Ranking the Top 25 Eagles from the 2022 Super Bowl Season: Nos. 21-25

Who were the best Eagles of their Super Bowl LVII season and how did these rankings stack up to the one done prior to the start of the year?

Back in August, before the Eagles’ Super Bowl LVII run blasted off, colleague John McMullen and I did a daily countdown of our top 25 best Eagles players.

Now that we know what we know, we have done another set of rankings, taking a look at our top 25 best Eagles during this past season’s 16-4 march that ran through the middle of February before ending with a 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The rankings were derived when McMullen and I submitted our top 25 list to each other and didn’t look at each other’s list until both were submitted.

Like our preseason poll, this one also assigned point values from one to 25, with a first-place vote counting for 25 points, a second-place vote counting for 24 points and all the way down to a vote at No. 24 accounting for two votes, and a vote at No. 25 counting as one point.

Instead, of releasing one player in the rankings each day as we did during the preseason, we will count down in groups of five and it starts out with our players ranked No. 21 through 25.

NO. 25: (tie) LINVAL JOSEPH AND MILTON WILLIAMS, 3 POINTS

(preseason poll No. 25: OT Jack Driscoll)

Usually, a tie will be broken based on who is ranked higher in either my rankings or McMullen’s.

In this case, however, I had Joseph ranked No. 22 and McMullen had Williams at No. 22.

The Eagles benefitted greatly from the signing of Joseph while Williams took a step forward from his rookie season. Despite playing fewer snaps this season, due to the signings of Joseph and Ndamukong Suh, Williams had four sacks (two more than 2021) and 36 tackles (two more than 2021).

NO. 24: KENNY GAINWELL, 4 POINTS

(preseason poll No. 24: DE Derek Barnett)

Gainwell was ranked No. 24 in both my poll and McMullen’s, after the running back came on strong in the latter part of the season. As for Barnett, he tore an ACL in the opener at Detroit and was never a factor.

NO. 23: MARCUS EPPS, 5 POINTS

(preseason poll No. 23: LB Kyzir White)

Epps stepped in as a first-time starter at safety and never came off the field, playing 99% of the defensive snaps. He was a steady and reliable player and was third on the team in tackles with 93. Meanwhile, White will appear later in the rankings.

NO. 22: JAKE ELLIOTT, 6 POINTS

(preseason poll No. 22: WR Quez Watkins)

Watkins, who admitted after the season that he didn’t step up the way he had hoped, fell out of these rankings. Elliott continued to be his reliable self, earning NFC Special Teams Player of the Week once and virtually winning the regular season finale with his leg, a game against the Giants the Eagles needed to have in order to be the No. 1 seed and earn the playoff bye. He connected on all but two of his PATS while making 87% of his field goals, including 5-for-6 from 50-plus yards.

NO. 21 AVONTE MADDOX, 10 POINTS

(preseason poll at No. 21: K Jake Elliott)

The cornerback was hampered by injuries this season and played in just nine regular-season games, though he answered the call in all three playoff games. He remains one of the league’s top nickel corners after a season in which he still contributed a sack, an interception, three forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery.

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.eaglestoday.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.