At the combine, Howie Roseman told everyone that this offseason would look different, and then he paid huge money for his starting running back and linebacker. He’s never done that before; that’s what he was talking about, right?
Nope. It turns out that it meant he was going to be as passive in free agency as any team could be. As of Wednesday morning, the Philadelphia Eagles are the only team not to sign any players through two days of free agency. For any other franchise, that would be a problem. Luckily, Howie Roseman isn’t an idiot, and you have to imagine that he has a good plan.
This free agency is much less fun than last year
It’s important to remember that this free agent class, as a whole, is not good. The Eagles had the most talented roster in the NFL in 2024. When guys from the most talented roster go into free agency, they’re going to be some of the best players available. As a matter of fact, NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal had five Eagles on his top 101 free agents list, and three of them were in his top ten.
That’s important because, realistically, that means the Eagles weren’t going to be able to upgrade at the positions where they lost players. That also means that the Eagles weren’t going to have to spend huge money on players who aren’t necessarily worth it.
For example, Milton Williams got paid $26 million per year by the Patriots. We all watched him play for his entire professional career. He’s a good player, no one is saying that he’s not… but he’s not worth over 5 percent of the Patriots’ salary cap (for reference, Jordan Mailata is 5.48 percent of the Eagles’). That’s just the going rate for the players this year.
The point I'm trying to make is that if there is an offseason for the Eagles to have to deal with losses and not make early free agency additions, this is that year.
It’s also important to remember that Howie Roseman isn’t the only big brain (not being facetious) behind allowing players to walk, especially on defense.
Vic Fangio has an eye for talent, and he probably has a massive say in who is on his defensive roster. I would imagine that he’s given his blessing on every single one of Roseman’s decisions to let guys leave.
All of this being said, it all stinks. If you’re riding high on the Super Bowl win, I’m with you. That rocks, and nothing will ever take that away. The 2024 Eagles were an incredibly special team, but that’s what makes this hurt.
It hurts even more when guys like C.J. Gardner-Johnson get traded away. He’s the player who you love to have on your team and you hate to play against. It’s tough to see him go, especially when his trade blind-sided everyone.
Hope’s not lost, though. When you look at the roster, it looks like there are plans in place for guys to take over for the players who are gone. We’ll start with safety since that’s the most recent thing.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Safety
When the Eagles are scouting players, they label some guys as “red star” players. Howie Roseman says a red star player “exemplifies what it means to be an Eagle, so it's great character, captain, testing numbers, intelligence, plays the way it should be played, practices the way it should be played.”
Sydney Brown was a red star player when the Eagles drafted him in the third round of the 2023 draft, and it seems like it might be his time to take the starting safety spot alongside Reed Blankenship.
That’s good because Brown is incredibly fun to watch play football. He plays super fast, hits very hard, and is an overall psychopath on the field… which, to be fair, is emphasized by his Troy Polamalu-esque hair.
The problem is that he went from playing 335 defensive snaps in 2023 to only playing 79 in 2024. That might be due to a few things.
First, he tore his ACL at the end of the 2023 season and didn’t get an offseason of practicing, and Vic Fangio loves giving playing time based on practicing. Cooper DeJean ended up being an awesome slot cornerback, but he didn’t start until Week 6 because he missed a bunch of time in the offseason with an injury. Brown missed even more time, which could’ve played into his lack of playing time.
Second, he was behind better starters on the depth chart. In 2023, it was Kevin Byard/Terrell Edmunds. It was C.J.G.J. in 2024. The problem with this thought is that Tristin McCollum was the second safety on the depth chart, and near the end of the season, Avonte Maddox was the third, leaving Brown as the fourth. That could’ve been because of the practice time, but Fangio is the only guy who knows the real reason.
Third, he might not be good in this defense. Maybe Fangio saw what he needed to see out of Brown, and that’s why he fell so low on the depth chart.
If that’s the case, then there will be a competition for the starting safety spot between Brown and Lewis Cine, the Vikings’ 2022 first-round draft pick out of Georgia, who the Eagles signed off of the Bills’ practice squad in the postseason.
Darius Slay and Isaiah Rodgers, Cornerback
In the fourth round of the 2023 draft, the Eagles traded a 2024 third-round pick to the Texans to draft Kelee Ringo, who would be the third Georgia Bulldog they picked that year. He was 20 years old at the time and was a guy who needed to be developed. Now he’s 22, and it’s about the time for that development to pay off.
