The Philadelphia Eagles made a surprising move on Tuesday in trading for a cornerback. However, it wasn’t the CB2 that fans have been dreaming of. The team traded CB Jameson Houston and a 2023 sixth-rounder to the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for second-year CB Josiah Scott. Here is all you need to know.
A fourth-round pick back in the 2020 NFL Draft, Scott stands at 5’9, 185 lbs, so will likely limited to a slot role in Philadelphia. As a rookie, he gave up six completions on seven targets for a total of 77 yards in 80 defensive snaps.
During his final collegiate season as a Michigan State Spartan back in 2019, he racked up 52 tackles, 3 picks, and 6 passes defensed along with a fumble.
Jameson Houston joined the Eagles’ practice squad back in November after bouncing around the expanded unit on various other NFL franchises, but with a new coaching staff in town, the Eagles might well be looking for something else from their depth corners.
The Eagles have an interesting picture at cornerback right now. They arguably have three nickel candidates on the roster, with Scott joining Avonte Maddox who is in his contact year, and fourth-round rookie Zech McPhearson. Whether this prompts the Eagles to try McPhearson on the boundary, or continue to ride a bumpy Maddox leave on the outside remains to be seen, but it would at least be logical given the size limitations of Scott.
McPhearson probably projects as the best candidate to hold his own on the outside to begin with. Bringing a little more bulk to the table than Avonte Maddox, who has previously sunk on the several occasions he’s been to the deep end, it makes more sense to see what you have in a new prospect as opposed to rinsing and repeating a failed experiment.
This also coincides with the fact that the team did not decide to add a key name during free agency and have been very quiet on the trade front up to this point. They seem keen to let their coaches shine and see how quickly they can develop young talent as opposed to spending unnecessary money on a boundary corner who won’t necessarily change the immediate fortunes of a rebuilding franchise.
If I was to project a cornerback depth chart right now, it would probably look something like this:
CB1: Darius Slay, Kevon Seymour
CB2: Zech McPhearson, Michael Jacquet,
CB3 (Nickel): Avonte Maddox, Craig James, Josiah Scott
A lot can change between now and the end of Training Camp, but this is the first move the team have made to address the teams’ biggest need since the drafting of McPhearson. We could be in line to see more moves over the course of the next few months, so buckle up!
Photo by John Jones/Icon Sportswire
