Roob’s Top 10: Ranking the Eagles most surprising playoff stars originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The quarterback with the highest postseason passer rating in Eagles history isn’t Donovan McNabb, Nick Foles or Jalen Hurts. It’s a journeyman who threw more interceptions than touchdowns in his career.
The running back who scored the winning touchdown with 5 ½ minutes left in the 1960 NFL Championship Game had never rushed for a touchdown in his life.
One of the Eagles’ biggest Super Bowl heroes in 2017 was an undrafted rookie who had never started an NFL game and averaged 28 scrimmage yards per game during the regular season.
The Eagles have a rich history of improbable playoff standouts, and it goes back more than half a century.
Here’s a look at the top 10 unlikely Eagles postseason stars.
10. Chris Warren, Bucs at Eagles, 2000 Wild-Card Game: When the Eagles claimed the 33-year-old Warren off waivers after the Cowboys cut him on Dec. 6, it was just one of those roster moves you barely noticed. Warren had been a Pro Bowler with the Seahawks from 1993 through 1995, but by 2000 he was an aging backup to Emmitt Smith and when he declined to sign a one-year extension, the Cowboys released him. With Duce Staley out for the year, the Eagles needed some running back help going into the playoffs. Warren played in only one regular-season game for the Eagles – he ran 15 times for 42 yards the last day of the season against the Bengals – but in the wild-card game against the Bucs – his first career playoff game – he was a workhorse, getting 22 carries for 85 yards as the Eagles won their first postseason game in five years. Warren remains the only Eagles running back in the last 40 years to get 22 carries in a playoff game. In the second half, as the Eagles played ball control, Warren had an incredible 20 carries for 75 yards. The Eagles’ last 11 plays from scrimmage were all Warren runs. Warren rushed for 11 yards the next week in the Eagles’ loss to the Giants. He never played another NFL game.
9. Rashard Cook, Eagles at Bears, 2001 Conference Semifinal: Who’s the only player in Eagles history with a sack and an interception in a playoff game? Dawg? Seth? Willie T? Nope, it’s safety Rashard Cook, who had two career interceptions and three sacks in 47 regular-season games, but in the 33-19 win over the Bears at Soldier Field that sent the Eagles to their first NFC Championship Game in 21 years, Cook had a big early sack of Jim Miller that forced a Bears punt and after Hugh Douglas knocked Miller out of the game, he picked off Shane Matthews deep in Bears territory, and his 15-yard return set up a Donovan McNabb touchdown run that gave the Eagles lead 33-17 in the fourth quarter. What made Cook’s huge game even better is that he was drafted by the Bears in 1999 and quickly released.
8. Freddie Mitchell, Packers at Eagles, 2003 Conference Semifinal: To put 4thand 26 in perspective, as a 1St-round pick, Freddie Mitchell only caught 11 passes of 28 yards or more in his entire career – none of them in a fourth quarter. But with the season on the line – the Eagles on their own 26-yard-line on 4th-and-26 with 72 seconds left and trailing the Packers 17-14 – Mitchell made one of the greatest plays in Eagles history, snagging a Donovan McNabb dart for an improbable first down that set up the tying David Akers field goal and ultimately led to a 20-17 win and berth in the NFC Championship Game. Mitchell didn’t have a lot of moments. He caught just 90 passes his entire career and was out of the league a few weeks after his 26th birthday. But for one crucial play in a huge game, he was a superstar.
7. Heath Sherman, Eagles at Saints, 1992 Wild-Card Game: Heath Sherman spent most of 1992 backing up Herschel Walker before supplanting the ineffective veteran as the Eagles’ lead ball carrier late in the season. Before the 1992 wild-card game at the Superdome, the only Eagles who had ever rushed for 100 yards in a playoff game were Steve Van Buren and Wilbert Montgomery. Sherman improbably added his name to that list with 21 carries for 105 yards in the Eagles’ upset win over the Saints. After halftime, Sherman ran 15 times for 82 yards, including a six-yard TD run. He also caught three passes for 29 yards for 134 scrimmage yards, 3rd– most of his career and most in three years. Sherman only played one more season and never rushed for 100 yards again.
6. Damon Moore, Buccaneers at Eagles, 2001 Wild-Card Game: Damon Moore only had six interceptions in his four-year career, never more than one in any regular-season game. But in the 2001 postseason, he could do no wrong. He had three INTs in the postseason – tying Roynell Young’s franchise record from 1980 – and in the wild-card win over Tampa he not only picked off Brad Johnson twice, he returned the second one 59 yards for a touchdown. That remains the longest INT return in Eagles playoff history, nine yards longer than Patrick Robinson’s 50-yarder off Case Keenum in the 2017 NFC Championship Game. Moore remains the last Eagle with two INTs in a playoff game. Young, Herm Edwards and Eric Allen also had two. Moore had another INT the following week in Chicago, and his three career postseason INTs trails only Edwards (five) and Brian Dawkins (four) in Eagles history.
5. Kenny Gainwell, Giants at Eagles, 2022 Conference Semifinal: Gainwell had some nice moments during the regular season but nothing that would indicate a historic performance in a playoff game. Gainwell averaged 14 rushing yards per game this past season and played in the shadow of a Pro Bowl running back who ran for nearly 1,300 yards. He never had more than five carries in a game or rushed for more than 39 yards. Then came the wild-card game against the Giants at the Linc, and Gainwell couldn’t be stopped. He picked up 14 yards on his first carry and added a 35-yard touchdown run late in the game as the Eagles rolled to a 38-7 win. Gainwell finished with 112 rushing yards on just 12 carries, and only Steve Van Buren, Wilbert Montgomery and Brian Westbrook (twice) have rushed for more yards in Eagles history in a playoff game. His 9.3 rushing average is 10th-highest in NFL history in a playoff game and highest by a running back in 21 years, when former Eagle Charlie Garner averaged 10.5 on 15-for-158 for the Raiders in a wild-card game against the Jets in 2001.
4. Derrick Burgess, Falcons at Eagles, 2004 NFC Championship Game: After missing virtually the entire 2005 season, Burgess had just 2 ½ sacks in the 2006 regular season and went into the NFC Championship Game vs. the Falcons at the Linc on a streak of seven straight games without a sack. But against Atlanta, Burgess was the biggest reason the Eagles’ defense was able to contain Michael Vick, who was coming off an MVP runner-up season. Burgess had two sacks, tying Hugh Douglas’ franchise postseason record (since matched by Darwin Walker and Haason Reddick) and most importantly using his speed and discipline to keep Vick in the pocket, where the Eagles wanted him. Vick, who ran for over 900 yards that year, managed just 26 rushing yards and was sacked four times in all for 33 yards, and the Eagles reached their first Super Bowl in 24 years with a 27-10 win. Burgess was so good in that game that he earned a five-year, $17.5 million free agency contract from the Raiders, and in his first year in Oakland he led the NFL with 16 ½ sacks and made the first of two straight Pro Bowls.
3. Ted Dean, Packers at Eagles, 1960 NFL Championship Game: Ted Dean did not have a rushing touchdown all year and only scored two in the regular season – both for two yards – in his entire five-year career. His 2.7 rushing average as a rookie in 1960 was the lowest in the NFL and remains 3rd-lowest in Eagles history (behind Lee Bouggess’ 2.5 in 1970 and Heath Sherman’s 2.6 in 1991). But in one of the biggest moments in franchise history – Eagles trailing the Packers 13-10 late in the fourth quarter of the 1960 NFL Championship Game at Franklin Field – the Radnor High graduate got his chance. With 5:21 left and the Eagles on the Packers’ 5-yard line, the call was for a Billy Barnes run. But quarterback Norm Van Brocklin – for reasons he never explained – changed the play call on the way to the line of scrimmage, yelling, “Switch!” Dean got the ball, scored what would be the longest TD run of his career and the Eagles topped Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr, 17-13. Dean retired at 26 and became a teacher at Gladwyne Elementary School and devoted more time to his true passion – playing the piano.
2. Rodney Peete, Lions at Eagles, 1995 Wild-Card Game: During the 1995 regular season, Rodney Peete threw eight TDs and 14 interceptions, and his 67.3 passer rating ranked 26th out of 30 QBs who started at least 10 games. Peete was in his seventh NFL season and had never started a postseason game and would be trying to beat the Lions at the Vet, where the Eagles hadn’t won a playoff game since 1980 and the Lions were 3-point favorites. All Peete did was have the game of his life. He completed 17 of 25 passes for 270 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions and a 143.3 passer rating – still the highest in Eagles postseason history. Peete started 89 games in his career and that’s the only time he had three or more TD passes and no interceptions. He threw TD passes to Fred Barnett and Rob Carpenter in the Eagles’ record-setting 31-point second quarter, the 43-yarder to Carpenter coming on the final play of the half. He added a 45-yard TD to Ricky Watters to open the third quarter. The Eagles led 51-7 before finishing with a 58-37 win. As brilliant as Nick Foles was in the 2017 postseason, he never had a postseason passer rating as high as Peete did that Saturday afternoon at the Vet.
1. Corey Clement. Eagles vs. Patriots, Super Bowl LII: Talk about coming out of nowhere. Corey Clement was an undrafted rookie who had never started an NFL game and had just 123 receiving yards all year and never more than 30 in a game. All he did in the Eagles’ win over the Patriots was catch four passes for 100 yards, including a miracle 22-yard back-of-the-end-zone TD from Nick Foles while surrounded by three defenders and a 55-yard catch -and-run through traffic that set up the Philly Special just before halftime. Clement has played six years and has never had more than 55 receiving yards in any other game. His 100 yards are 3rd-most in Super Bowl history by a running back, 4th-most by a rookie, 6th-most by an undrafted player and 5th-most by a player who didn’t start. Since the Super Bowl, Clement has averaged 5.3 receiving yards in 57 career games.