March 10, 2017
The first day of free agency is in the books, and the Philadelphia Eagles were busy, as usual. In total, they signed three players from the outside, and released one of their own. Because I'm a hack sellout, let's assign the Eagles an arbitrary letter grade for each move!
A season ago, the Eagles' wide receivers didn't make big plays, they dropped a boatload of passes, they couldn't line up properly, and they didn't know the rules about illegally blocking downfield. But other than that, they were decent!
It's kind of remarkable that Carson Wentz had the promising season that he had working with what was arguably the worst wide receiving corps in the NFL. The No. 1 priority for the Eagles this offseason was to surround Wentz with better weapons, and the Eagles did just that by adding Jeffery, who was widely regarded as the prize of this free agency class.
As it turns out, Jeffery chose Wentz over Sam Bradford, although he did so on a one-year deal. On the one hand, that's a low-risk, short-term deal for the Eagles. On the other hand, if Jeffery has a great season with the Eagles in 2017, his cost is going to skyrocket. Then again, I suppose the latter is a good problem to have.
Jeffery is a big-bodied wide receiver who can work the middle of the field, be a red zone threat with his size, and even make plays down the field with his impressive ability to win 50-50 balls. He is a legitimate No. 1 type of receiver and should be a big, immediate boost to the Eagles offense.
On the downside, some worry about Jeffery's injury history (I'll do more investigating there in the coming days), and his four-game suspension for violating the league's policy on performance enhancing drug has to worry any Eagles fan who saw the Eagles' OL fall apart after Lane Johnson was suspended last year for 10 games.
Grade: B+
Last season, opposing defensive coordinators knew they could play their safeties close to the line of scrimmage, making it tougher on the run game as well as the short-to-intermediate passing game. They didn't have to respect any deep threats who could get behind their defense, and as a result, the Eagles were handicapped in regard to what they could accomplish offensively.
Smith ran a 4.41 at the Combine, and in six pro seasons, he has a career yards-per-catch average of 17.0 to go along with 25 receptions of 40-plus yards. He is a legit deep threat, or at least he was.
In 28 games since signing a lucrative deal with the 49ers, Smith averaged a paltry 33.2 receiving yards per game. However, while Smith's numbers were bad with an incompetent 49ers team, he has shown that he can be productive in a better environment. In his first four years in the NFL with the Ravens, Smith averaged 53 catches, 898 yards, and 7.5 TDs per season. The pairing of Smith with Jeffery could be productive.
The Eagles were able to sign Smith for far less than it would have cost to sign other deep threats like DeSean Jackson or Kenny Stills, which may have been out of necessity because of their tight cap situation.
The Eagles will hope that Smith can be something closer to the player he was in Baltimore than the one he was in San Francisco. On a contract that includes very little in the way of guaranteed money, Smith is a low-risk, high-reward option.
Grade: B+
The Eagles paid almost nothing to get Warmack, who was a former top 10 draft pick back in 2013.
Chance Warmack's deal with #Eagles is 1 year, $1.51 million. $500K to sign. Can earn another $1.25M in incentives. Howie bargain shopping.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 9, 2017
Howie was "bargain shopping" indeed, a rare thing on Day One of free agency.
At the University of Alabama, Warmack was thought of as one of the best guard prospects of the last decade, working under former Alabama offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. Warmack will re-unite with Stoutland in Philly.
Warmack's contract would indicate that he is slated as a backup, but the Eagles will certainly say that he will have a chance to earn a starting job. At a minimum, the Eagles added to their guard depth with a player who has 48 career starts. If things go really well, they have a player with a lot of untapped potential who can perhaps "have the light bulb come on" working with a familiar face.
Grade: A-
Barwin was a "civic treasure," as Les Bowen eloquently put it, but it was a no-brainer decision to release him and save nearly $8 million in cap space.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, they were unable to find a trade partner for Barwin, although that was unlikely.
Grade: B
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