The beginning of 2025’s free agency has been a predictable bloodbath for the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense. It makes all the sense in the world since it was the best defense in the NFL, and they capped the season off by turning Patrick Mahomes into a pumpkin during the Super Bowl.
So far, they’ve lost four key players: Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, Oren Burks, Isaiah Rodgers, and Darius Slay. That’s tough. Those guys have played a combined 17 years with the Eagles, and they all played a big part in bringing a second Lombardi to Philadelphia.
The Eagles are in ‘maintain mode’ after free agency purge
The Eagles' biggest priorities going into free agency were to re-sign Zack Baun and extend Saquon Barkley, and they did exactly that last week. Unfortunately, that means that they’re going to be quiet at the beginning of free agency. Also, unfortunately, that means that the only news about Eagles' players is that they’re signing with other teams.
Overall, the 2025 free-agent class is not very good, which is what makes all of this sting. The players that the Eagles are losing are some of the best players in the class at their positions and in the class overall.
That means it’s going to be hard for them to upgrade with the guys that they could sign, but that’s what happens when you have the most talented team in the NFL.
The first player to go was cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, which was unexpected. He signed a two-year contract for $15 million with the Minnesota Vikings.
Rodgers had much more playing time in 2024 than the Eagles probably wanted because he played when Darius Slay was either hurt or banged up… which was pretty often.
The hope was that the Eagles would re-sign Rodgers so he could either start or be in an offseason competition with Kelee Ringo for the starting cornerback job, opposite from Quinyon Mitchell. As of right now, that job belongs to Kelee Ringo.
This could change though. Of all of the players that the Eagles lost, Rodgers was the most, or the second most, replaceable. There are still guys like Asante Samuel Jr. and Rasul Douglas, who are still available.
It’s probably a long shot that the Eagles would sign a cornerback to a big contract because they have (and like) Ringo, but it wouldn’t be crazy if they signed someone like Samuel to a one-year deal to come in for that cornerback battle.
Defensive tackle Milton Williams was the next guy off the board. There was some weird reporting about which team he was signing with, but it ended up being with the New England Patriots. He signed a gigantic four-year deal for $104 million. That’s $26 million per year.
He earned a huge contract from everything he did with the Eagles, but that’s a crazy amount of money for a player like Williams.
No one is going to say that he’s a bad player or anything like that, but $26 million should probably go to someone who draws double teams rather than a guy who benefits from them.
Williams is the other guy who is potentially the most replaceable because of the double team thing. If you play next to Jalen Carter, you’re going to have a good time purely because of the attention he gets and the lack of attention you’ll get.
The trouble is finding a guy who can replace Williams. Sure, the Eagles could draft a defensive tackle, but rookie defensive linemen famously take a while to develop and get going. If they want immediate success, they should grab someone in free agency — but the metaphorical defensive tackle well is drying up fast.
Right now, the Eagles' best options are players like Levi Onwuzurike, Javon Hargrave, or Tershawn Wharton. Those guys might cost a little bit too much for them, and if that's the case, they’ll need to rely on Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo to take a big step up.
Edge rusher Josh Sweat was the last big guy to go. He had been with the Eagles since he was drafted in the fourth round of the 2018 draft. He’s easily the hardest player for the Eagles to replace.
He did the ultra-smart thing by having the best game of his career in the Super Bowl when he had six pressures, three quarterback hits, and 2.5 sacks. When you have that kind of performance in your last game before you get paid, you’re going to get paid a lot… and that’s exactly what happened.
He signed a four-year deal for $76.4 million with the Arizona Cardinals. That reunites him with Jonathan Gannon, who was his defensive coordinator when he had his best season back in 2022.
Right now, the only edge rushers that the Eagles have are Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt (you could maybe throw Bryce Huff in there, but don’t). That’s not anywhere close to what the Eagles are comfortable with.
Luckily, Azeez Ojulari, Anthony Nelson, and Chase Young (yuck) are still out there. Ojulari is the guy that stands out from those three, but he’d probably cost a pretty penny, and even if he did sign with the Eagles, they would still need to get someone in the draft.
Linebacker Oren Burks also signed a two-year contract for $5 million with the Cincinnati Bengals. He wasn’t a huge part of the Eagles' season until Nakobe Dean went down with a knee injury in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
At first, it seemed like Burks would’ve been a guy that offenses tried to target. He ended up playing pretty well and actually being kind of a weapon. It would’ve been cool if the Eagles re-signed him because Dean’s going to be out for a loooong long time, but this shows that they have faith in Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
They already backed a dump truck full of cash into Zack Baun’s front yard, so it’s hard to imagine that they’ll try to sign someone notable to backfill that spot. However, that does open the door for Vic Fangio and linebackers coach Bobby King to turn another special teamer or depth edge rusher into an All-Pro linebacker. You’ve got to try to stay positive.
Darius Slay blows everyone else out of the water with how weird his situation is. News came out that the Steelers were going to sign him, which is cool and all… but the Eagles haven’t officially released him yet, even though they said they were going to on March 3.
It’s kind of bizarre. This means that the Steelers might have to trade for him (which would probably just be a seventh-round pick), or the Eagles could keep him at the starting cornerback spot again. That second option doesn’t seem super likely, but it’s not impossible. After the 2022 season, the Eagles released Slay and then re-signed him a day later.
With Rodgers leaving for Minnesota, the obvious preference would be that he stays, but we’ve already kind of come to terms with him leaving. If the Eagles can get some draft compensation for him, that’d be sweet.
It’s still incredibly early in the offseason. The first day of free agency isn’t even over yet, and there are still six more months of it and the draft. All’s not lost or anything like that, but it stinks to see guys go. Especially if those guys were huge parts of why the team won a Super Bowl.