8 Eagles free agency targets they can realistically sign this offseason

The Philadelphia Eagles have had two very different free agencies in the past two years. In 2024, they signed Saquon Barkley and some cat named Zack Baun. In 2025, they re-signed Baun and extended Barkley, but let five key defensive starters leave; it was much, much less fun. If we’re all being honest with each other, this free agency class is very top-heavy. After the top 25 guys, the level of talent drops off big-time. You’re going from Devin Lloyd to Devin White and from Rico Dowdle to Kareem Hunt. It’s kind of stinky. 

That does kind of play into how the Eagles build their roster. It’s elite players and extremely cheap players via the NFL Draft or otherwise, with nothing in between. If Howie Roseman decides to dip into the FA pool, he’ll have options. The other option is for him to just ignore free agents and re-sign guys who are on the team (I imagine that’s the route that he’s going to go). But to make this interesting, let’s take a gander at some non-Eagles that could be Eagles next week.

Expensive: Coby Bryant (S, Seahawks)

There aren’t any truly elite free agent safeties this year, so re-signing Reed Blankenship is absolutely the right move.

That being said, there are a handful of them who are pretty good. If the Eagles want to overpay one of those guys, Coby Bryant could be the one. Not only is Bryant good in coverage, but he’s kind of a stud when it comes to getting dirty and stopping the run. When it comes to playing in a Fangio defense, those are the two things you need to do.

Cheap: C.J. Gardner-Johnson (S, Bears)

Every other year, the Eagles get bounced in the first round of the playoffs. In other years, C.J. Gardner-Johnson is on the team, and they go to the Super Bowl. CJGJ is only turning 29 this season, and he can still play ball.

The Eagles traded him to the Texans last offseason to save money, and he bounced from there to Baltimore and then to Chicago. Now he’s a free agent again, and he’s not going to cost a lot of money. 

Would this be a little bit of fan service? Yes, duh. But he’s also a good ball player, and he knows how to play in the Fangio defense. Bring him home… again. 

Expensive: Jaylen Watson (CB, Chiefs)

When the Eagles drafted Kelee Ringo in 2023, he was only 20 years old. The plan (probably) was for him to develop and slide into the starting role whenever Darius Slay left. Well, that time came, and Ringo didn’t develop nearly enough, which stinks because he’s got the body type to be an amazing football player.

In order to mitigate the risk of that exact situation happening, they signed Adoree’ Jackson in free agency last season. He started off a little shaky, but ended up playing pretty well by the end of the season. If the Eagles spent money on a cornerback in free agency this year, it wouldn’t be crazy if they went after someone who could shore up the position and play opposite Quinyon Mitchell for the next handful of seasons. 

Jaylen Watson could be that guy. He’s more of a zone guy than a man guy, and a lot of times Fangio’s zone coverages end up functioning as a kind of pseudo-man coverage. So maybe it wouldn’t be the perfect match right now… But he’s a good player. 

If Vic Fangio could get Jackson to work, then there’s no reason to think he couldn’t get a more talented and younger guy to also work. 

Cheap(-ish): Cobie Durant (CB, Rams)

Cobie Durant would be an Adoree’ Jackson-type of signing. Even though he’s only a couple of years younger than Jackson, Durant has five fewer years of NFL experience (he was drafted at 24 years old in 2022).

So you’re not getting that guy who’s survived multiple contracts with multiple teams, but you are getting a starter who’s seen a decent amount of playing time and can hold down the fort without being a major liability. And more importantly, he’d probably cost somewhere around $2 to $4 million. That’s not crazy, and you’re getting a guy who could potentially stick around for a couple of years. 

Expensive: Odafe Oweh (Edge, Chargers)

The two young-ish edge rushers who are set to sign multi-year deals in free agency are Jaelan Phillips and Odafe Oweh. Let’s say the Eagles aren’t priced out of Phillips’ market, but they weirdly decide not to offer him a contract and still want to spend money to shore up the defensive line: Oweh would probably be the guy they go after. 

Last season, the Ravens traded him to the Chargers, where he was unlocked in the creativity of Jesse Minter’s defense. I imagine that same playstyle would work really well as a rotational guy for Fangio. 

Typically, if you’re paying a lot for an edge rusher, Ol’ Vic would want him to be more of an ‘every-down’ kind of guy (Phillips played 78% of the defensive snaps with the Eagles), but Oweh’s production might be worth it.

Cheap: Denico Autry (Edge, Texans)

The other option the Eagles have if Phillips doesn’t re-sign is to do what they did last year and just sign a whole gang of cheap guys. Last year it was Ogbo Okoronkwo, Josh Uche, Azeez Ojulari, Za’Darius Smith (remember that?), and Patrick Johnson. 

This year, the cheap veterans that you’re looking at are Denico Autry, Trevis Gipson, and Emmanuel Ogbah-type guys. Hell, just for fun, let’s throw Derek Barnett in there too. None of those guys are sexy signings, but they’re guys, and maybe you’ll get something out of one of them… Except for Barnett, that would be very funny. 

Expensive: Isaiah Likely (TE, Ravens)

For the last three years, you, me, and everyone have predicted that the Eagles were going to do something at tight end. That could be drafting one, trading for one, or signing one in free agency. And for the past three years, every single one of us has been dead wrong. 

Now, they don’t have a starting, backup, or third string tight end under contract on their roster and it’s looking a whole lot like they are going to let Dallas Goedert walk in free agency… That means that this year when we all say, ‘They’ve got to get someone at tight end,’ we’re going to be right. So, congrats to us. We weren’t wrong, we were just early.

The all-around best and youngest tight end that they can get this year is Isaiah Likely. He’s not going to blow your mind with run blocking, but he’s shown that he can handle a full workload, pass catcher-wise.

Cheap: Jack Stoll (TE, Saints)

I’m very much looking forward to the day when Jack Stoll gets his, “Philadelphia Eagles (third stint)” entry on Wikipedia. 

If there’s any reason for the Eagles to not re-sign him… again… it’s because he’s coming off of a pretty gruesome late-season knee injury. Paying guys who could be unavailable is a risky business to get into. 

If that injury is too much, then it’ll be any of those other guys like Andrew Ogletree, Durham Smythe, Greg Dulcich. None of them is going to blow your socks off. Which, to be fair, Stoll wouldn’t either, but at least he’s a familiar name.