The Philadelphia Eagles are well represented in FanSided’s NFL insider poll
With the start of the 2021 NFL season right around the corner, FanSided’s Matt Lombardo reached out to 15 NFL executives, scouts, and even a pair of head coaches to gauge the general sentiments around the league.
Where some teams being underrated? Are there players who could shock the world with their play? And how about the most important question of all: Super Bowl 56, who ya got?
Well, outside of that final question, the Philadelphia Eagles and their starting quarterback Jalen Hurts were very well represented in this year’s poll, and that, my friends, should get you just a little bit more hyped for the forthcoming season.
Could the Birds from Philly surprise some people this fall? Maybe, maybe not, but some NFL team employees certainly feel that way.
Both Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles received votes in FanSided’s preseason poll.
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Every year can’t be “our year” for every team in the NFL.
By the very nature of playing a sport with a finite number of games that almost always result in a winner and a loser – unless you play the Preseason Jets – some teams are going to do better while other stock up on premium draft picks and set their sights on the future.
2021 is not expected to be the Philadelphia Eagles year.
Now granted, 2017 wasn’t supposed to be the Eagles’ year either, but these are very different teams. That one wasn’t straddled with $50 million in dead money, had far more veteran talent in their primes, and were the beneficiaries of some incredibly lucky breaks that just aren’t replicable year after year.
But still, just because the Birds aren’t going to win the Super Bowl doesn’t mean they are going to be the first 0-17 team in NFL history and pick first overall in the draft. Some overly optimistic
fools
folks think the Eagles might just surprise some people, including one of Matt Lombardo’s poll participants, who ID’d Philadelphia as their number one team who could shock people this season.
Who else made the list, you may ask? Well, Denver led the way with five votes, then New England with four, Minnesota and Cleveland at two, and the 49ers bringing up with back with the Eagles at one vote each.
Now granted, did some people take the question a different way than Lombardo intended? Maybe so. The 49ers surprising people would look a good bit different than the Eagles doing so, as one would surely result in a Super Bowl berth, but still, it’s always nice to be recognized.
But wait, there’s more. Jalen Hurts also received some love in FanSided’s poll, as he picked up a single surprise MVP vote alongside Dak Prescott and, um, ex-Eagles running back Raheem Mostert?
Yup, some anonymous NFL player really likes Mostert’s game even if a running back hasn’t won a league MVP award since Adrian Peterson back in 2012.
… okay then. Give me Hurts over Mostert 100 times out of 100 but maybe that’s just me.
Next. Jalen Hurts has been acting like a captain all summer. dark
Ultimately, preseason accolades don’t mean a thing. Many an August darling is out of it by December, and seemingly every year, some team no one expects shocks the world as a come-out-of-nowhere playoff performer. Will the Philadelphia Eagles ultimately be that team in 2021? Probably not, but they might just flit with double-digit wins in the wide-open NFC East, which would be an incredibly successful season even if it doesn’t result in a playoff berth.