Eagles Are Peter King’s Pick To Earn No. 1 Seed

Peter King of The MMQB is expecting big things out of the Eagles this year.

Speaking to ESPN’s Colin Cowherd, King made his pick for the top seed in the NFC.

“I think Philadelphia’s gonna win home-field in the NFC,” King said. “The NFC East is down. Even though you look at their schedule, and they’ve got a tough schedule, I think that they’ll benefit by being in that division this year. It’s not often you can say that. It’s probably been years since you could say that. But I think that they are significantly better than anybody there.”

The top seed in the NFC has won a minimum of 13 games in each of the past five seasons.

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Doug Farrar of SI.com wants to see more toughness and physicality out of Jordan Matthews:

For a guy his size (6-3, 212), Matthews has a disturbing tendency to go down at the slightest contact — shoulder hits, ankle tackles, and arm drag-downs. Kelly will put his receivers in positions to succeed away from defenses, but it’s a bit distressing how much Matthews will appear to need that, at least for now. Especially when things are so well-blocked for him.

Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders/ESPN Insider thinks ESPN.com’s ranking of Nick Foles at No. 99 among offensive players is too low:

I suppose that we have to figure out how to balance the fact that quarterbacks are inherently more valuable than any other position, but a bigger issue here is a discounting of Foles based on the fact that his 2013 season, while amazing, was just one season. The problem there is internal consistency: How on earth are Tyrann Mathieu and Kenny Vaccaro among the 60 best defensive players in the NFL after just one year apiece but Foles is just No. 99 among offensive players after ranking fifth in Total QBR last year? Yes, a lot of Foles’ yardage is built into the Philadelphia offense, which had the highest YAC average (6.6) since Football Outsiders began tracking in 2005, but QBR already considers that. No, I’m not suggesting Mathieu or Vaccaro should be lower — but if we’re willing to grade young players based solely on what they did in 2013, Foles has to be higher.

Judy Battista of NFL.com predicts that Chip Kelly will win Coach of the Year:

He’s already one of the game’s most innovative coaches, so if his offense continues to evolve, look for Kelly to soon be considered among the league’s very best.