We’ve heard some of the postgame reaction: Are the 2024 Eagles one of the best NFL teams of recent memory? And where does their defense rank among the greatest units we’ve ever seen? Now we have some answers.
We are all prisoners of the moment.
Everything has to be put in historical perspective. And what we just witnessed is the best performance we’ve ever seen or the best game of all time. No doubt.
Until the next one.
So after a dominant destruction of the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, columns, blogs, podcasts and message boards have been filled with questions like: Are the 2024 Philadelphia Eagles one of the best teams of all time? And where does this Philly defense rank among the greatest units we’ve ever seen?
It’s debatable… to an extent. It could be subjective… but it doesn’t have to be.
Our historic TRACR measures performance over the entirety of the season (including the playoffs) using advanced metrics and other factors to calculate how many points per 10 drives better or worse teams are or were compared to the league-average club for a given season. From that output, we’ve created an offensive TRACR (O-TRACR), defensive TRACR (D-TRACR) and overall TRACR. Lower is better for D-TRACR.
TRACR (Team Rating Adjusted for Competition and Roster) normalizes performance from league environmental factors that can either inflate or deflate its numbers, making it possible to compare teams across eras. We can go back to the 1991 season, so it doesn’t include Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers, the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys, the 1980s San Francisco 49ers, the ’85 Chicago Bears or the ’86 New York Giants.
But let’s get back to the 2024 Eagles. Though it is somewhat hard to believe, they stymied Patrick Mahomes and the prolific Kansas City offense, leading 34-0 until a Xavier Worthy 24-yard TD reception put the Chiefs on the board late in the third quarter.
Philadelphia held KC to just 23 total yards in the first half – the second-lowest total in Super Bowl history behind the previously mentioned ’85 Bears, who held the New England Patriots to minus-19 yards through two quarters of Super Bowl 20.
It was also the fewest total yards the Chiefs have put up in a single half during the entire Mahomes era (since 2018) – regular season or playoffs. And by the end of the game, the Eagles had sacked Mahomes six times – tying for the fourth most in Super Bowl history behind the ’85 Bears, 2015 Denver Broncos and 2021 Los Angeles Rams (all with seven).
Philly perfectly executed every defense’s plan against Mahomes: applying pressure while only rushing four defensive linemen. They only went to a heavy box 25.0% of the game (the NFL average for heavy box use was 47.4% this season) and finished the game with a 14.3% sack rate (more than double the league average of 6.5%).
So, it’s easy to see how the questions about the Eagles’ immortality came about. But have the Eagles earned all-time great status defensively after their dominance in Super Bowl 59? Or does it have as much to do with the Chiefs’ relatively weak roster finally catching up to them in New Orleans?
Though it might have been one of the best defensive showings in the game’s history, the reality is that the Chiefs’ ineptitude had a lot to do with it. We get it. It’s difficult to say that about the two-time defending champs who have Mahomes and went 15-2 during the regular season.
But 13 of their 16 games (not including a 38-0 loss to the Broncos in Week 18 when the starters sat) were decided by 10 points or fewer. Kansas City’s point differential of plus-59 during the regular season was the team’s worst since 2012. Even taking out the Week 18 loss, it would still be the second-lowest differential of the Mahomes era.
KC also ranked 19th in the NFL in overall EVE (Philadelphia was second) during the regular season and only finished ninth in TRACR after Super Sunday (the Eagles ended up third). Heading into the showdown at the Caesars Superdome, the Chiefs had the seventh-lowest TRACR for a Super Bowl team since the 1991 season.
Oh, and did we mention that the Chiefs ranked 26th in the NFL in our 2024 non-QB roster talent rankings? They were the only team in the bottom third of those ratings to even make the playoffs and their shortcomings really showed in the Super Bowl.
That’s not to take anything away from the Eagles. One of the best performances in Super Bowl history? Sure. One of the best teams of all time? One of the best defenses of all time? Let’s answer those questions (at least going back to 1991) by looking at our historical TRACR rankings.
Defensively, the 2024 Eagles rate as the 40th-best team over the past 34 years with a minus-5.16 TRACR. For a bit of perspective, the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-8.94), 2000 Baltimore Ravens (-8.61) and 2015 Broncos (-8.07) have finished with the best D-TRACR marks over this time frame. And again, this period doesn’t include some of the league’s best defensive units like the 1985 Bears and ’86 Giants.
In fact, this isn’t even the best Philly defense of the past 34 years. That distinction goes to the 1991 Eagles who went 10-6 but missed the playoffs. The unit, which ranks 19th in D-TRACR since 1991, was led by Reggie White (15.0 sacks), Clyde Simmons (13.0 sacks), Eric Allen (five interceptions), Andre Waters (156 tackles) and Seth Joyner (three picks).
The 2024 Eagles aren’t second, either. Philly’s 2001 team that went 11-5 to win the NFC East and reach the NFC title game before falling to the St. Louis Rams ranks 21st with a -5.94 D-TRACR. The 2008 Eagles that reached the NFC championship game but lost to the Arizona Cardinals have the franchise’s third-best D and rank 36th overall at -5.28.
OK, but is this the best Eagles team overall? The answer is yes. Philadelphia finished with a 10.93 TRACR overall that puts it 33rd in the rankings and higher than any other Eagles team since 1991. Philly posted a 9.29 TRACR in 2007 when MVP Nick Foles outdueled Tom Brady in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis with 373 yards and three TDs.
In case you’re wondering, the 2022 Eagles who lost to the Chiefs 38-35 in Super Bowl 57 rank as the franchise’s fifth-best team of this time period.
Ultimately, the 2024 Eagles may not rank high enough to be considered one of the top-echelon teams of NFL history or even the past 34 years, but they can be considered the best Eagles team in the last three decades.
Enjoy this? You can also follow our social accounts over on X, Threads, Bluesky and Facebook.
