Over the last few weeks, we have been unveiling our all-time Eagles team.
We enlisted the help of Eagles reporters Reuben Frank and Dave Zangaro, Quick Slants hosts Derrick Gunn and Barrett Brooks and Quick Slants producer Mike Mulhern for voting.
We asked each person to rank their top five players at 16 different positions. A 1st-place vote was worth five points, a 2nd-place vote was worth four, and so on.
Here is the full team:
QB: Donovan McNabb
RB: LeSean McCoy
WR: Harold Carmichael
WR: Mike Quick
WR: Tommy McDonald
TE: Zach Ertz
OT: Jason Peters
OT: Lane Johnson
OG: Brandon Brooks
OG: Bucko Kilroy
C: Jason Kelce
DT: Fletcher Cox
DT: Jerome Brown
DE: Reggie White
DE: Clyde Simmons
ILB: Chuck Bednarik
OLB: Seth Joyner
OLB: William Thomas
CB: Eric Allen
CB: Troy Vincent
S: Brian Dawkins
S: Bill Bradley
P: Donnie Jones
K: David Akers
RET: Brian Mitchell
A few notes:
NFL
• There were seven unanimous selections in 16 categories, meaning all five of us had this person as our No. 1 at their respective position: Jason Peters, Reggie White, Seth Joyner, Chuck Bednarik, Eric Allen, Brian Dawkins and David Akers.
• In addition to those guys, there were five players who earned 24 of 25 points, meaning they were No. 1 four times and No. 2 once: Donovan McNabb, Zach Ertz, Brandon Brooks, Jason Kelce and Donnie Jones.
• The hardest position to find a consensus on was the return man. Brian Mitchell took the No. 1 spot with just 16 total votes; he was the only No. 1 vote-getter to earn fewer than 22 votes.
• There was no perfect way to do this, so we put the Eagles in 11 personnel (three wideouts) on offense and a 4-3 front of defense. The 4-3 was the easier decision. When it came to the offense, that decision meant that just Steve Van Buren, Tommy McDonald or Pete Retzlaff would make the team. That’s not an easy choice. Ultimately, we kept the Hall of Fame receiver.
• Our goal was to put together a starting lineup, which means we had to leave some all-time greats off of the list above. There are three members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who received votes but didn’t make the team: Van Buren, Terrell Owens and Jim Ringo.
• And there are three players with their numbers retired with the Eagles — Retzlaff, Tom Brookshier and Al Wistert — who didn’t make the team. There are just nine retired numbers in franchise history!
• The most fascinating position was defensive tackle. Fletcher Cox and Jerome Brown both made the team and they finished 1-2 in all five ballots. Cox was first in three and Brown was first in two.
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