Youth is served in the NFC East
The NFL salary cap is arguably the most restrictive in sports. To be successful, teams need their youngest players to perform well. And according to Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports, youth is not wasted on two NFC East teams.
Using past performance, future projection and positional value as criteria, Benjamin ranked the NFL’s top-25 players 25-and-under for 2023. The Dallas Cowboys have three players on the list, the Philadelphia Eagles have two. Here’s where they landed:
No. 21: DeVonta Smith, WR | Of the nine wideouts on the list, nly CeeDee Lamb and Jaylen Waddle posted more receiving yards than Smith last season. After leading the Eagles in receiving as a rookie, Smith finished 2022 as the NFL’s ninth-leading receiver.
Even after the addition of A.J. Brown, the 24-year-old Smith managed to catch 95 balls for 1,196 yards and seven scores. The slender, 170-pounder out of Alabama hasn’t missed a game since coming to the NFL and led all receivers with 100 yards in Super Bowl LVII.
No. 13: Trevon Diggs, CB | Diggs logged three interceptions last season and three interceptions as a rookie in 2020. But his 11 interceptions led the league in 2021 and his 21 pass defenses that season were good enough for second-best in the league.
Diggs was named first-team All-Pro that season. For the 2023-24 campaign, he will be joined by five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Stephon Gilmore. With that much talent in the secondary, Dallas can expect even more from their 24-year-old cornerback in 2023.
No. 10: CeeDee Lamb, WR | Lamb posted 107 catches for 1,359 yards and nine scores in 2022, all career-high marks. His yardage tally ranked sixth among NFL receivers. Since joining the league in 2020, Lamb has averaged 1,132 yards and over six touchdowns per season.
The Cowboys smartly picked up Lamb's fifth-year option this offseason, keeping him in Dallas through 2025. In the meantime, Lamb and the team have been working on a contract extension that could pay the 24-year-old receiver up to $30 million per year.
No. 4: Micah Parsons, LB | Parsons was named the NFL AP Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2021 and has been a runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year each of the past two seasons.
In two years with the Cowboys, the 24-year-old linebacker has recorded 149 tackles, 106 solo tackles, 26.5 sacks, six forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. He has received first-team All-Pro honors each of those years and could be even better in 2023.
No. 2: Jalen Hurts, QB | Of the three quarterbacks on Benjamin’s list – Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert being the others – Hurts is the only one to reach the Super Bowl. Now Philadelphia’s highest-paid player, He is looking to build on his 2022 performance.
Last season, the 24-year-old signal-caller accounted for 4,461 total yards and 35 touchdowns. He outplayed the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl loss and finished second in MVP voting, also to Mahomes. Luckily for Hurts, the 27-year-old Mahomes doesn’t qualify for this list.
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