Philadelphia Eagles: Ranking the off-ball linebackers of the NFC East

Normally, Philadelphia Eagles fans would hate this sort of list. Normally this would be a cruel reminder of Howie Roseman’s unwillingness to commit to the linebacker position, and it would be like rubbing sand in a fresh would detailing how other teams got better while the Eagles stayed bad.

By some football miracle, that is no longer the case.

Mind you, the NFC East still isn’t particularly loaded with linebacker talent. The Eagles now arguably have three of the top five players at the position in the division, and suddenly look like they can field a professional unit.

But how does it compare to the rest of the division? Let’s find out.

4. New York Giants

The New York Giants’ linebacking corps is… kind of bad, right? Like, their most experienced backer, Blake Martinez, is coming off of an ACL injury, their depth is largely comprised of guys drafted on Day 3 and despite all of that, they didn’t sign any free agent backers or draft one in a premier spot, despite having multiple cracks at Nakobe Dean.

Will this strategy work? Will the addition of Wink Martindale magically cover up for a lack of talent with sheer creativity, or is linebacker the next position that needs to be addressed in their rebuild? We will have to see.

Most important performer: Micah McFadden.

Micah McFadden sort of has to be the player to watch on the New York Giants because he’s the only real new player at the position.

A fifth-round pick out of Indiana, McFadden is an interesting player; though he’s not the biggest, fastest, or strongest player around, and isn’t a very good coverage defender, he was one of the top pass-rushing inside linebackers in the 2022 NFL Draft and will certainly get some play in a defense looking to disguise where pressure is coming from.

If McFadden can pad out his game, he might actually be a great player, if not, well, he’ll at least be a good blitzer, which is better than nothing.