it: Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Terrell Owens, and Brian Dawkins. That’s awesome. Like really, really awesome.

Now that we’re in the heat of the cold, dark offseason, it’s time to build the Eagles’ quarter century team… and it’s loaded.

The best of the post-Y2K Eagles

In the past 25 years, the Eagles are one of the seven teams that have won multiple Super Bowls, and they’re one of the three teams that have made it to the Super Bowl at least four times. 

When you have that kind of success (albeit relatively spaced out), you’re going to have some historical players. Given that, these are the best offensive players the Eagles have had since the turn of the new millennium.

Quarterback:
Jalen Hurts

There are only two guys who could’ve been the quarterback for the Eagles' quarter century team, Jalen Hurts and Donovan McNabb.

On one hand, McNabb was the quarterback for ten years this quarter century (2000 to 2009). He holds the record for just about every single career quarterback record in franchise history, and he was on the Eagles' ultra-dominant team from 2000 to 2004. It’s Donovan McNabb, he was sick — not much more needs to be said. 

On the other hand, it’s Jalen Hurts. He’s been a starter for four seasons, gone to the playoffs in all four of them, made it to the Super Bowl twice, and was the Super Bowl MVP. I mean… That’s Hall-of-Fame-trajectory kind of stuff. 

If you look at the numbers, McNabb blows Hurts out of the water. But we know that when you watch the Eagles’ offense under Hurts, the numbers don’t tell even half of the story. Hurts might not be the best thrower of the football, but he plays the position of quarterback better than anyone else in the NFL right now.

Ultimately, Hurts took the top spot, but buddy… It’s close. Being the franchise quarterback and winning the whole thing counts for a whole lot. That’s especially true when Jalen Hurts does stuff like ripping a sick throw to DeVonta Smith to put the Chiefs out of their misery in the Super Bowl, and McNabb (reportedly, but not confirmed) threw up during the Super Bowl.

Running backs:
LeSean McCoy and Brian Westbrook

It’d be easy to throw Saquon Barkley in as one of the running backs on this team; the dude just became the ninth player to ever rush for over 2,000 yards in one season, and he was the first Eagle ever to win Offensive Player of the Year.

That being said, when we’re talking running backs, year-over-year consistency is key, and the Eagles have had a pretty awesome history of consistent running backs over the past 25 years.

In his six seasons with the Eagles (2009 to 2014), McCoy rushed for a franchise record 6,972 yards. In 2011, he set a franchise record with 17 rushing touchdowns and 20 total touchdowns. In 2013, he set the single-season rushing record at 1,607 yards and the single-game rushing record at 217 yards; two records that he would hold for over 10 years.

Before him was Brian Westbrook, who was with the Eagles for eight years (2002 to 2009). He played in 107 out of 128 total games, had 5,995 rushing yards, and had 3,790 receiving yards for a grand total (and franchise record) of 9,785 yards from scrimmage. 

Yeah, Barkley rocks and just ran for the most yards in a complete season ever, but that’s just one season, and it’s not enough to get him to be one of the Eagles’ best two running backs over the past 25 years. 

Wide Receivers:
A.J. Brown and DeSean Jackson

First and foremost, A.J. Brown is undeniably the best wide receiver in franchise history. The second spot is a little more debatable. It ends up going to DeSean Jackson, but there are arguments for DeVonta Smith, Terrell Owens, and Travis Fulgham from Week 5 to Week 8 in the 2020 season. 

Up until the end of last season, there was a real debate about who was the best receiver in franchise history: Terrell Owens or A.J. Brown. That debate is dead now, but T.O. was really, really good. The knock on him was that he only played in 21 games between the 2004 and 2005 seasons. To be fair, in those games, he racked up 1,963 yards and 20 touchdowns, but two seasons don’t really hold water with Jackson or Smith. The choice between those two guys is tough. 

DeVonta Smith is an absolute stud, and pound-for-pound, he’s a better wide receiver than DeSean Jackson. The thing is, Jackson was on the field with Jeremy Maclin and Shady McCoy. Smith is on the field with A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley. I’m not saying Maclin and McCoy are bad, but they weren’t as dominant as Brown and Barkley. 

That being said, DeSean Jackson was the Eagles' wide receiver in his first stint on the team from 2008 to 2013. He had three seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards, and each one was with a different quarterback. DeVonta Smith is amazing, but DeSean Jackson was a monster.

No one will ever forget Fulgham’s four-game stretch where he had 27 catches for 378 yards and three touchdowns. That was the only bright spot in the hellscape that was the 2020 season. He deserves to be recognized.

Tight End:
Zach Ertz

This is pretty easy because the Eagles simply haven’t had that many dominant tight ends over the past 25 years. It was Chad Lewis from 2000 to 2004, L.J. Smith from 2005 to 2008, Brent Celek from 2007 to 2014, Zach Ertz from 2015 to 2020, and Dallas Goedert from 2021 to now. 

It really comes down to Brent Celek or Zach Ertz. Celek was an iron man; in his 11 seasons in the NFL, he only missed one game. It was a Thursday night game against the Bengals in Week 15 of the 2012 season, and he missed it because of a concussion. That’s incredible. 

Ertz’s whole thing is that he was phenomenal. In his six full seasons as a starter, he had 4,907 receiving yards and 29 touchdowns, including a 2018 season where he had 116 catches for 1,163 yards and 8 touchdowns. He might be a Commander now, but he’s always going to be one of the best Eagles of all time.

Offensive Line:
Jason Peters, Landon Dickerson, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, Lane Johnson

Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson are obviously the center and right tackle on the quarter-century team, and they’ve both made a hell of an argument to be on the Mount Rushmore of Philadelphia Eagles.

For left tackle, it came down to Jason Peters (2009 to 2020) and Tra Thomas (2000 to 2008). Thomas was really good in his own right, but Peters is a future Hall of Famer. From 2009 to 2016 (except for 2012 when he was out with an Achilles), he was a pro-bowler for seven straight seasons. From 2010 to 2014 (again, except for 2012), he was an All-Pro. 

For left guard, it was between Evan Mathis and Landon Dickerson. Mathis was an absolute stud, and from 2013 to 2014, he was arguably the best left guard in the NFL, even though he missed seven weeks because of a knee thing. That being said, Dickerson has been truly unbelievable and one of the most important pieces of the best offensive line in football. 

At right guard, it’s tough because you could say that it’s either Brandon Brooks or Shawn Andrews, and either way, you’d be right. Andrews was with the Eagles from 2004 to 2008 and was a first-team All-Pro in 2006 and a Pro-Bowler in 2006 and 2007. Brandon Brooks was with the Eagles from 2016 to essentially 2019, and he was a Pro-Bowler from 2017 to 2019 and obviously a Super Bowl champion. It’s that last part that made me go with Brooks. 

Super Bowls will break pretty much any tie. That’s why winning is the best.