March 21, 2022
On the first day of NFL free agency, the Philadelphia Eagles made a splashy signing, when they were able to add Haason Reddick to their pass rushing rotation. Over the next six days, however, (fart noise).
They did make a handful of other unexciting roster moves:
As far as losing unrestricted free agents to other teams, even that front has been boring, with only Singleton and Hasson Ridgeway landing on new teams. Derek Barnett's name has been absent from the rumor mill, and theoretically, the longer he remains available the better the chance that he'll stay in Philly. 😱
The message that the team has clearly tried to get out to its fans is that their inactivity in free agency has been a result of the four players they re-signed during the 2021 season. They were LT Jordan Mailata, TE Dallas Goedert, DE Josh Sweat, and CB Avonte Maddox. If you like those players, then you should like what the Eagles have done so far this offseason, I guess? Is that it? I'm sure Eagles fans will receive that message the same way my 10-year-old daughter might receive news that her birthday gift pile is light this year because I bought her some clothes half a year ago.
But also, that explanation doesn't even hold water. Those four players have a combined salary cap number of $14,261,998 in 2022. It's not their contracts that are limiting the Eagles' inability to spend this offseason. It's the more than $36 million in dead money on their cap (fourth-most in the NFL), stemming from players no longer on the team, like Barnett, Malik Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, Zach Ertz, Joe Flacco, Eric Wilson, and others.
Additionally, because the Eagles were like eleventy billion dollars over the salary cap to start the offseason a year ago, they restructured the contracts of a slew of aging players, kicking the can down the road into future years. Those players included guys like Cox, Brandon Brooks, Jason Kelce, Darius Slay, Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson, and others. And of course, dead money hits from years past, most notably in the Eagles' case with Carson Wentz, have ripple effects on the future as well.
If you look at the NFL's daily public salary cap report, it might show that Eagles have some room under the cap. However, the reality is that since they have already restructured their veteran players' contracts repeatedly and there's little cap finagling available to to them going forward, the Eagles have the least amount of restructure flexibility in the NFL, and their "potential cap space" is not in good shape, relative to most other teams, as shown from this tweet February:
Here's a way to visualize how much effective cap space teams have currently, and how much they can end up with if they complete max restructures on their veteran contracts. This is a better way to evaluate how much money teams have for the offseason than just current cap space pic.twitter.com/lOtEX4sS8g
— Arjun Menon (@arjunmenon100) February 17, 2022
In other words, "We had a good draft four years ago and wanted to pay Jordan Mailata, Dallas Goedert, Josh Sweat, and Avonte Maddox" sounds a lot better than "Carson Wentz, Malik Jackson, Alshon Jeffery, and Derek Barnett are hindering our ability to add talent."
Oh, and also, maybe take the reported $14 million that was just used to re-sign Cox and instead spend that on a young, ascending player. 🤷♂️
Well, the Eagles still have major holes at three positions — wide receiver, linebacker, and safety. Their depth chart at each position:
Wide receiver
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| DeVonta Smith | J.J. Arcega-Whitesdie | Deon Cain |
| Quez Watkins | John Hightower | |
| Jalen Reagor | Greg Ward |
Linebacker
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| T.J. Edwards | Shaun Bradley | Christian Elliss |
| Davion Taylor | JaCoby Stevens |
Safety
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Marcus Epps | Andre Chachere | Jared Mayden |
| Anthony Harris | K'Von Wallace |
Before free agency began, the Eagles tried to trade for Calvin Ridley, but the deal fell apart because of Ridley's year-long suspension. They tried to sign Christian Kirk and Allen Robinson, who instead signed with the Jaguars and Rams, respectively. They also had some level of interest in DJ Chark, who signed with the Lions, though it's unknown if they made him an offer. The want to get better at receiver is there, but they haven't been able to close. One theory on the team's inability to add wide receiver talent is that receivers don't want to play in the most run-heavy offense in the NFL, which is certainly logical.
The Eagles have also been in on the safety market, but they reportedly lost out on Marcus Williams to the Ravens.
Curiously, there has been almost no chatter in regard to the Eagles' interest in linebackers.
And then in the quarterback market, they were interested in both Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson, but neither quarterback wanted to come to Philly.
The Eagles can still make moves as free agency continues, but in most cases it's probably fair to say that they are onto Plan C or Plan D.
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