The Eagles Were Two Great Players Shy Of Competing For The Super Bowl
By Ray Boyd
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- We can quantify almost anything in the numbers driven world of sports. ESPN and Pro Football Focus put together an analysis of all the teams that played in the conference championship games from 2007-2013.
What PFF found was that every team had an average of at least 40 percent of their roster made up of players that they graded out to be either good or elite. Using their numbers, they were able to project how many above-average players each team lacked that was not participating in this year's Super Bowl.
Essentially, they found out how far away each team was from contending for a title.
According to their analysis, the Eagles were just two above-average players away from contending for a Super Bowl.
Only four teams had the same or less amount of players as the Eagles. The Cowboys were said to be zero elite players away, while the Ravens, the Broncos and the Packers were all said to be two away as well.
In fact the Eagles were the only non-playoff team to appear in the top six teams in the analysis.
However, can we really buy that the Eagles were only two above-average players away from going to the Super Bowl?
According to the study, here is how the Eagles roster broke down:
The Eagles had three elite players, nine good players, 19 average players and three bad players according to PFF's ratings. The three elites for the Birds were Jason Peters, Evan Mathis and Brandon Graham.
Notables from the good list were Mychal Kendricks, Fletcher Cox, Jeremy Maclin and Malcolm Jenkins. The average list included names like Darren Sproles, Nate Allen, Connor Barwin, Cary Williams, Nick Foles and Mark Sanchez.
So who were the three bad Eagles?
Not all too surprising on the bad list were Bradley Fletcher and Riley Cooper. Fans became frustrated with Fletcher throughout most of the season as they watched touchdown pass after touchdown pass sail over his shoulder into the hands of waiting receivers.
Cooper simply did not live up to the production he had in 2013, which was not helped out by the fact that DeSean Jackson was still producing solid numbers down in Washington.
The big surprise of the breakdown was the third name on the bad list, LeSean McCoy.
Before we all ask how, here is PFF's explanation for their ratings:
"Pro Football Focus uses its proprietary metrics to evaluate every player on every snap in every game. Each player's rating here is based solely off how his performance in 2014 compared to that of the peers at his position."
Despite a dip in numbers, McCoy still rushed for 1,319 yards behind an offensive line that was riddled with injuries for most of the season. While a case could be made for McCoy not belonging on the elite list, there is no reason why he was rated as bad.
Regardless, the question still remains. Are the Eagles really just an above average player or two away from playing in the big game?
Clearly these projections are based a lot on opinion. You could argue that at least Barwin and McCoy should have been considered above average which would have put the Eagles up there with the Cowboys.
Maybe that would have been worse. To be ranked as a team with all the tools to compete, but still wind up on the outside looking in at the playoffs, sounds like a really tough pill to swallow.
