PFF slaps Eagles' gifted young secondary with disrespectful ranking

For all the praise the Philadelphia Eagles' secondary has had this offseason, an usual occurrence just came with them being ranked low.

Pro Football Focus writer John Kosko ranked all 32 secondaries in the NFL. While the Eagles still got into the top 10, they were ranked at a disappointing eighth place. Kosko acknowledged that it is a bit low, but recent losses caused the dip.

"The Eagles falling to eighth on this list might raise eyebrows, especially after the secondary’s dominant Super Bowl performance. But they lost Darius Slay and C.J. Gardner-Johnson in free agency and are looking to replace them with cornerback Adoree’ Jackson and rookie safety Andrew Mukuba. While Vic Fangio is a defensive wizard, expecting Philadelphia to immediately get plug-and-play production at the level of their predecessors is a tall order. Still, a unit returning Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean— both phenomenal as rookies — will be tough to throw against."

An interesting spot for a highly graded Eagles secondary

What's so fascinating is that PFF has hyped up the young Mitchell and DeJean all offseason, ranking DeJean 11th and Mitchell 16th in their cornerback rankings. Mitchell had the top 10 2024 grades in advanced coverage, overall, and standard coverage grades. DeJean was also in the top 10 in coverage grade for man and zone-match coverage, as well as overall coverage.

Blankenship posted decent grades with PFF last year, as the site ranked him 15th among safeties in 2025. Last year was a down year for him as his 69.5 overall grade ranked him 29th despite nabbing a career-high four interceptions on the year.

The fair question mark is at the other safety position, as there will be a battle between Mukuba, Sydney Brown, and Tristin McCollum. Many in the media love Mukuba starting right away, as Mitchell and DeJean are great examples of throwing rookies into the deep end of the pool. Brown and McCollum have more experience in Fangio's defense so that they would be the safer picks.

Losing Slay and Gardner-Johnson hurt, but Gardner-Johnson was arguably the one who affected the secondary the most. DeJean and Mitchell can hold down the cornerback positions well, but there is some uncertainty at safety besides Blankenship.

This is a very young secondary that has more to prove in 2025, but don't let their youth deceive anyone into thinking they don't understand how good this group is going to be for a long time. Come next year, they will be in the top five on the PFF secondary rankings. Take that to the bank.