Philadelphia Eagles: Find me 91 players better than Jason Kelce

On a temperate, unsuspecting August Sunday, the NFL Network decided to drop the first round of players in their Top-100 Players List, and unsurprisingly, a Philadelphia Eagles player has been undervalued by his peers.

I know, crazy, right? After watching Jason Kelce maddeningly clock in at 94th overall in 2020, surely the rest of the league would smarten up and show some love to the concept’s namesake city, right?

… what? Kelce ranked 92nd this year, behind players like Corey Davis, Leonard Williams, and Garett Bolles?

*sigh* here we go again.

Will anyone outside of the Philadelphia Eagles universe ever appreciate Kelce?

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Jason Kelce has been a member of the Philadelphia Eagles for 10 seasons.

He’s started all 149 games he’s appeared in – 142 in the regular season and seven more in the playoffs – made it to the Pro Bowl four times, and been named to an All-Pro team in three straight seasons from 2017-19.

In a league that values consistency, Kelce has started 16 regular season games in eight of his professional seasons, and played 100 percent of the Eagles’ offensive snaps in four of them, including the 2020 season.

Does Kelce still deliver an errant snap from time to time? Yes. Can he get man-handled when facing off against a supersized nose tackle like, say, Michael Pierce? Most definitely, even if the old-school, “Snacks” Harrison-type nose tackle is slowly working its way out of the NFL, Kelce’s sub-300 pound person can be moved off the line by a powerful bull rusher. But honestly, what player doesn’t have their unique issues? Even if he isn’t a “perfect” center and has lost a bit of what made him special in his post-30-year-old prime, that doesn’t mean Kelce isn’t still arguably the best zone-blocking center in the NFC East, let alone the NFL.

Are you looking for a center capable of diagnosing a defense, identifying the Mike/blitz, and changing the coverage at the line of scrimmage? Kelce is your guy. How about a savvy pass blocker who only allowed nine sacks over the entire Doug Pederson-era of Eagles history? And what about a pulling center who can snap the ball and even serve as a lead blocker in space on an outside zone? My goodness, have you even watched Kelce play over the last decade? Even at 33, Kelce is one of the best pullers in the business and could make even the best fullbacks of yesteryear jealous with his otherworldly ability to open up space on the second level.

Do you want to know who (probably) hasn’t watched much tape of Kelce as of late? Kelce’s peers, as you’d think his reputation would proceed him even among the non-linemen casting their ballots.

In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter one darn bit where Eagles players land on the NFL Network Top-100 list, or on any list for that matter. All that really counts, both hypothetically and very legitimately, is how the team performs on the field and whether or not they are able to rebound from an ugly 2020 season under first-year head coach Nick Sirianni. If that happens, no one will care where any player fell on a pre-season list.

… then again, with only so many Jason Kelce seasons left before he rides off into the sunset of what should be an incredibly eventful retirement, it sure would be nice to see the Philadelphia Eagles all-timer receive a bit more love outside of his adopted home. *sigh* to paraphrase his infamous Super Bowl-winning speech/NSFW song, “No one likes us, we don’t care.“