Howie Roseman crushed it last offseason when he signed Saquon Barkley and Zack Baun to the Philadelphia Eagles. He got a guy in Barkley (who was already awesome) and a guy in Baun (who was a nobody) and turned them into the best players in the NFL at their positions.
Normally, if one free agent hits, grows, and becomes better by the end of their contract you consider that a win. For it to happen with two guys in one year, and then they helped win the Super Bowl? It was unreal we’ll probably never see another free agency that turns out that well and with that level of impact ever again.
2024 is not the first time free agents have helped the Eagles get to or win the Super Bowl, and when we’re talking about the best free agents, that’s how you become the best of the best. We’re going to look at this from the most recent to the oldest.
Side Note: Jason Kelce was a free agent in 2022 and 2023, but we’re not counting him. He was retiring or coming back to play, so it wasn’t like the normal free agent.
Haason Reddick, 2022
With a franchise as old as the Eagles, it’s always impressive when a franchise record gets broken. Going into the 2022 season, the franchise record for most team sacks in a season was 62, set by Clyde Simmons, Reggie White, and Jerome Brown in 1989. The 2022 Eagles shattered that record with 70 sacks, and it was spearheaded by Haason Reddick.
Reddick signed a three-year $45 million deal and he was worth every penny and more (which ended up being one of the reasons he left). He came in after two straight years of double-digit sacks with the Cardinals and the Panthers.
We knew that he was going to rock, but we didn’t know that he was going to be a game-wrecking powerhouse.
That all culminated in the NFC Championship game when the San Francisco 49ers 49ers decided to have backup tight end Tyler Kroft block Reddick on a second down early in the first quarter. Reddick predictably annihilated Kroft and got a strip sack on Brock Purdy; a sack that would take the quarterback out for the rest of the game.
We don’t have to talk about what happened in the Super Bowl that year, other than that it’s hard to be an edge rusher when you’re playing football on a swampy field.
Nick Foles, 2017
At the time, the Eagles bringing Nick Foles back at the beginning of the 2017 season didn’t seem like much, but it ended up being the most important free-agent signing in franchise history.
The Eagles picked Foles in the third round of the 2012 draft to back up Michael Vick. He had a great season in 2013 when he had 27 passing touchdowns and only two interceptions, but then he came back down to Earth in 2014.
The Eagles traded him to the St. Louis Rams for quarterback Sam Bradford in 2015. He had a terrible season there and it made him fall out of love with football and think about retirement.
Then in the fall of 2016, he signed a one-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs to reunite with Andy Reid. That reunion got him back in the right headspace, just in time for the Eagles to sign him on a two-year deal to back up Carson Wentz, who was entering his second season.
Then that season happens. Wentz was playing at an MVP level and the Eagles were rolling just about every team they played, until Week 14 when he tore his ACL against the Los Angeles Rams. Foles came in for him.
Foles' first start that season was in Week 15, and he threw for four touchdowns against the lowly, lowly New York Giants. Then he, once again, plummeted in Week 16 against the Raiders. He went 19-of-38 for 163 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. It was ugly, and it made everything feel shaky just a couple of weeks away from the postseason.
Then in the Divisional round, the Eagles played the Atlanta Falcons. It was a rough game; Foles was 23-of-30 for 246 yards, but it was ugly.
The NFC Championship Game was an entirely different story. He had complete command of the game and there was nothing the Vikings could do to stop him and the vibes were all the way back up going into the Super Bowl.
It was Tom Brady, the best football player in the history of time, and Foles, the backup quarterback who almost retired two years prior. Foles went blow for blow with Brady and ultimately came out on top to not just bring the Eagles their first Lombardi Trophy, but also win the Super Bowl MVP.
Barkley was a great free agent signing and was more productive than Nick Foles, but Foles' story and the impact that he had on the franchise will always make him the best free agency signing in not just Roseman’s tenure as general manager, but franchise history.
Malcolm Jenkins, 2014
Malcolm Jenkins is up there, importance-wise, with Foles on the 2017 Eagles. But, Jenkins had been with the team for three years at that point.
The Eagles signed him to a three-year, $16.25 million deal in 2014. He played 100% of the defensive snaps in all six of his seasons in Philadelphia, except for 2017 when he missed a handful in Weeks 9 and 11, and when the Eagles rested their starters in Week 17.
That’s important when it comes to being the leader and the attitude of the defense. Think about what happened in Week 16 this past season: C.J. Gardner-Johnson got ejected, and the defense lost some of its stank.
C.J.G.J. and Jenkins are two entirely different players, but whenever the guy that sets the tone for the defense isn’t on the field, or the sideline for that matter, it looks and feels different.
Brian Dawkins will always be the best safety in Eagles’ history, but Jenkins is No. 2 on that list. He does hold the title for best defensive free agent signing though, that’s undeniable at this point.