ClutchPoints
Heading into the 2024 NFL regular season, the Philadephia Eagles had to replace two of the very best players in franchise history: Fletcher Cox and Jason Kelce.
Drafted in the early 2010s, with Cox coming off the board in the first round of 2012 and Kelce becoming the seal of the 2021 draft in the sixth round, the dynamic duo helped to maintain over a decade of excellence in the trenches for Philadelphia, with the idea of replacing the duo in the very same season a scary prospect by any quantifiable metric.
And yet, with the NFC Championship game rapidly approaching, the Eagles have barely missed the duo, with Jalen Carter and Cam Jurgens becoming two of the top players at their respective positions in their first years as full-time starters.
Need proof? Well, look no further than Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, who broke down before Week 21 how effortlessly Carter and Jurgens have stepped into two of the biggest sets of shoes on Philadelphia’s 2024 depth chart.
“Jalen Carter is playing well good football. Excited that he’s continuing to get better. I talked a lot about him and his development and all the things. Obviously the talent is there, but he’s developed so much as far as just everything, his instincts, and just continues to get better. He’s got great football instincts,” Sirianni told reporters.
“To have two phenomenal defensive tackles back-to-back, that says a lot. Same thing with [former Eagles C] Jason [Kelce] to [C] Cam [Jurgens]. It’s the same type of deal. So, obviously, you miss those guys. I miss being around Jason every day. I miss being around [former Eagles DT Fletcher Cox] Fletch every day. But these two guys are playing really good football. Excited for their path and continued development.”
For Carter, the transition from playing alongside Cox to becoming the team’s near-every-down three-technique rusher has been borderline effortless, with the pride of Georgia becoming a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro as the focal point of Vic Fangio’s defense. While he hasn’t recorded double-digit sacks just yet, picking up just 4.5 during the regular season plus two more in the playoffs, Carter draws a gravity that is simply impossible for one blocker to stop, which is incredible, considering he’s planning an average of 84 percent of Philly’s defensive snaps.
And as for Jurgens? Well, while he doesn’t have the magnetic draw that has landed Kelce everything from multiple ESPN television gigs to cereal boxes and a small army of other endorsements, his on-field game has looked remarkably similar to the player he replaced. Like Kelce, Jurgens is a beast in the open field, where he turns into a full back in open space, and his ability to get his teammates in the correct blocking schemes has been paramount to Saquon Barkley’s 2,000-yard rushing season.
Throw that all together and what do you have? An absolutely incredible run of drafting success by Howie Roseman, who figured out a way to replace two all-time greats...
