T.J. Edwards a Finalist for Butkus Award

The Eagles LB had 159 tackles this season with 10 tackles for loss, but is scheduled to be a free agent after the season

Chauncey Gardner-Johnson has the interceptions. Six of them.

Haason Reddick has the sacks. Sixteen of those.

Reddick isn’t alone there, though. Brandon Graham, Javon Hargrave, and Josh Sweat each posted 11 sacks as the team put up 70 of them, which is the most in a season since the 1989 Vikings had 71.

Then there are the Eagles’ 1,000-yard receivers, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

It’s easy for T.J. Edwards to get lost in some of those gaudy numbers.

He was, though, the Eagles’ leading tackler with 159. He also had 10 tackles for loss.

His season was not lost on the Butkus Foundation, which, on Wednesday, named Edwards a finalist for the Butkus Award for professionals.

The other five linebackers who are finalists are:

• Kansas City’s Nick Bolton

• New York Jets C.J. Mosley

• Baltimore’s Roquan Smith

• L.A. Rams Bobby Wagner

• San Francisco’s Fred Warner

If you look closely at those five you will see the one thing that jumps out about them: They are all players drafted no later than the third round.

Mosley and Smith came in the first round, Bolton and Wagner in the second, and Warner in the third.

Edwards wasn’t drafted at all. He arrived with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin in 2019.

He steadily climbed the ranks from deep down the depth chart, playing special teams, to becoming a full-time starter midway through last year. He hasn’t looked back since and he is no less a valuable member of the Eagles’ defense than Gardner-Johnson, Reddick, and others.

The Eagles drafted a potential replacement last spring in Nakobe Dean, though it is assumed that Dean will supplant Kyzir White in the lineup.

Right now, Edwards and White are both scheduled to be free agents after the season.

The Eagles would like to bring back Edwards, for sure.

It’s going to come down to whether or not what they offer him will be enough to entice him to sign, or maybe he will want to test free agency and gauge his worth on the open market.

Edwards was asked more than once about his contract situation during the season, but, like every free agent on this team – and there are more than a dozen – he declined to say much about it.

Winning the Butkus Award over such luminaries that are in the final with him, would likely add value to his next contract.

The three 2022 Butkus Award winners – high school, college, and pro – will be honored at a televised event on Jan. 21 at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The event, which airs on the Big Ten Network on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. ET, will again feature namesake Dick Butkus and numerous noted NFL Alumni.

Jack Campbell of Iowa is the collegiate winner and Drayk Bowen, of Andrean H.S. in Merrillville, Ind. was chosen as the high school recipient.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.