The Eagles weren’t getting a lot of love from their peers in the early months of the season, as evidenced by the newly released Anonymous Player Poll of 2024 by The Athletic. Beat reporters from around the league interviewed 110 NFL players in August and September, and asked everyone the same set of questions — although not everyone answered all the questions, and players were given anonymity on their answers.
One thing was clear when reading these results, the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles were completely undervalued after their 2023 collapse, and not even adding Saquon Barkley could get Eagles players added to some of these lists.
Aside from maybe one vote here and there, no Eagles were widely named as the likely MVP, the best non-QB to build a team around, or rated among the Top 3 players for a flag football team. Plus, Philly wasn’t anyone’s favorite travel city, and Lincoln Financial Field was not included among the stadiums with the best field conditions.
In fact, the only category the Eagles were really well-represented in, was Most Annoying Player in the NFL. Of the 68 players who voted in the category, 14 (20.9%) named C.J. Gardner-Johnson, putting the safety in the No. 1 spot on the list.
The Athletic reports that one player said, “Yap yap yap,” of the sixth-year veteran.
The Athletic
Notorious trash-talker, and Eagles legend, Brandon Graham also made the list at No. 4. He won’t be on the field the rest of this year, although Graham’s surgery was successful following his triceps injury, but he’s looking at a 4-6 month recovery. Opponents won’t get a break from the yapping, though, as the veteran still went for the coin toss against the Ravens, and is expected to be on the sideline as often as possible.
For what it’s worth, A.J. Brown notched one vote for most annoying, too.
Since these results don’t actually mean much, especially in early-December when the Eagles are riding an eight-game win streak, it feels good that the one area Eagles players really stood out was being annoying. It seems fitting for the team, and the city, and should be more of a compliment than anything else.
No one likes us, we don’t care.
Source : BleedingGreenNation