NFL young talent rankings: No. 1 Eagles just keep reloading along the way

Ralph Vacchiano

NFC East Reporter

Which NFL teams have the best young cores? FOX Sports took a deep look at every team’s core of players drafted between 2019 and 2023 to ascertain which franchises have the most promising base of young talent. Our writers ranked all 32 individually, and the final result is an aggregate of all those lists. We’ll count them down for you before the start of the 2023 NFL season, starting with the worst (No. 32) all the way up to No. 1.

They have a strong but aging “Core Four” that makes up the heartbeat of their franchise. They have an experienced roster that makes them one of the league’s oldest teams. They are the defending NFC champions and have been to two Super Bowls in the past six seasons.

So how in the world do the Philadelphia Eagles manage to have the best young talent base in the NFL, too?

“They’re like a machine,” said a rival general manager. “They lose a guy, they have someone waiting to replace him who’s even better. They’re like a factory with talent just falling off the assembly line.”

“The way they’ve drafted and manipulated the cap the last few years, it’s been impressive,” said an NFC personnel executive. “And they somehow just keep ending up with great players that everyone else overlooked.”

There are a lot of theories about how the Eagles have been able to build what looks like the NFL’s next powerhouse franchise, but almost everyone gives credit to GM Howie Roseman and the way he has kept his roster stocked with young talent. He’s aggressive and not afraid to take chances, but more importantly, as the NFC executive said, “He has a knack for finding value, wherever it is.”

There’s no better example of that than quarterback Jalen Hurts, a surprise second-round pick (53rd overall) in the 2020 draft, taken at a time when the Eagles already had a franchise quarterback in Carson Wentz. But that’s far from the only example. There’s Roseman’s offseason trade for unwanted Lions running back D’Andre Swift for a fourth-round pick. And there was the 2023 draft, when the GM moved up for defensive tackle Jalen Carter after eight teams passed on the prodigious defensive tackle. And then edge rusher Nolan Smith fell into Roseman’s lap at pick No. 30.

“Good things just keep happening to them,” said one NFC scout. “I lost count of how many times in the draft they made a pick and I screamed, ‘How the hell did the Eagles end up with that guy?'”

FOX Sports NFL Draft Analyst Rob Rang said there’s a simple answer to Philadelphia’s success: “The sheer number of draft picks the Eagles accumulated via trades over the years.” Plus, there’s their focus on accumulating players from the powerful SEC, which Rang said “is akin to investing in lottery tickets already knowing half of the winning numbers.”

Rang added that the Eagles deserve credit for “gambles on injury-prone college stars” like defensive end Josh Sweat (fourth round, 2018), guard Landon Dickerson (second round, 2021) and Smith. It’s all part of Roseman’s willingness to take chances when the value is there.

As a result, the Eagles are loaded — and they just keep reloading along the way.

“The drafts the last two years, moving around and trading for D’Andre Swift — they get a lot of really good young players in different ways,” said an NFC personnel executive.

In other words, the Eagles are rich with talent. And the rich just keep getting richer.

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Young core

QB Jalen Hurts
WR A.J. Brown
WR DeVonta Smith
G Landon Dickerson
RB D’Andre Swift
DT Jalen Carter
DT Jordan Davis

Standout: QB Jalen Hurts

Maybe it’s easy to pick the franchise quarterback as the “standout” among the Eagles’ young players. But consider what he was when he arrived in Philadelphia: a second-round pick in 2020, 53rd overall and the fifth quarterback taken in that draft. And the Eagles, less than a year earlier, had just signed Wentz to a four-year, $128 million contract extension with $107.9 million guaranteed.

Even Roseman wasn’t predicting greatness for Hurts. He was looking for depth in the quarterback room. He swore the team believed in Wentz.

Things changed fast, of course, and Wentz was benched during Hurts’ rookie year. But even then, no one viewed Hurts as a future MVP contender and a player who’d become arguably the best dual-threat quarterback in the league.

“There were signs [in 2022],” said an NFC scout. “He was still mostly a runner, though. His passing was limited. He had trouble throwing to all areas of the field. Then they went and got A.J. Brown and showed it wasn’t Hurts’ fault. He just didn’t have the weapons. Once he got them, the growth was remarkable.”

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Hurts threw for 2,701 yards and 22 touchdowns last season and ran for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns. That was good enough to land him second in the NFL MVP voting. He also got the Eagles to Super Bowl LVII, where he was an impressive 27-of-38 for 304 yards and a touchdown while running 15 times for 70 yards and three touchdowns.

The Eagles think that was just the beginning, and plenty of people around the NFL agree.

“I don’t think he’ll ever be the passer that [Joe] Burrow or [Justin] Herbert is,” said an NFL personnel executive. “But I don’t know that there’s a quarterback better about making decisions on when to throw and where to throw it. His football IQ is incredible. And his leadership is off the charts.”

Potential breakout: RB D’Andre Swift

The Eagles didn’t even try to retain RB Miles Sanders, who ran for 1,269 yards and 11 touchdowns for them last season. They were convinced they could replace him cheaply, and they were proven right when they got the 24-year-old Swift from the Lions.

