Top 25 Eagles Ranked: Fletcher Cox Still Impactful in Year No. 12?
PHILADELPHIA - Fletcher Cox is already regarded as one of the best defensive players in Philadelphia Eagles' history.
Entering Year 12 of his career, Cox isn’t quite the guy opposing offensive coaches used to game plan for but the savvy veteran remains impactful both on and off the field for coach Nick Sirianni's team.
A six-time Pro Bowl selection and a member of the team's core four with All-Pro offensive linemen Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson as well as edge rusher Brandon Graham, Cox remains the leader when it comes to the interior of a defensive line NFL Media dubbed as the best position group in the entire NFL.
And Cox is again expected to play a major role in that while serving as the professional mentor for emerging players like Milton Williams, Jordan Davis, and Jalen Carter after turning down more money from the New York Jets to sign a one-year, $10 million contract to run things back with the NFC champion Eagles.
From 2014 to 2018 when Cox earned four first- or second-team All-Pro berths, he was regarded as perhaps the best pure football player in Philadelphia. Cox is no longer at that level but is still an essential part of one of the deepest rosters in football finishing No. 15 in the preseason top-25 daily breakdown of the Philadelphia Eagles’ top players by SI.com’s Eagles Today.
Eagles Today beat writers Ed Kracz and John McMullen put together their own top 25 players independent of each other’s rankings and then assigned point values to the rankings, with 25 points awarded to the player ranked first on each list, 24 to the player ranked second, and so on, with one point going to the player that was put 25th.
The highest ranking from either reporter breaks any ties in the ballot.
Swift was No. 15 on McMullen’s list, while Kracz had him a notch lower at No. 16.
So far, the rankings have shaken out this way:
No. 25 - Kenny Gainwell
No. 24 - Nicholas Morrow
No. 23 - Reed Blankenship
No. 22 - Terrell Edmunds
No. 21 - Jack Elliott
No. 20 – Nakobe Dean
No. 19 – Jordan Davis
No. 18 - Jalen Carter
No. 17 - D’Andre Swift
No. 16 - Milton Williams
No. 15 - Fletcher Cox
The No. 12 overall pick in the 2012 draft, Cox is coming off a season in which he played all 20 games through the Super Bowl LVII loss to Kansas City, tiling in 65 percent of the defensive snaps in the regular season and 63 percent in the postseason.
The former number was the lowest for Cox since the 2017 Super Bowl-winning season (59 percent) when the Eagles were also extremely deep on the defensive line. He remained very effective as a whole last season with 43 tackles and seven sacks, his best finish since taking down the quarterback a career-high 10.5 times in 2018.
Overall the Eagles had nine different defensive linemen who played significant snaps and Cox led the entire bunch even outpacing Javon Hargrave, who signed a $20 million-plus deal with San Francisco, 713 to 712.
Set to turn 33 in December, the play-to-play efficacy is where Cox has had a bit of a drop. He rated No. 67 of the 127 DTs who played enough to be ranked by Pro Football Focus last season, a far cry from his perennial top 10 finishes from 2015 through 2019.
Moving forward Cox is again the odds-on favorite to generate the most snaps on the defensive line if healthy while being a major part of the Eagles’ multiple fronts.
In the run-stuffing “50” looks, Cox will play a lot of 4i technique and when that shifts to “40” fronts in known-pass situations Cox will get more opportunities at three-technique where he’s most comfortable.
An extension of defensive line coach Tracy Rocker on the field, Cox will lead a room that includes rookies Carter and Moro Ojomo, second-year players Davis and Noah Elliss, and third-year options Williams and Marlon Tuipulotu. Free-agent pickup Kentavius Street, who is a bubble player because of the depth assemble, is No. 2 behind Cox when it comes to NFL experience with five years under his belt.
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-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 "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
