Hype Increasing Around Eagles After Peter King's Assessment
Peter King revved up the Eagles’ fan base on Monday but didn’t do the organization itself any favors after the venerable football scribe labeled Philadelphia the ninth-best team in the NFL and No. 4 in the NFC behind only the heavyweights (the Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay, and Tampa Bay) piloted by franchise quarterbacks.
And King made that assessment in his “Football Morning in America” column on Monday despite pigeonholing Jalen Hurts as a C-plus quarterback.
The only teams ahead of the Eagles in King’s 2022 spring power rankings snapshot were Buffalo, the LA Chargers, Kansas City, the reigning Super Bowl champion LA Rams, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, and Baltimore.
Of the top eight teams, there are certainly no other C-plus QBs in the conversation with Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Joe Burrow, and Lamar Jackson serving as a who's who of the league's stars at the game's most important position.
Rounding out the top 10 is San Francisco, a team that has proven you can make deep playoff runs with C-Plus QB play.
That's the good news.
The bad news is you need a top-tier coach to do it, along with a host of difference-makers like Deebo Samuel, Trent Williams, Nick Bosa, and George Kittle.
The Niners were seemingly docked a bit by King to No. 10 because of their uncertainty at the QB position with the pedestrian Jimmy Garoppolo coming off shoulder surgery and the jury still out on talented but raw Trey Lance.
“The Niners got to the NFL’s final four for the second time in three years because of some memorable plays by Samuel, some excellent defense when it mattered (like on that frigid night in Green Bay), and some efficient, low-mistake play by Garoppolo,” King wrote. “That’s not how Kyle Shanahan wants to play offensively, however. He wants a mobile quarterback scaring teams with his arm first and feet second.”
The disconnect here, of course, is that it's the Niners who have already proven they have the ability to make deep runs with two final four appearances in three years because they have the supporting cast to overcome average to above average QB play.
So how could they rate below the Eagles unless you see drastic improvement from Hurts?
Here’s King’s thought process:
“I see the Eagles as the best team in the (NFC)East. I see Jalen Hurts doing enough to be a C-plus quarterback, with the addition of A.J. Brown. I see the receiving corps of Brown, DeVonta Smith, Quez Watkins, and Zach Pascal being good enough to make the Eagles a top-10 offense.
"I see Haason Redick returning to the scene of his prime (he played college football at Temple) and James Bradberry fortifying a corner depth chart to make this the best defense in the NFC East.”
There is no right and wrong in May nor are anyone’s power rankings scientific or all that meaningful, but King’s take is somewhat emblematic of what’s going on locally, a drastic sea change since Day 1 of the draft when the Eagles and Howie Roseman went from underwhelming offseason to candidates for a mythical title of offseason champion by adding Jordan Davis, Brown, Nakobe Dean, and Bradberry.
King, like much of the Eagles’ fan base, is skipping steps, however.
The margin of error for a team with C-plus QB play is very small.
How small?
Do you believe Nick Sirianni can turn into the innovative Shanahan and players like Reddick, Brown, and Dallas Goedert are good enough to be the East Coast doppelgangers of Bosa, Samuel, and Kittle?
If the answer to any of that is no, the Eagles aren’t going to be battling for an NFC title with teams quarterbacked by Stafford, Rodgers, and Brady unless Hurts' GPA spikes from 2.3 to 4.0.
But, if the answer is yes, then King might be on to something.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
