NFL Power Rankings Roundup Week 9: Eagles see a slight boost

With Week 8 of the NFL season in the books, it’s time look at how various media outlets have ranked the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in their NFL power rankings. It’s always interesting to see how the Eagles stack up from an outside perspective. But first, let’s start by revisiting mine.

Bleeding Green Nation

15 - Philadelphia Eagles - The reigning Super Bowl champions are still alive after reaching 4-4. It wasn’t a pretty win over a bad Jags squad but the Eagles will take it. The best thing this team has going is that Carson Wentz is very good. (LW: 15)

SB Nation

10 - The Eagles got a bit of a boost from their win over the lifeless Jaguars in London. (LW: 12)

ESPN

9 - While offenses are scoring at an all-time clip, Philadelphia’s has gone in reverse. The Eagles rank 21st with an average of 22.2 points per game, a decrease of more than six points from their Super Bowl season (28.6 PPG). They are getting high production out of Carson Wentz, Alshon Jeffery and Zach Ertz. The rest of the supporting cast needs to pick up their game if Philly is going to compete with the likes of the Saints and Rams down the stretch. (LW: 10)

NFL.com

14 - Back to .500 ... what an up-and-down year for the defending champs, who evened their record Sunday in London on the strength of the defense. Jordan Hicks was all over the place, posting 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Chris Long added two sacks of his own. Free Atomic Fireballs for you if you guessed Josh Adams would be the game’s leading rusher. The rookie rang up more yards than he produced all season, then celebrated his 22nd birthday Monday. Side note: Jordan Matthews, of all people, was the game’s leading receiver, while Corey Clement has barely been getting his hands on the ball. Odd. (LW: 14)

CBS Sports

16 - They head to their bye with a 4-4 record. They have issues, but they are fixable. (LW: 17)

Pro Football Talk

10 - If the Eagles make it back to the playoffs, they definitely will have earned it, with five division games left, including four against Dallas and Washington. (LW: 12)

Yahoo! Sports

9 - The most interesting team of the trading deadline on Tuesday made a move in dealing for Lions wideout Golden Tate. The Eagles got a nice win Sunday against the Jaguars, they’re right in the NFC East race, yet they still sought a spark. (LW: 9)

Washington Post

9 - The victory over the Jaguars in London does not mean that all is well and everything is fixed for the Eagles. After all, beating the Jaguars has not exactly been a major feat lately. But it’s far better for the Eagles than it would have been if they’d lost, and the defending champs at least reached the .500 mark halfway through their season. (LW: 12)

Bleacher Report

11 - Sunday’s contest in London was something of a do-or-die affair for a pair of teams that were considered Super Bowl contenders entering the season. A win for the Eagles or Jaguars would get then back to .500 heading into the bye. A loss would drop them to 3-5 and send them into scramble mode over the season’s second half. It was the defending champions who answered the bell, gutting out a six-point win at Wembley Stadium. It wasn’t an especially impressive performance—as is often the case in London neither the Eagles or Jags looked their best. But Philly had one of its better efforts of the year running the ball, with Josh Adams spearheading a ground game that gained 133 yards and averaged 4.8 yards a carry. One of the Eagles bigger issues this season has been the inability to run the ball with any kind of consistency. If Philadelphia has stumbled across a potential solution to that problem in Adams it could go a long way toward keying a second-half surge by the team. (LW: 12)

Pro Football Weekly

9 - Pass rush did its job in London test without Derek Barnett. (LW: 10)

Sporting News

11 - Carson Wentz is in the zone, and he helped them dust both the Giants and the Jaguars to get to .500. But there’s still not a great feeling that they’re ready to compete with the new best teams in NFL. The running game and defense still need plenty of work. (LW: 13)

USA Today

10 - Treat — they enjoyed London in best possible way, getting win to level record at 4-4 before heading back across Atlantic to much-needed bye. (LW: 13)

Reddit

13 - The Eagles head into their bye week following a queen-impressing win at Wembley in London. At .500, the defending Super Bowl champions have more questions than when the season began and 2 weeks to sort them out before hosting the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. (LW: 12)

Mile High Report

12 - Carson Wentz is statistically playing great, but he still just doesn’t look right. Either that or this team just lost their edge in a big way. It’s up to their coaching staff and players themselves to get it back, otherwise I think they will be watching the playoffs from the comfort of their own couch. (LW: 12)

Sports Illustrated

10 - The Eagles won their must-win date with the Chargers, and with five division games left on the schedule they are more than capable of going on a second-half run to the playoffs. (LW: 11)

Pro Football Focus

8 - The Eagles are still getting a lot of love from our priors, which had them as the number one team going into the season. They are still performing well in many areas – including being a top early-down defense despite a lot of injuries in the secondary. In many ways, Carson Wentz is playing better than a season ago – as he is limiting his negatively-graded plays to fewer than 10% of his dropbacks this year. (LW: 10)

Rotoworld

10 - Welcome to Philadelphia, the slot receiver capital of the NFL. The Eagles already had Nelson Agholor and Jordan Matthews before they ponied up a third-round pick for Golden Tate at Tuesday’s trade deadline. It’s unclear whether Tate will remain in the slot or work outside opposite Alshon Jeffery, but the Eagles will have the bye week to figure that out. Corey Clement has quickly dropped off the fantasy map, totaling just 12 yards on 12 carries over his last two contests while falling to third on the Eagles’ depth chart behind Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams. (LW: 13)

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Analysis

The rankings range from as high as 8 to as low as 16. The most common ranking is 10. The average ranking is 10.9, which is up slightly from last week’s average of 11.5.

No surprise to see the Eagles only move up slightly after a close victory over a bad Jaguars team. The fact that a lot of teams ahead of Philadelphia also won made it harder for them to move up.

The Eagles are obviously on their bye this week so we likely won’t see much movement in next week’s roundup.