4 free agents the Philadelphia Eagles would ruin the offseason by signing

Last offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles paid Bryce Huff $51 million to play football. Huff had a terrible year and ended up being a healthy scratch in the Super Bowl. The Eagles are good enough that a deal like that didn’t make a lick of a difference in the grand scheme of things. Howie Roseman could give you a call in March with a $5 million offer, and we’d all say, ‘It’s not worse than Huff’s. Howie knows what he’s doing,’ and we’d all be right.

The Eagles can’t sign a player that could ruin the offseason based on talent. Vibes are a totally different and immeasurable thing. There are certainly guys out there that the Eagles could sign that could hamper your post-Super-Bowl-winning offseason smile.

The free agent market is a vibe-check minefield

It’s awesome having the best team with the best people. The only Eagle that isn’t unanimously liked by the general population is C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and the people who don’t like him are wrong for that. 

That being said, that kind of stuff can change in an instant, and that instant can come in free agency. There are plenty of incredibly polarizing free agents available who, if signed, would be a mega-bummer. These are some of those players.

Ezekiel Elliott

Remember when the Cowboys released Ezekiel Elliott because they wanted to let him get picked up by a team that was a postseason contender? Remember when the Chargers signed him, only for him to stay on their practice squad while they got blown out by the Texans in the Wild Card round? 

That was funny. Zeke is available, and in the next month or so, his agents are going to try to make it seem like he’s a running back who could be the next Saquon Barkley in the 2025 season. It’s going to be funny, and if it were anyone other than Zeke, it’d be sad. 

Jevon Holland

Vic Fangio was, more or less, run out of Miami after the 2023 season. He spent that season as their defensive coordinator, and the players very clearly did not like playing for him. Vic has an old-school and in-your-face coaching style where he wants his players to work hard. 

That doesn’t vibe with the seemingly carefree and players-first coaching style that Mike McDaniel has cultivated as their head coach over the last three years. If everyone else on the coaching staff plays good cop, the bad cop stands out even more—and Fangio was that guy.

Jevon Holland was incredibly outspoken about his disdain for Fangio. When the Dolphins hired Anthony Weaver to replace Fangio last year, Holland was talking about the differences between the two coaches. For Weaver, he said, “It’s the fact that he’s a good person that makes a difference,” with the incredibly heavy-handed implication that Fangio is a bad person.

Calling your former defensive coordinator a bad guy is a bad move. Being the guy to go on record saying that is even worse. Everyone on the Eagles' defense bought in on Fangio’s scheme and coaching style this season, and tossing in a proven and open dissenter would be nuts.

There’s no reason to let Holland wear Midnight Green unless you want to pay him just so Fangio can tell him to run gassers until he pukes.

Zach Wilson

Zach Wilson was drafted by the Jets with the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, and he’s started 33 games in his four seasons in the league. That might be enticing to Howie Roseman, given who he’s chosen to be Jalen Hurts’ backup in the past.

In 2021 and 2022, it was Gardner Minshew, who had previously started 20 games in two seasons with the Jaguars. As an Eagle, Minshew had a 1-3 record as a starter. Not great.

In 2023, it was Marcus Mariota, who the Titans drafted with the second overall pick in the 2015 draft and had 74 career starts. He was bad in training camp in 2023, and he was bad when he had to play during the season.

In 2024, it was Kenny Pickett, who the Steelers drafted with the 20th overall pick in the 2022 draft and had 24 career starts. He wasn’t necessarily terrible when he had to play last season, but he wasn’t anywhere near as good as Tanner McKee. 

That’s another piece of this: Tanner McKee is a good quarterback. He needs to get the QB2 job next season, and the Eagles shouldn’t spend any money on another potential QB2… especially if that guy is someone with the fraudulent resume of Zach Wilson. 

Keep this in mind, too: The Jets fired Joe Douglas during the season. Douglas was the Jets’ general manager who drafted Wilson. Douglas was also the Eagles’ vice president of player personnel during the 2017 Super Bowl run. It’s not a given by any means, but if he makes it back into the Eagles front office this offseason, he’ll have Howie Roseman’s ear. Again, if that happens, there would be a connection between the Eagles and Zach Wilson.

Keep it simple: give Tanner McKee the QB2 job and keep poisonous players (read: anyone who’s spent time in a quarterback room with Aaron Rodgers over the past two years) away from the locker room and, specifically, Jalen Hurts.

Dre Greenlaw

Big Bom DiSandro is the Eagles’ Chief Security Officer. That means he plays a part in the screening of the players the Eagles bring in through either the draft or free agency. Big Dom and Dre Greenlaw have some history. 

During the 49ers game in Week 13 of the 2023 season, Greenlaw was the player who got Big Dom ejected from the game and kicked off the sidelines for the rest of the season.

There’s a better chance of Michael Phelps drowning in a drizzle, Donkey Kong becoming allergic to bananas, or Jerry and Stephen Jones actually understanding the salary cap than there is Dre Greenlaw becoming an Eagle. As soon as he literally or metaphorically walked into the screening meeting, Big Dom would throw a cannoli at him (he can spare a few) and laugh him out of the room.