5 players who Eagles need to be great in 2020

2. Darius Slay

The Eagles defense was devastated by inconsistent cornerback play in 2019. It’s not an exaggeration to say that adding Slay could turn out to be the league’s most important free agent signing of the season.

The question of whether or not Slay is stil a top five corner in the league is irrelevant. What’s important is the reality that he’s a massive upgrade over what Philadelphia had to work with a season ago. He gives the team a legitimate No. 1 corner that can match-up with elite receivers all around the league.

Perhaps more importantly, he allows the other corners on the roster to move down to more approrpiate levels of responsibility. Avonte Maddox was overmatched as a No. 1 corner but he has the potential to be an above average second option. The Slay acquisition also opened the door for the Eagles to bring in Nickell Robey-Coleman to be a really good option in the slot.

Slay isn’t going to suddenly turn the Eagles secondary from  awful to great, but he can make it respectable. That’s a huge step forward for a defense that has legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.