February 06, 2024
Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports
Howie Roseman and the Eagles will have more salary cap flexibility than they did a year ago, but they still probably aren't in a position to spend big bucks on a bunch of splashy free agents.
About a week and a half ago we solicited questions for an Eagles mailbag via Twitter or whatever it's called now. Thank you as always for doing half the work for me. This is Part II of a two-part mailbag (Part I here).
Question from @MrAnthonyWeiss: How much flexibility do the Eagles have to overhaul their roster, and particularly the back seven of their defense? How much cap space and flexibility do they have, do you think they have any trade chips, and how much do you think they're counting on drafting and developing?
They currently have a little over $16 million in what OverTheCap calls "effective cap space," which is "the cap space a team will have after signing at least 51 players and its projected rookie class to its roster." That's the 17th most in the NFL, so they're right in the middle of the pack.
They can easily generate another $13 million with the release of Kevin Byard (no-brainer decision there), and another decent chunk if they cut Avonte Maddox or get him to take a pay cut.
Haason Reddick's contract situation is also worth watching this offseason. He has a cap number of almost $22 million in 2024. The team will almost certainly re-work his contract, whether they (a) convert his base salary into a bonus and kick the can down the road, (b) sign him to an extension, or (c) trade him.
In recent years, the Eagles have entered each offseason with big dead cap numbers, from players like Carson Wentz, Alshon Jeffery, Malik Jackson, Zach Ertz, Brandon Brooks' retirement, and Fletcher Cox's out of the ordinary release / subsequent re-signing. In 2023, their dead cap got up to around $60 million by the time the season was over. This year, their dead money liabilities are very low heading into the offseason. Derek Barnett will count for a little over $4 million on the Eagles' cap this season, but otherwise their books are pretty clean in that regard, for now. If Jason Kelce and/or Fletcher Cox retire, that'll put some substantial dead money on the ledger, as will the likely release of James Bradberry. But they'll be cleaner there this year than they've been in recent years.
They also of course have to consider that Jalen Hurts' massive contract extension is going to limit the degree to which they spend in free agency, and they'll soon be taking care of a few more of their own, such as DeVonta Smith and Landon Dickerson, neither of whom will be cheap.
As you mentioned, they certainly need to get better in their back seven, but I don't see an "overhaul" of the overall roster coming. The Eagles still have plenty of good players, and they have decent draft capital this year with the extra second-round pick. They'll continue to draft and develop. They'll also have some flexibility to find better players at positions of need in free agency, especially since Howie Roseman will likely continue to borrow from the cap in future years on any big expenditures. But I wouldn't expect a super splashy free agency.
Question from @GreaseThePoles: A few safeties and linebackers that have been linked to the Eagles via trade rumors are expected to soon be available as free agents, like Budda Baker, Jeremy Chinn, and Patrick Queen. Given the Eagles' penchant to undervalue those positions, are they still in play?
Forget about Queen. He was an All-Pro, and could get the type of bigtime money that the Eagles don't spend at linebacker.
I had heard from a few sources around the league that the Eagles had interest in Chinn at the trade deadline, however, he got hurt so nothing materialized. I think he is the most realistic option among the three players you listed, but he's also probably best used as a sub-package player as opposed to a full-time starter.
Last offseason, one safety (Jessie Bates) got a huge deal, and the rest found a very disappointing market. The top free agent safety this year is Antoine Winfield, who I imagine will get franchise tagged if the Buccaneers can't get a long-term deal done with him. The rest of the group... meh. Baker isn't a free agent. He will be next offseason absent a contract extension. Over the next few weeks, I'll try to identify a few starting-caliber safeties who make sense for the Eagles who won't break the bank.
Question from @nfl_irish: Do you think the Eagles will start drafting players to be immediate starters since there are more holes in the roster compared to previous years? In the past two drafts, they’ve redshirted Tyler Steen, Sydney Brown (kind of), Kelee Ringo, Cam Jurgens, and Nakobe Dean, who all cost Day 2 picks.
Ringo and Jurgens were redshirt guys, but Steen, Brown, and Dean all had a chance to start immediately if they had beaten out other vets on the roster during training camp.
