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2024 Roster Deep Dive, Offensive Edition

Let's get into the defensive side of the ball!

Pass Rushers / EDGE players

Interesting situation here where, on paper at least, the Birds are still pretty well set up. Bryce Huff is a pass rush specialist for now, but the Eagles clearly think he can be more and he showed a few glimpses of that in the preseason. His ratio of turning snaps into pressures (5.22%) is 7th in the NFL over his four year career. Naturally, that's likely inflated by his role as a pure pass rusher in New York, but if nothing else he should serve as a well-above-average option in that role.

Josh Sweat had done nothing but ascend throughout his six year NFL career... until he (as well as the rest of the defense) totally collapsed over the second half of the season. Check out his sack totals by season:

2018: 0.0

2019: 4.0

2020: 6.0

2021: 7.5

2022: 11.0

2023: 12.5*

*this is, as you're likely aware, not Sweat's actual sack total. This is the pace that he was on through nine games before the wheels fell off. I believe there are two explanations: 1) Sweat was over-played last season and likely was wearing out (his 8.5% missed tackle % was easily the highest of his career, possibly pointing to this idea), 2) there was some bad luck in the sack count; his 37 QB pressures in 2023 was actually the highest total of his career, and his 4.5% pressure/snap ratio was the second highest. My guess on this is that we'll see more of the old Sweat this season.

This will be the 15th (and final) season in midnight green for Brandon Graham. His snaps are down, naturally, but by most efficiency metrics he remains a top 50 pass rusher. That sounds like faint praise but keep in mind that leaguewide there are fewer than two top 50 pass rushers per team, so having a player that coming off the bench in your rotation is a real luxury.

Some concern is growing over Nolan Smith, who's role in the final preseason game sparked questions over what's going on with him. His physical fit is a bit awkward (too small to be a full time DE but lacks the experience to play off the ball). There's certainly still time to figure out Smith's role but that time is beginning to run out. Hopefully we aren't in a similar spot with Jalyx Hunt at this time next year, but the early reporting is promising that his transition won't be as severe as initially believed.

I've long been a fan of Patrick Johnson, and his promising preseason in a contract year offers hope that he'll be more than just a core special teamer this year.

My evaluation: I'm still a believer in this group, but there are a few questions:

Will Huff be more than just a specialist?

Will Sweat return to his ceiling?

Will we find a meaningful fit for Smith and/or Hunt?

If we get "yes" answers to two of these questions, I think we'll be looking back on this year as a success.

Defensive Tackles

Jalen Carter will be the story here as he's probably the team's most talented and most important defensive player. Conditioning was an issue for him as a rookie, as we know, but some of the jaw-dropping moments he gave us last year (like this monster sack, this blocked FG or this near-pick) offer hope that he'll be the impact player that we need. He is likely a top five DT already.

Similar to Carter above, the questions about Jordan Davis continue to revolve around conditioning. Thankfully, he's taken that feedback to heart and if that works out I think he'll be a force. Also similar to Carter, there were moments from Davis last year that gave us a glimpse of what could be (this one in particular stuck in my memory).

Philly was the only team to place three players on PFF's top 32 interior DL list last year (actually it was four, but I'm naturally not counting Fletcher Cox): Carter, Davis and Milton Williams, who may be the most underrated player on this team. Williams will be a key player if Philly wants to use 3-4 or 5-2 alignments, and will have a role in whatever version of the NASCAR alignment Fangio wants to use as well. Incidentally, this description pretty much fits Moro Ojomo exactly, and his pending Sophomore Surge is something to pay attention to.

Waiver wire pickup Byron Young takes Marlon Tuipulotu's spot in the rotation. It's a little concerning that Young, while somewhat athletic, gives up a solid 15 pounds to Marlon T. A scouting report I heard on him was summarized as "talented but entitled"; not a good sign.

Thomas Booker is an athletic 300 pound guy who popped in the preseason. He can back up multiple positions and may be a guy to watch as well. Gabe Hall (PS) is an athletic but undersized guy who did NOT pop in the preseason; Philly sees enough potential in him to try to develop him on the side.

My evaluation: there's a lot of athletic promise to watch here; my concern is experience (only 38 career starts in the entire unit, 22 by Davis) and size (if Davis gets hurt, this will be a very undersized group, averaging less than 300 pounds).

Linebackers

Back in January I mentioned that Nakobe Dean and Jeremiah Trotter Jr might form our 2024 starting LB corps; that future hasn't yet arrived but just might by the end of this season. Both are undersized but smart players that should fit this system pretty well. Dean is a better blitzer and Trotter offers more as a coverage player.

Devin White had seemingly locked down one starting spot, until the news broke that he hurt his ankle and wouldn't travel to Brazil. Then it came out that Dean may have beaten him for the MIKE LB spot anyway, so who really knows what's going on here. He's a bit of an enigma; an elite athlete with one all-time season (2020) and four pretty rough other seasons. If he somehow can recover that 2020 form, we're in terrific shape as a defense. If not, White will be on the bench full time by December.

Zach Baun is making the transition from pass rusher to off-ball linebacker. Ordinarily this would be a long shot but he's made a real go of it in the preseason. He may begin the year starting next to Dean.

