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Originally Posted by OneWinningDrive
No disagreement with any of that. To be clear, the Ravens' strength is not their front. To put things in perspective, their front is the weakest part of the defense. They haven't even tried to get a dominant edge beyond taking Oweh in the 1st in that trade between the Chiefs and Ravens for Orlando Brown Jr. Instead, they built the d-line from the inside out. But even there, they didn't spend high-end draft picks on their DTs like the Eagles did; Madubuike and Jones are both 3rd rounders, and Michael Pierce was a cheap signing/UDFA.
The strengths of the Ravens' defense are the secondary and ILBs. And both of those units are significantly better than what the Eagles had. The Ravens' YPA through the air are the lowest in the NFL this year, and through much of the season it was the lowest in several decades. The Smith/Queen ILB duo were both all pros this year.
So while the Ravens' front might not be as good as the Eagles' front, the Ravens' everything else is way better than the Eagles' everything else. And even still, the Ravens' led the league in sacks with four rushers, so the front is perfectly fine.
I think the Eagles were a wildly overrated team last year and going into this, and I don't like the comps people like making here between them and the Ravens. The Eagles won a lot of close games, but they played a Charmin soft schedule. Their collapse this year speaks volumes about who they are.
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While obviously Smith and Queen and Hamilton are outstanding and would be starters for the 22 Eagles squad, other than Marcus Williams I don’t think anyone else starts for the Eagles.
Both of the defenses the Chiefs overcome in the Super Bowl were viewed as historically great defenses and pass defenses.
That’s why we’ll need to see it to believe it.