Swift, who has never rushed for more than 617 yards in a season, figures to be the main man in a deep backfield for the Eagles. He’ll get competition for carries from Rashaad Penny, a free agent they signed from Seattle, and last year’s third back, Kenneth Gainwell. Hurts, of course, will probably get about 30 percent of the carries again, too.

But if last year is any indication, a workhorse running back will emerge — and the 5-foot-9, 211-pound Swift is the most likely candidate. Behind the best offensive line in football, his first 1,000-yard season seems assured.

“This guy is fast, shifty, powerful — he has the whole package,” said an NFC scout. “He was in a bad situation in Detroit, on bad teams with bad offensive lines. Then last year, when they finally got good, the coaching staff liked [Jamaal] Williams more. The few times the Lions really used him, though, he produced.”

The Eagles, of course, remember the 15 carries for 144 yards Swift put on them in the opener last season. But they also had their eyes on the 52 catches for 399 yards he averaged in the first three years of his career. That receiver out of the backfield was an element they were missing last season (Gainwell led Eagles running backs with 23 catches for 169 yards).

Swift gives them that other dimension, which only adds to his potential for a big year.

Contract to consider: WR DeVonta Smith

He had 95 catches for 1,196 yards and seven touchdowns last season, and he’s still the No. 2 receiver on his team. He’d be the No. 1 receiver on all but a handful of NFL teams around the league, and he’d sign a huge contract if he ever hit free agency.

The Eagles have some time before that happens. Smith is entering the third year of his rookie contract, and they’ll surely pick up his fifth-year option for 2025 in May. But the Eagles tend to be proactive when it comes to young players they want to keep, so he could be playing for a lucrative contract extension right now.

That’s fascinating because the Eagles already gave Brown one of the richest contracts for a receiver— a four-year, $100 million extension. Smith, at age 24 (only about a year and a half younger the Brown) is surely going to seek more than that.

Is he worth it?

“The only real knock on Smith coming into the NFL was his slight frame, but as the league has increasingly catered rules to aid the offense, smaller players are finding more and more success,” said Rang. “And Heisman Trophy winners from pro-ready schemes, like Smith, rarely need help. He is among the most polished route-runners and hands-catchers as there is in the league and the built-in rapport he already had with Jalen Hurts only eased his transition.”

All of that is true, but this is still a salary-capped sport and economics will be a factor, especially if Brown is still going strong when the Eagles are ready to pay Smith.

“Paying two receivers $100 million or more would kill the cap for most teams,” said an NFC executive. “Watch Howie Roseman figure it out. They always find a way.” 

Key stats 

• Last season, Jalen Hurts won 14 games, becoming the second-youngest QB in league history to do so. He had 18 rush TDs in 2022 (including playoffs), the most by a QB in a season in NFL history. He rushed for three TDs in the Super Bowl, becoming the second QB in NFL history to do so in a playoff game (Otto Graham in 1954). Hurts has two career games (one in playoffs and one in regular season) with 300 pass yards, 50 rush yards and three rush TDs. No other player has ever done it even once (regular season or playoffs).
• DeVonta Smith’s 95 receptions last season were the most in a single season in franchise history. Also, he is only the third player in Eagles history to record 100 receiving yards in a Super Bowl (Terrell Owens, Corey Clement).
• D’Andre Swift ranked third last season among all running backs with 5.5 yards per rush. He became the fifth player in Lions history and first since Barry Sanders in 1997 to score 50-yard touchdowns rushing and receiving in the same season.
• Jalen Carter was a 2022 consensus First Team All-American at Georgia. Over the past two seasons, he had more pressures (48) and run stops (19) than any other defensive tackle in the SEC.

Inside info

DT Jalen Carter: “Carter is a significant departure from the equation the Eagles have used in building arguably the most gifted roster in the NFL. Whereas some of the other ‘controversial’ picks in recent years came with size, speed or durability concerns, Carter’s motor and motivation were questioned by scouts much more than his physical talent. 

“When focused, he is an utterly dominant interior presence who demands constant attention. He isn’t so much a finisher who will collect a dozen sacks as he is the instigator whose size and power create easy opportunities for his teammates. By surrounding him with former teammates at Georgia, the Eagles are presenting him the smoothest route to NFL stardom.” —NFL talent evaluator

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DT Jordan Davis: “Everybody seems to be forgetting about him because of Jalen Carter. But Davis is a huge part of that line, especially against the run. He’s a big load in the middle that just forces teams to run to the outside. When he was out last year [with an ankle injury], the defense wasn’t the same. He’s not Javon Hargrave and he probably won’t be the pass-rusher that Carter will be, but he’s an impact player on that line.” —NFC scout

WR A.J. Brown: “There were times I watched him last season and I didn’t think he was great. There were weird lapses in concentration and a few too many drops. Then you look up and he’s got five or six catches, 90-100 yards. It’s just effortless for him. There’s not a lot of flash, which is why nobody puts him up with Justin Jefferson or those guys. But he’s just as talented. And on a team with two receivers like that, when you don’t know who to double? You better get to the quarterback, because Brown will make you pay.” —NFC personnel executive

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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