Possibly the best athlete at this position is HS WR turned college fullback turned NFL LB Ben VanSumeren. He started as a special teams standout and seems to be on the path to offer more. He likely won't play too much to begin the year but by the end of the season he may well be on the top of the depth chart, if his developmental trajectory continues.

NFL vet Oren Burks provides some size and experience at the position. If he hadn't gotten hurt in the preseason he may have been in line to start.

As a Penn St. fan, I've been waiting on Brandon Smith (PS) to break out for five years now. Still only 23, his impressive physical gifts (DE size and safety athleticism, 9.97 RAS) show the absurd ceiling he's yet to come close to. Stashing him on the practice squad is a no risk, high reward move that may pay off next year.

My evaluation: it's good to see the Birds go with a legitimate youth movement at the position. Dean, Trotter and VanSumeren may all break out shortly and could form the middle of the defense for years to come. It's difficult to shake the thought, however, that the 2024 LB prospects really depend on Devin White getting back to his ceiling. If that happens, look out; history on that note isn't promising, though, and the early season injury clouds the whole issue.

Cornerbacks

CB1 Darius Slay begins his fifth year as the top dog here. His reputation likely exceeds his play at this point, but there's no missing the fact that he's still a solid coverage guy even with the high volume of snaps he plays. I can't look at him as a superstar any longer but he raises the floor of the group considerably.

Quinyon Mitchell represents the future at the position. He's another athletic marvel that seems to possess the ability to play both inside and outside, a real plus for a unit that seems to get wrecked with injuries every autumn. Here's a few other tidbits you may not have read yet:

Cooper DeJean is one of those guys that coaches just love. He's versatile and generally seems to find a way to get things done. I suspect he'll eventually move to safety to play the Malcolm Jenkins role that this team has really missed. If I'm correct, that's a great use of the 40th overall pick.

Kelee Ringo is yet another physical freak that's really developing at corner. If he needs to play, I don't think he'll be a liability.

Isaiah Rodgers is absolutely a starting-caliber CB in this league. In 2022 he ended up 6th in PFF's corner rankings. More importantly, his career snap-weighted PFF score of 75.6 would have been 12th overall last year among full-time players. If we end up with that level of play again we'll be in great shape.

We bring back Avonte Maddox as a reserve at both the slot and at safety. He's best in the slot but qualified to do both.

The bottom of the corner depth chart was sneaky deep this year (Zech McPhearson and Josh Jobe each had their moments over the last couple of years), and Eli Ricks has impressed the staff enough to beat out the competition. He has elite length and was probably the best pure cover guy of the bunch; the team wants another year of development with him.

My evaluation: for the first time in a very long time, the Eagles had more roster-able corners than they could fit (Jobe, McPhearson and the injured Tyler Hall were all deserving of the 150-or-so corner jobs in this league). This is one of the better collections of young corner talent in the NFL and they have a top shelf vet in Slay to learn from.

Safeties

Our own prodigal son, CJ Gardner-Johnson, returns on a $9 million AAV deal. When healthy, he's among the top ballhawks in the league. Health, of course, is the big caveat here; he's missed 27% (23 of 83) regular season games in his career.

Reed Blankenship is a top 20 safety in this league when healthy. Again, health is a concern as he's also missed time in each of the last two years. He's an absolute warrior when healthy (his 116 total snaps against Buffalo are the second highest recorded total in NFL history, at least since the era of the two-way player ended with Chuck Bednarik).

It's a shame that Sydney Brown (IR) got hurt when he did; he finally seemed to be adjusting to his new role by the end of last season. This missed offseason of work really slows his development. We'll need to be patient as this kid has a high ceiling but needs more time.

Tristin McCollum is an athletic marvel that needed a ton of work. This will be his third year in the league and he's showed up in just three games so far. Still, his progress was notable enough that he played his way onto the 53.

James Bradberry (IR) is likely playing the Derek Barnett role (player that the team values more than the rest of the league but hopes to trade). Personally, I think he might have been in for a bounce back year had he stayed at corner but the team felt differently. JT Woods (PS) and Andre Sam (PS) are the young developmental guys here; I'm hopeful we won't see either of them on the field this season.

Specialists

Jake Elliott had, by any measure, an extraordinary season in 2023. Last year I had outlined a metric for evaluating kicker performance called Kicking Points Above Expectation. The basic idea is to figure out how many points above league average a kicker scored, based on the distance of his kicks. In this metric, Jake Elliott ended up second overall last season (ironically, behind former Eagles backup Cameron Dicker of the Chargers). I'd give him MVP credit for three victories from last year (New England, Minnesota, Buffalo). Over his entire career, he's been special:

Braden Mann has been a nice find at the punter spot, and a welcome change from the days of Arynn Siposs. He finished 7th in punting average and 4th in net punting average last year. There's some room for improvement here (Mann was 22nd in % of punts inside the 20 and dead last in lowest % of punts returned), but his core punting stats and clutch performance in high leverage situations mean we can take a deep breath about this position for the first time in awhile.

Rick Lovato has moved up to ninth on The Definitive, Inarguable Ranking of NFL Long Snappers!

On the whole, the Eagles' special teams unit improved from one of the worst in the league in 2022 to a top ten caliber unit in 2023. A case could definitely be made that Elliot and PR Covey are two of the best ten specialists in the NFL right now. It's ironic that special teams coordinator Michael Clay was probably the Philly coach on the hottest seat at this time last year, and probably did the best job.