While Philadelphia has made a big show over the years whenever they retire a number, the team has “held off” numbers from being played in over the last several years. Former legends of the organization’s past have not seen their number worn since they ended their own careers.
The Eagles’ officially retired nine jersey numbers …
- 5: Donovan McNabb
- 15: Steve Van Buren
- 20: Brian Dawkins
- 40: Tom Brookshier
- 44: Pete Retzlaff
- 60: Chuck Bednarik
- 70: Al Wistert
- 92: Reggie White
- 99: Jerome Brown
Who could be next?
Those numbers include players like Jason Kelce’s No. 62, Brandon Graham’s No. 55, Randall Cunningham’s No. 12, and Jason Peters’ No. 71. There are many other franchise greats who haven’t seen their numbers used either.
With a 53-man roster, the Eagles are running out of numbers to retire, though. And they will eventually need to have some difficult conversations about potentially putting back into circulation some of the numbers of their greats.
Or, they could simply just lean into the retired numbers move and retire some more.
If that were to happen, who would be the obvious choices to get their numbers immortalized forever moving forward?
Foles, Graham, and Kelce seem like obvious choices. All three brought the team their first Super Bowl title, and all three will be sports legends in the city forever. Others like Peters and running back LeSean McCoy didn’t finish out their careers with the team, though. They will end up in the organization’s Ring of Honor, but that doesn’t mean they’ll have their jersey retired.
The Eagles can go in a number of different directions with this. But it seems more likely than not, especially with the way this organization does things, that they are going to be retiring more numbers very soon.
