By Jimmy Kempski

Copyright phillyvoice

Are power rankings completely dumb and meaningless? Yes. Yes, they are. However, personally speaking, whenever I see them, I click. And now that I’ve sucked you in with promises of many power rankings, you’ll read it and like it.

Here’s where people around the country have the Eagles ranked before Week 3 of the regular season. Oh, and here’s our version of these sellout rankings, too.

NFL.com: 1st

You can’t shortchange the Eagles for narrowly beating the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, even if it wasn’t nearly as convincing as Philly’s Super Bowl LIX win. The Eagles were the better team on Sunday, even if the Chiefs felt they false started on some second-half tush pushes. Jalen Hurts hardly lit it up, but he found DeVonta Smith for a big connection late, and Saquon Barkley was a load all day. The defense played very well, with rookie Andrew Mukuba making the game-turning play with the interception off of Travis Kelce’s hands. Throw in two more long Jake Elliott field goals — his third of 50-plus yards this season after missing six of seven from that distance a year ago — and it was a three-phase victory.

#JimmySays: As noted here, a narrow win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead is, you know, pretty good. Patrick Mahomes was 44-11 at home for his career heading into this weekend.

You can probably count on one hand the number of games in NFL history that were more convincing than the Eagles’ Super Bowl win. If that’s the standard they’re now expected to play to (that’s not the implication above, but it may be for others), then that’s about as high a bar as it gets.

Biggest QB takeaway: Jalen Hurts continues to do what it takes to winHis passing stats are far from gaudy, as he finished with 101 passing yards Sunday and completed just one pass of 10-plus yards. But Hurts played mostly mistake-free football and again came up with a clutch play when he needed to, this time a deep ball to DeVonta Smith to set up a critical touchdown. He also converted four first downs and scored a touchdown on a tush push. With the win over Kansas City, he improved to 48-20 as a starter during the regular season.

#JimmySays: In Mike Sando’s always well-done “QB Tiers” survey, with “50 NFL coaches and executives” voting on placement within the quarterback hierarchy, there were eight quarterbacks rated higher than Hurts. I was curious what his records are when facing those guys head-to-head as a starter:

So, Hurts has started the equivalent of a full regular season against those guys, and is 13-4. Is that good? I feel like that’s good.

USA Today: 1st

They have yet to flash their 2024 dominance, and QB Jalen Hurts has done little with his arm so far. But the reigning champs are 2-0, an undefeated mark that will be difficult to maintain given their next three opponents were all playoff teams last season − starting with a Rams team that nearly knocked Philly out of the postseason.

#JimmySays: The Eagles beat the Cowboys, the divisional rival that has always given them the most trouble, at least when Dak Prescott is healthy. And then against one of the greatest dynasties of all time, they won on the road and more or less had the game comfortably in hand midway through the fourth quarter.

And yet I agree that “they have yet to flash their 2024 dominance.”

Despite starting 1-0 in every season of the Nick Sirianni era, the Eagles always start slowly, as we pointed out in their dumpster fire piece this season. They also have the hardest part of their schedule early on. As noted, they have three 2024 playoff teams coming up:

• Week 3: Rams• Week 4: At Buccaneers• Week 5: Broncos

If they can win at least two of those three games, they’ll be in great shape for a far easier three-game stretch thereafter:

• Week 6: At Giants• Week 7: At Vikings• Week 8: Giants

On a side note, I’m not so sure I agree that the Rams “nearly knocked Philly out of the postseason.” The Eagles were at like 98 percent win probability in that game before the Rams made a late run. The Rams didn’t finish, because one of the Eagles’ best players made a couple of big plays. The win probability meter never once flipped in the Rams’ favor during that game, even if they did put a scare into Philadelphians late.

That reminds a little of when Eagles fans say they nearly beat the Saints during the 2018-2019 playoffs if not for Alshon Jeffery’s drop. I never really bought that, either.

If one were to say the Falcons nearly beat the Eagles in the 2017-2018 playoffs, I’m with you there.

The gap between the top three teams is very, very small. The Eagles are just fine. But their offense hasn’t been quite on track yet. Looking back, they should have torched the Cowboys like the Giants did. But the Eagles are an elite team. They just have been less impressive than the top two teams.

#JimmySays: The Giants sure did torch the Cowboys in their (checks the scores) loss to them.

The Athletic: 2nd

Overreaction: It’s boring footballThere, we said it. The Eagles choked the life out of the Chiefs anaconda-style. It was as tedious as it was ruthless. Philly averaged 3.7 yards per play and tush-pushed its way to its final touchdown and the first-down conversion that sealed the victory. At least A.J. Brown had five catches this week, albeit for a mere 27 yards! The Eagles are 3-0 in the last two years when passing for fewer than 100 yards.

#JimmySays: I will say that from an outsider’s perspective, the Eagles have probably been pretty tough to watch, even if effective. I do think they usually are a fun team to watch, when their offense is humming, which it obviously is not right now.

They haven’t looked as crisp on offense the first two weeks as they did last season, but it will come. They are too talented on that side of the ball.

#JimmySays: CBS with the 🔥 analysis, as always.

Average power ranking of the six media outlets above

Week 1: 1.0Week 2: 1.2 📉Week 3: 1.7 📉

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