PHILADELPHIA – A league-high eight Eagles players were selected to the 2023 Pro Bowl Team, including four first-timers.
Quarterback and MVP candidate Jalen Hurts leads the list of first-time selections for Philadelphia and is joined by running back Miles Sanders, second-year left guard Landon Dickerson, and edge rusher Haason Reddick. The four making return trips to what is essentially the NFC’s All-Star Team is center Jason Kelce, right tackle Lane Johnson, receiver A.J. Brown, and cornerback Darius Slay.
Perhaps scarier is how many players on the 13-1 Eagles who might be considered snubs.
Injuries derailed strong cases for tight end Dallas Goedert and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson, while others like MIKE linebacker T.J. Edwards, cornerback James Bradberry, defensive end Josh Sweat, and right guard Isaac Seumalo could be considered snubs.
Hurts, who is unlikely to play in Dallas this weekend due to a sprained right shoulder, is having a spectacular season with 35 total touchdowns, including a franchise-QB-record 13 rushing and a stellar 104.6 passer rating. He was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September and won consecutive NFC Offensive Player of the Week Awards in Weeks 12 and 13.
Sanders cracked the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career (1,110) and ranks fifth in the NFL in both rushing yards and rushing TDs (11).
Dickerson set the high bar in just his second season as a punishing run blocker who teams with Jordan Mailata to create an imposing left side on the NFL’s best offensive line. He’s become an integral part of an offense that has produced an NFL-high 53 touchdowns, and a league-best 30 rushing scores which is a franchise record. He’s also no slouch in pass protection, allowing just one sack and three QB hits this season.
The final first-time selection is the team’s marquee free-agent signing, Reddick. The South Jersey native and Temple product leads the Eagles with 12.0 sacks and four forced fumbles. He is also the first player in NFL history to have three consecutive 10-plus sack seasons on three different teams.
Kelce, a likely future Hall of Famer, is a Pro Bowler for the sixth time, just one behind Jason Peters for the Eagles’ record when it comes to the OL room. Kelce has been graded out as the best center in football to date this season by Pro Football Focus
Linemate Johnson was honored for the fourth time. Often called the best right tackle in the world by head coach Nick Sirianni, Johnson hasn’t allowed a sack since Week 11 of the 2020 season and now owns the record for the most consecutive games and pass plays without giving up a sack, according to Pro Football Focus. This season, Johnson has had 444 successful pass plays without allowing anyone to get to Hurts.
Traded to the Eagles on draft night from Tennessee, Brown has been as advertised and the final piece to the puzzle of the team’s explosive offense. He’s second in the NFL with 10 receiving touchdowns and has set a new career high for receiving yards in a season is 1,201, surpassing 1,000 for the third time in his four-year NFL career en route to his second Pro Bowl.
One of the league’s top cornerbacks, Darius Slay, was honored for the fifth time, as the best player in the secondary on the NFL’s No. 1 rated passing defense which allows just 172.4 yards per game. Big Play Slay has three interceptions this season and 13 passed defensed.
Nine Eagles were also named as alternates: long snapper Rick Lovato, Seumalo, Hargrave, Bradberry, DE Brandon Graham, DE Fletcher Cox, LT Jordan Mailata, Sweat, and WR DeVonta Smith
