Anthony Gargano Makes The Case For Going After Jonathan Taylor

"I want to talk about something today. The Jonathan Taylor thing. The reports are it is 3 teams in on him, including the Dolphins and the Eagles. The Dolphins appear to be the favorite right now. But let's examine this from an Eagles' perspective. I was talking to a buddy, and he actually changed my opening. He made such a compelling case for Jonathan Taylor, that it swayed me.

He tells me that he studied Jalen Hurts' contract, and Justin Herbert's contract side by side. And he believes that only the last year of the Hurts contract is a death kneel. You have outs to rework the deal. Everything about now is about extending what they are doing now. Trying to keep the window always open...And the Eagles have done a very good job of being relevant. If you go over the last 23 years, they have been perennial contenders. The only mistakes were the Dream Team, and then you had some bad drafts. But Howie 2.0, after Chip Kelly, has been a  rousing success. 

At first blush, you go you are not going to pay for the RB. But since no one is paying for the RB, maybe you can. You have a lot of veterans that will come off the books. So you have some money coming off the book, and that gives you flexibility. Is there a way to go with the two hometown RBs? Swift and Taylor. Swift is such a great troute runner, that Taylor becomes your primary back, and Swift is a Deebo hybrid type. 

There is a way to fit him in, and not have it hurt you long-term. A 2 and a 5 for Jonathan Taylor at 24 years old makes you so formidable. Howie loves to flex, and to get someone like Jonathan Taylor excites me. And when you look at it, you start to think maybe it is possible... You can bring Jonathan Taylor back home."

In just a couple of weeks, we will get real Football back. No more pre-season games with 3rd stringers. An actual Football game with consequences. The season kicks off on September 7th when the Detroit Lions take on the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs, still hurts to say that. Then that Sunday, our Eagles take the field for the first time when they head up to Foxborough to play the Patriots. We survived camp, and these fake pre-season games, and will finally get to see Jalen Hurts slinging TDs to AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. But the NFL being back also means something else is back. Power Rankings. 

Power rankings are one of those things we all know does not matter, yet every week many of us still feel that urge to seek out to see where the Eagles fall. Then we can get upset when some national writer inevitably has something negative to say about them. It makes no sense. We shouldn't care. Yet these power rankings continue to drive traffic. So clearly a lot of us still love to check them out. And I am ashamed to admit I am one of those people who click every single time to see where the Eagles fell, and what they had to say about them. 

And now many of these sites are putting out their first power rankings, now that preseason is coming to a close. Where did the Eagles fall on those rankings? What concerns are some of these national reporters bringing up in their rankings? Do some of them see the Eagles being even better in certain areas this year?ESPN, NFL Network, Bleacher Report, and PFF all put out Power Rankings as we approach the regular season. 

Pff ranked the Eagles as the 2nd best team in the league. Obviously just the Chiefs ahead of them, which is fair enough seeing as they are the Champs.

The defense lost a lot of pieces last year. But they also gained some. Is it fair to question if all the new faces could fill the holes left behind by names like CJ Gardner Johnson, TJ Edwards, and Javon Hargrave? Sure. But the pieces they brought in are very promising.  See PFF's full power rankings here.

ESPN also put the Eagles at 2, with only the Chiefs above them.

The way ESPN did their pre-season power rankings, is they gave a person on the hot seat for each team going into the season. For the Eagles, Tim McManus picked Michael Clay. Which is very fair. If there is any area of weakness on this team, it is Special Teams. Not just punter either, but punt and kick coverage. A team that already struggled in that area is now down two of their special team’s aces. There is a lot of pressure on Michael Clay to make it better this year.  

Check out the full ESPN power rankings here. 

 You may be sensing a trend. The Eagles camp in at 2 for the NFL Network, only behind the Chiefs. And what they focused on was the addition of D'Andre Swift. 

Swift may be the guy I am most excited to see this year. It has been a while since the Eagles had any RB who could be a true part of the passing game. Miles Sanders showed a lot of promise in that area his rookie year, but then struggled to make any impact there since. Swift will bring that dimension back to the Eagles, making an already elite offense even better.  

Check out their full Power Rankings here.

And here we have the one site that put the Eagles lower than 2. On Bleacher Report, the Eagles were ranked 3, below not only the Chiefs but also the Bengals. One of the main reasons for that was their concern over a Super Bowl hangover, and also that they are not likely to have the same injury luck this season. Both are fair points. But they still praised how 'balanced' and "talented' the Eagles roster is.

Check out the full Bleacher Report Power rankings here.