The Eagles' strategy of trying to fill holes with vets during free agency and then using the draft as more of a long-term roster building tool makes sense, in my opinion, and I don't think they'll stray from that. As we noted here in our Senior Bowl notes, there's a pretty good chance they will spend an early pick on an offensive tackle who may not play right away.
Question from @TheSmartyJones: Backup QB in 2024? Marcus Mariota (or another veteran of similar caliber), Tanner McKee, or a Day 2 draft pick (we all know this is a possibility, right?)
McKee was really good in training camp and the preseason games. I have no idea how he practiced throughout the regular season. I'm curious what the team thinks of him as a potential No. 2. The Eagles value backup quarterbacks more than most teams do, so I'd rank your three options like so:
There are a number of quarterbacks who could conceivably get drafted in Round 1, or land somewhere in Round 2, like Michigan's J.J. McCarthy, Oregon's Bo Nix, or Washington's Michael Penix.
Would I take any of those guys in the second round if I were Howie Roseman? Hell no. But if the Eagles have a high grade on one of them and they happen to fall, I agree that we can never rule out the quarterback factory.
Question from @toniliciouzzz: Are the Eagles changing the way they attack training camp and practice moving forward? How do they get better at tackling?
After the Eagles' sloppy Week 1 win against the Patriots, Nick Sirianni acknowledged that he should perhaps re-think the team's super light training camp schedule. While I think that the Eagles are right to prioritize player health in training camp, I also think they probably got a little too extreme to that philosophy, and I wonder if the easy camp and the light mid-week practice schedules had anything to do with the team's softness down the stretch.
So, we'll see.
I do think Sirianni gave an alarming answer when he was asked about the team's crappy tackling following their embarrassing regular season finale loss to the Giants.
"Yeah, we're always thinking about our fundamentals," he said. "It's about what team is more physical. It's about what team tackles better. It's about what team blocks better. It's about what team throws better, catches better, all those different things -- and gets off blocks better, takes care of the ball better. Those are all fundamentals that we know are important and obviously critical to executing the game plan.
"So, on the year, we've still been good at missed tackles. I think we're third in missed-tackle percentage. But like I said, we want to get that extra work, and as we get later in the year to make sure that we are living up to the standard that we know we can live up to in tackling."
I don't know what metric showed that the Eagles were the third-best tackling team in the league last year, but that sure as hell didn't match the eye test. It's also probably worth pointing out that the Eagles' tackling in the playoffs against the Buccaneers four days later was absolutely atrocious, so maybe the "our tackling has been fine" messaging was ill-advised.
Question from @VeriteVentures: There's a narrative that the Eagles are analytically driven, but that's clearly not the case with game management. Do you have thoughts on where the disconnect is and why they seemingly got so much worse from 2022 with largely the same decision makers?
The Eagles are a big reason why teams around the league have become more risk tolerant over the last few years. In my opinion, the tide started to change on fourth down decisions and other in-game strategies when the Eagles won a Super Bowl in 2017, partly because of the aggressive approach Doug Pederson and the Eagles as an organization took.
I think you are correct that they took a step in the wrong direction in 2023. One of the more ambitious undertakings I hope to get to this offseason is a look at some of the conservative decisions the Eagles made this season, and why they suddenly turtled up.
Question from @greghartpa: What is more desirable - locking in Braden Mann with an extension or getting to debate punter options another offseason?
Ha, I profiled a bunch of punters in my prospects series early in the season. That was all a waste of time, because Mann had a pretty good season. I imagine the Eagles will look to bring him back in 2024.
From my perspective, the punter articles are fun to write, but they would've gotten stale if we did them again this offseason, so I'm happy to move on from that this year, assuming Mann returns.
Question from @CSAboveDaRest: Do you think you could get around a Jason Kelce block or block Fletcher Cox?
If I had to choose which of those two things I'd rather try, it would be getting around Kelce. He would easily keep me from whatever he was protecting, but at least I'd survive. If I were trying to block any defensive lineman, they could just run me the hell over, which wouldn't be very fun.
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