Eagles Top 25 For 2025: Breakout Defender Finishes At No. 4

Jalen Carter was so gifted coming into the NFL that he finished No. 18 on our annual Top 25 players list before he ever took a snap for a team that was coming off a Super Bowl appearance.

The caveat was don’t be surprised if the Carter shot up the list in the ensuing years and sure enough the Eagles’ most talented defender on what was the No. 1 defense in all of football in 2024-25 finished at No. 4 on the on Eagles On SI’s Top 25 players for 2025 with training camp set to begin later this month.

More so, Carter is the top defensive player on this year's list, with the final three players that will be unveiled in the coming days all being from the offensive side of the football. 

A second-team All-Pro last season after being the runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2023, Carter played 1,065 snaps over 20 games en route to a Super Bowl LIX win, the most of any defensive tackle in the NFL.

His two consecutive late-game puss rushes against Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams saved the Eagles in the divisional round of the playoffs before Philadelphia routed Washington in the NFC Championship Game and Kansas City in the Super Bowl.

“In Jalen's case, the two plays he had at the end of the Rams game, which everybody has alluded to many times, those were his 68th and 69th snaps in that game,” Fangio said when asked about Carter’s workload. “He’s a young pup.”

Denver’s Zach Allen was the only other interior defensive lineman to crack 1,000 snaps last season with 1,031.

Carter possesses a unique combination of speed, athleticism, and power at a listed weight of 314 pounds, and Fangio noted that the Georgia product is just starting to touch his enormous potential.

“The good news about Jalen is twofold. One, he played very well for us last year, and two, he can still improve a lot,” the veteran DC said.

As for the list, EOSI beat reporters Ed Kracz and John McMullen each compiled their top 25 selections separately, and a point system determined the final list, with No. 1 receiving 25 points down to one point for No. 25.

The idea is to determine the best pure football players on perhaps the NFL’s most talented roster. Impact (the quarterback would also be No. 1 in any city) is not what the last is about. It’s Bill Belichick rules in trying to determine who does their particular job the best.

Carter finished No. 4 on McMullen’s list and was a tad higher on Kracz’s assessment at No. 3. The combined 45 points easily outpaced Cooper DeJean’s 36 as the second-highest performer on defense.