Ideally, the Eagles would’ve re-signed Isaiah Rodgers, and the two would compete for the starting cornerback job. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards.
Now, if the Eagles want to grab a cornerback from the free agent market, their best option is Asante Samuel Jr. He’d probably come in on a cheap one-year ‘prove it’ deal. If it works out, that’d be awesome and historically poetic, given his dad’s time with the Eagles.
Other than that, they could throw Cooper DeJean outside and let him roll opposite Quinyon Mitchell, but it seems like it’d be good just to let DeJean keep locking down the slot.
Milton Williams, Defensive Tackle
You don’t need to be an elite player to be a good defensive tackle when you play next to Jalen Carter because of how much attention and double teams he gets. I would imagine that the Eagles will draft someone to add to what they already have.
Right now, there’s Jordan Davis, Moro Ojomo, Thomas Booker, and Gabe Hall. Davis will take care of the early downs, so whoever takes over for Milton Williams won’t have to be a super versatile player from the get-go.
It seems like Ojomo (pronounced oh-juh-muh) will be that guy, which is good. It’s cool when you can lose a $26 million player and have a seventh-round draft pick fill in for him.
Josh Sweat, Edge
This is the hairiest position. Right now, the Eagles’ edge rushers are Brandon Graham, Nolan Smith, Jalyx Hunt, and (technically) Bryce Huff.
We’re still waiting to see if B.G. is going to retire, and Bryce Huff is… well, he’s a nothing burger that cost $17 million. That realistically leaves just Smith and Hunt, which is not nearly enough for one of the most important positions on the entire team, let alone a rotational position. The Eagles have to do something here, whether it’s in free agency, the draft, or both.
There are a whole lot of guys they can get in the draft, but in free agency, the guy they should target is Azeez Ojulari, who spent the first four seasons of his career with the Giants. Gregg Rosenthal ranked him as the 56th best free agent. He wrote, “The Giants never seemed to trust Ojulari on a down-to-down basis, but the man can rush the passer. At worst, he’s a useful situational edge rusher.”
Josh Sweat's sack celebration is something that can never be replaced. Sending a quarterback into the crust of the Earth just to stand up and wipe the sweat off of his brow? Get out of here. That celebration was truly one-of-one.
Kenny Pickett, Quarterback
Not much needs to be said here. Tanner McKee has taken his rightful throne as the Eagles’ QB2. The Browns sent Dorian Thompson-Robinson to Philadelphia when they traded for Pickett, so the Eagles do have a QB3 in the building. That being said, DTR is really, really, truly, absolutely terrible.
If the Eagles want to upgrade that position, they’ll probably go with a UDFA, a free agent closer to training camp, or a late-round draft pick (which is what they did when they drafted McKee).
Kenneth Gainwell, Running Back
Football has a beautiful way of being poetic. I used to not like Kenny Gainwell, but it wasn’t his fault. In 2022, it seemed like the Eagles would scheme up third-down plays specifically for him to get the ball, even though A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, and Jalen Hurts were better playmakers and much more dynamic.
Then, in Week 1 of the 2023 season, Gainwell had 14 of the 16 running back carries but only had 54 yards. In Week 2, D’Andre Swift took over with 28 carries for 175 yards. It just seemed like the Eagles were trying to force Gainwell down our throats, and it just wasn’t paying off.
In 2024, he was the perfect relief for Saquon Barkley. When he played, he made the most of it, and it really worked. As soon as I started to appreciate him as a player, he left. That’s on me, but it stinks.
Anyways, Will Shipley is going to take Gainwell’s spot at RB2. He’ll probably get a little more work than Gainwell did to save Barkley’s legs, and it’ll be important to remember that. You (read: I) will be tempted to do the ‘Why are we doing Shipley on a third down?’ thing, and it might make you (read: me) mad, but that’s not on Will Shipley. Don’t take it out on him.
It doesn’t feel like it right now, but the Eagles aren’t in the worst spot right now. Even though they lost a bunch of really important guys, the defense will still be awesome.
One of the cool parts about making it to (and winning) the Super Bowl is that other teams around the NFL tend to leave the coaches alone. Not only is Vic Fangio still the defensive coordinator, but the position coaches are the same too.
All of those guys turned the worst defense in the league into the best defense in the league. They’ll be able to take the guys who have new and starting roles and turn them back into the Bullies of Broad Street.