They say to be the best you have to beat the best. The Eagles are the reigning Super Bowl champions, so as of now, all roads to the top go through Philly.
In what I hope will be a fun exercise, I wanted to take a look and see how many Commanders would start for the 2025 Eagles.
Offense:
QB: Jayden Daniels over Jalen Hurts – Daniels’ upside is far greater than Hurts.
RB: Eagles
WR1: Eagles
WR2: Samuel over Smith – I’m going with Deebo here because of the versatility and YAC.
Slot WR: McCaffrey/Lane over Dotson – Yes, I’m taking either of these players over the bust Dotson.
TE: Eagles
LT: Tunsil over Mailata – Tunsil is the better pass protector. Mailata is the better run blocker. Because the NFL is 60/40 Pass/Run, I’m taking Tunsil.
LG: Eagles
C: Toss-up – Biadasz vs. Jurgens
RG: Cosmi over Steen – A heathy Cosmi is a top 10 right guard in the NFL.
RT: Eagles
Defense:
EDGE: Eagles
DT(3-tech): Eagles
DT(1-tech): Payne over Davis – Payne will have another breakout season opposite Kinlaw/Newton.
EDGE: Eagles
LB MIKE): Wagner over Dean – Dean may be younger and more athletic, but Wagner is better.
LB (WILL): Toss-up – Luvu vs. Baun
CB1: Lattimore over Mitchell – Mitchell is a good young corner, but a healthy Lattimore is still a tier above (health being the key word here). This could change after another good year by Mitchell.
CB2: Jones/Amos over Ringo/Jackson – Ringo and Jackson are about as average as they come.
Slot CB: Toss-up – Sainristil vs. DeJean
FS: Martin over Blankenship – This may be a bit of an unpopular opinion now, but I start Quan over Reed.
SS: Eagles
Overall, I have picked 10 Commanders who I believe would start for the Eagles. I have three positions I view as toss-ups (center, WILL linebacker and slot CB). That leave the Eagles with nine.
Breaking down the Big-5:
QB – Commanders (not much to debate here. Despite the SB ring, Jayden is just better).
WR1 – Eagles (Brown takes this one over McLaurin).
OT – Eagles (even though I gave the slight edge at LT to Washington, the combo of Johnson and Mailata is better than Tunsil and Conerly)
EDGE – Eagles
CB1 – Commanders
*I have both tackle spots here in my Big 5, as the importance of a RT has grown significantly. Because of this, the Eagles take the Big 5.
Breaking down each roster by groups:
QB Room – Commanders
RB Group – Eagles
WR Group – Commanders
TE Group – Eagles
OL Group – Eagles
DL Group – Eagles
EDGE Group – Eagles
LB Group – Commanders
CB Group – Commanders
S Group – Eagles
*The Eagles claim the better overall roster, as they pull out big victories in both trenches. Although they lost some key pieces here, they still edge out the Commanders in this ever-so-important area.
The Eagles can also claim both the better offense and defense as they edge the Commanders by one in each.
Creating the Super-Team
Offense:
QB: Jayden Daniels
RB: Saquon Barkley
WR: A.J. Brown
WR: Terry McLaurin
WR: Deebo Samuel
TE: Dallas Goedert
LT: Laremy Tunsil
LG: Landon Dickerson
C: Cam Jurgens
RG: Sam Cosmi
RT: Lane Johnson
Defense:
EDGE: Nolan Smith
DT: Jalen Carter
DT: Daron Payne
EDGE: Jihaad Campbell
LB: Bobby Wagner
LB: Frankie Luvu
CB: Marshon Lattimore
CB: Quinyon Mitchell
Slot CB: Mike Sainristil
S: Cooper DeJean
S: Quan Martin
*The super team above is split evenly with 11 Commanders and 11 Eagles.
This exercise is obviously very subjective, and I imagine if it was done by an Eagles “fan”, it would be incredibly lopsided towards the Birds. However, I did this to show that even though the Eagles are still the better team on paper, I believe Washington has closed the gap.
To be the best you have to beat the best. Washington is well on their way to putting together a team designed to do just that!