Locally, Howie Roseman seems to be getting solid reviews for his early work in free agency. Nationally, the Birds are receiving even better feedback.
We’ll get to the grades shortly, but Roseman talked about the importance of moving up in the draft with The MMQB’s Peter King:
As a scouting staff, they went through a preliminary draft board and discovered they might get shut out of one of the prime players they wanted. So Roseman went to the Senior Bowl and combine to try to scare up some business about moving up in the first round, and in others. “In the past few drafts,” said Roseman, “often we’d be picking lower in the first round, and we’d just miss out on a guy we had targeted. This year we felt there was a big dropoff after 10 players, so I talked to people about trying to move into the top 10.”
A Marcus Smith explanation, anyone? Regardless, the Eagles are now in the Top 10 and Roseman’s offseason is being lauded:.
NFL Free Agency Grades: 32 grades for 32 teams but only one big, fat F: Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
Prisco gave the Birds the highest grade in the league:
A+: Ridding themselves of the bad Kelly deals in those trades and moving up in the first round makes this grade. But then they also added some quality players and others for depth. But this grade is about the Chip dump.
Grading the big free-agent deals: Bill Barnwell, ESPN
Barnwell gave the Eagles a B+ for the deal that sent Byron Maxwell and Kiko Alonso to Miami:
It's shocking, though, that the Eagles were able to get anything in a swap for Maxwell's onerous contract. Philly eats $4.8 million in dead money on its 2016 cap, but the Eagles will save $8.5 million on their 2016 cap and will have the dead money off their cap for 2017 and beyond. The Dolphins will likely restructure Maxwell's $8.5 million base salary as a signing bonus to create more cap space and sign more free agents -- as is their wont -- but there's still little upside on this deal. Maxwell was erratic at best in his first year outside of the Seattle cocoon, and at $10 million per year going forward, he'll need to play like a No. 1 cornerback to justify his salary, even with the rising tide of cornerback contracts.
The Bill Simmons Podcast: Greg Cosell
When Simmons asked Cosell about his favorite move of the offseason, his answer was the Eagles’ signing of Rodney McLeod.
Evaluating the Opening Free-Agent Moves: Andy Benoit, The MMQB
McLeod’s tape must be pretty good, because Benoit wrote that the Eagles got some serious bang for their buck in inking the safety:
Quietly for the past two years with the Rams, McLeod has been the rangiest centerfield safety in football not named Earl Thomas. His speed translates as effectively east and west as it does north and south. And when he goes north and south, he’s a willing and able hitter. Coaches who have to scheme against McLeod have told me they think he’s in Thomas’s class.
Grading every deal of 2016 NFL free agency: Pro Football Focus
Not all of the grades are positive, though. PFF gave the Chase Daniel signing a D-, while I give PFF their “Chase Daniels” spelling an F:
It’s just an awful lot of money for a backup, and if he isn’t a backup, then why was so much money spent on Sam Bradford? In some respect you have to trust new head coach Doug Pederson, who has more knowledge of Daniels than any of us, but even he hasn’t seen how Daniels might handle significant game action.
Winners, losers from NFL free agency's first week: Gregg Rosenthal, NFL.com
Rosenthal had the Eagles listed as winners:
The Eagles re-made their roster with trades, re-signings and strategic free-agent pickups. Eagles executive vice president Howie Roseman's moves won't all pan out, but we like the thinking behind most of them. This is the best roster in the NFC East, and that was probably true before free agency started.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann