In a slightly surprising move, the Eagles parted ways with versatile Safety Will Parks on Tuesday afternoon. Here’s everything you need to know.
Parks is a Philadelphia native and instantly became a fan favorite. It’s a shame things never worked out, but hopefully he lands on a team who actually utilize him properly and allow him to thrive as Denver did last year.
“I love the way the Eagles fans interact.” He told PSN after signing. “It means they care. I’m cool with that. Eagles fans are the ones. I’m from here, I know this. It’s going to be a joy playing in front of them – good or bad. I love it – it makes me go harder”
he signed with the Eagles as a free agent this offseason and was expected to play a fairly substantial role in an evolving secondary that needed to replace Malcolm Jenkins. That was until an injury during the Summer prolonged his Eagles debut until week 6.
Will Parks played in over 50% of defensive snaps against Baltimore, but that would be a season-high. He’d play in under 35% of snaps in each of the following games, totaling 114. He was also reportedly shopped around the NFL trade deadline.
The Eagles do have a fairly deep Safety group. Rodney McLeod and Jalen Mills have been holding the fort well, while Rudy Ford and Marcus Epps are special teams aces ahead of rookie K’Von Wallace.
According to ESPN’s Tim McManus, we could get an extended look at Grayland Arnold over the final few weeks.
In an interview with PSN, Arnold said the Eagles were very high on him during the pre-draft process and viewed him as someone who could grow into a long-term option at Safety – a position inundated with short-term depth.
The move makes sense. If Parks can’t get on the field, it’s not worth keeping him around when the bar is this low and the season is on the edge of total collapse.
(Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire
