With one of biggest days in the NFL offseason only seven days away, I figured I’d take a look at potential moves my beloved Philadelphia Eagles can do to get this team back to being a Super Bowl winner. Now they have already resigned Brandon Graham and Jason Kelce, as well as restructuring Lane Johnson’s contract. Those moves have the eagles sitting at roughly $5.5 million and $7.5 million. That’s not a whole a lot of space when you have guys like Le’von Bell or Cj Mosely out there. Then again we have one of the best salary cap managers in Howie Roseman.
With a week away, there’s only one or two of our own I would like to see us resign. Now the obvious answer would resign Nick Foles to back up Carson Wentz, but that isn’t happening since Philly already came out and said they’re letting him walk. The guy I would like to see us resign is Jordan Hicks. You can tell the guys on the defense trust him in calling out the plays and dissecting an offense. Now normally I’d say I think he would have a huge payday, but the one big knock on him is he can’t stay healthy. In his four years in Philly, he’s only played in 16 games once. If I were Philly I’d try and give him a contract that is maybe a little above fair but with playing time incentives. He just made under a million this past season so maybe a 1.5-2million a year with incentives can get him to come back.
Another player I would bring back is Darren Sproles. Now I know I’ll probably catch hell for this one because he’s to old-but if you look at our running back situation now-going into next year we have Wendell Smallwood, Corey Clement (coming off of an ACL injury), and Josh Adams. Josh Adams, I still think can be our bruiser for us, but he’s not a flashy guy like Sproles. Also Clement is coming back from an ACL injury that 99 percent of athletes take a year after the injury to be fully healthy. Wendell Smallwood has been streaky his whole career. With Sproles, you know what you’re getting from him PLUS he’s a special teamer that you don’t have to spend more money on. Last year he made $1.4 million so I think Philly and Sproles can agree to a one year, $1.5-$1.75 million dollar contract to bring him back into the fold.
Now let’s say I’m a genius, and you guys know I’m not, and we resign these two for what I said. they should leave roughly $2.5-$3.75million. That’s not a whole lot of space to sign big name free agents. As far as the free agents that are, as of right now going to hit the streets, who should Philly go after? Well, the one I don’t want to see Philly even give the time of day to is Le’von Bell. To me, it will be another T.O. situation that we went through years ago. If we don’t resign Hicks I would like to see us take a run at Cj Mosley. He would fill the gap that Hicks would leave if he went elsewhere, and he is a tackling machine. Now depending on how much cap space is left after signing him, I’d kick the tires on Tevin Coleman, especially if we don’t resign Sproles. He’s a younger version of Sproles and can also field punts and kickoffs too. Wide receiver is another spot I’d look to find some depth, but I think we can do that in the draft.
The only other player I would try to bring in is Josh Rosen. I know he’s not a free agent, but sounds like after one year he’s already on the way out. If the Cardinals are asking for the 3rd pick for him, I’d do it. For two reasons. First one is I think he’s a better quarterback than Nate Sudfeld, and two unfortunately with Wentz’s injury history, if he gets seriously hurt again you can move on from giving him a huge contract as well as have a 1st round quarterback on a cheap contract on your team.
So it’s going to be interesting the next week to see if Philly makes anymore in house moves, and then when free agency is here will they go outside of the organization to sign anyone. Will they just keep building through the draft? Only time will tell. Until next week, it’s your good friend Jimbo signing off.
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