Defensive end Michael Bennett met with the media for the first time since being traded to the Eagles earlier this month and said that it is “going to be fun” to get a chance to come after the quarterbacks of the NFC East after spending the last five years in the NFC West with the Seahawks.
Bennett said Washington’s Alex Smith “knows he can’t run from me” and said he expects Eli Manning and Dak Prescott to also have their guards up now that he’s trying to bring them down. Not that Bennett will be working alone in his efforts to thwart the plans of divison rivals.
Brandon Graham, Chris Long, Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett, Timmy Jernigan and Haloti Ngata join Bennett on the defensive line in Philly and Bennett didn’t shy away from superlatives when assessing the potential of the unit.
“I think it can be one of the greatest,” Bennett said, via ESPN.com. “I think we can have one of the greatest defensive lines to ever play the game if we approach the game like every single way, just go out there and keep doing what they’re doing and just finding a way to just add and keep showing how many great players [we have]. And I think a great defensive line is about the rotation. It’s kind of like Golden State, you want to be able to have those guys that can come in and shoot and shoot and score every time.”
All those players mean that Bennett will likely be playing less than he did in Seattle, but that may only keep him fresher and operating at a high efficiency as the weeks go by later this year. If that’s the case, the Eagles’ defensive line has a good chance of being as good as the one that helped the team win the Super Bowl in February.
That will be a welcome development even if others get the nod for best of all time.