Cornerback
Onto the main thing that hurt the Eagles last night – Byron Jones signing for the Dolphins. It had been rumored for a while that the Eagles were the frontrunners in the Jones sweepstakes. Hell, even up to the last hour reports were suggesting that it was the Eagles vs the Raiders…until it wasn’t and Jones was jetting off to Miami.
This one really hurt because a lot of people’s perfect offseason plans, started with the signing of Jones, fixing a huge issue for the Eagles and securing down one of the best CB’s in the league. Other CB’s like James Bradberry also left the open market and it started to look very worrisome for the Eagles.
However, the Jones deal was massively valued. It definitely hurts but $80+ million is a lot of money to spend and it just means the team still have money to spend elsewhere.
Guys like Chris Harris Jr, Desmond Trufant, Prince Amukamara, and Logan Ryan are still all on the open market and would be quality signings for the Eagles. Then, you factor in the possible trade targets of Darius Slay Jr or Xavian Howard and the sky isn’t so bleak after all.
Linebacker
The hardest one for me to deal with and just watch on was at linebacker. The Eagles are desperate for a linebacker, they haven’t really got a starting quality one, especially with it looking like KGH is on the way out. We saw guys like Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Christian Kirksey, and Nick Kwiatkosoki all come off of the market – guys that the Eagles could have gone for as a cheaper deal than others.
However, guys like Joe Schobert, Tahir Whitehead, Cory Littleton, and others are still out on the market and I think the Eagles should go and make a statement by signing Littleton. It would be a real statement of intent from Philly to invest heavily in a group that they’ve pretty much forgotten existed for several years now. There’s also the chance we bring Nigel Bradham back on a cheap deal, but I’d imagine they’d have done that by now if that was the plan all along.
Once again, they could target linebackers in the draft, guys like Justin Strnad, David Woodward, Jordyn Brooks, Akeem Davis-Gaither and Troy Dye are all exceptional linebacker talent in rounds where the Eagles will have more than one pick.
Linebacker, for me, is just as urgent as a need as wide receiver and corner because of the lack of starters in that position.
Overall, day 1 of legal tampering started with a lot of hope. Along the way, there were some dark times for Philly fans, seeing Hopkins go for so cheap and missing out on Byron Jones but then you see the huge contract Amari signed and the massive package of picks the Bills gave for Diggs and you start to appreciate the shrewd move that Howie and the Eagles pulled off in Hargrave. I’m sure day 2 will be just as nuts and hopefully, we are included a little bit more than we were yesterday but don’t start panicking just yet!
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
