Philadelphia Eagles free agency 2018: Top 5 targets
The Philadelphia Eagles are trying to defend their Super Bowl crown, and these five free agents would go a long way toward that goal.
The Eagles are Super Bowl Champions! Almost as exciting as that is that Philadelphia still has one of the most stacked and complete rosters in the NFL. Plus, Carson Wentz returns to the lead this great team. The Eagles are built for the long haul.
It is fortunate for Philadelphia that they have very few glaring needs this offseason. The Eagles have one of the tightest salary cap situations in the league. They will make some room by releasing Torrey Smith, Brent Celek and possibly Jason Peters, but they will not be big buyers in free agency.
Compounding matters, the Eagles do not have a second or third round draft choice and pick at the end of every round obviously. Philadelphia does own the Patriots’ fourth round selection. So in the top four rounds of the draft, the Eagles only have the 32nd pick overall and the final two choices in the fourth round. This is probably the most difficult team in the league to project free agents to, so keeping their own is probably the wisest move if it doesn’t break the bank.
5. Brock Osweiler
With little in the way of spending power, the Eagles might be very tempted to trade Nick Foles if they get the right offer. Of course Philadelphia is in the driver’s seat in this situation and probably shouldn’t even consider moving Foles for anything less than a mid second round pick. Trading Foles would obviously bring in some needed draft capital as well as freeing up some much-needed cap space ($7.6 million).
The Eagles would have to add a backup to Wentz in this scenario. Osweiler certainly isn’t the most exciting quarterback on the market, but he does have some similarities to Foles from a year ago and this coaching staff might be able to get more out of Osweiler than at his previous stops.
Osweiler also is a decent athlete for his size and should be able to orchestrate the RPOs that the Eagles run so effectively. Of course this only comes into play if Foles is traded, but adding Osweiler on the cheap could provide enough of a backup for Wentz. Swapping out the Super Bowl MVP for Osweiler probably doesn’t have Eagles fans doing cartwheels, but from a business perceptive, it could make sense.