11 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Who else is excited for the potential Justin Simmons signing today?

That would balance out the Reddick trade for me.

I don't understand the assumptions that Reddick will get a huge FA contract, if he gets to FA.  He is a good player, not great, will be 31 on the first year of his next contract.

A comparable FA DE contract from 2024:

Arik Armstead- 30 years old- 3 years $43.5 million, with it more likely being a 2 year $29 million deal.  $28 million guaranteed.

 

10 hours ago, eagle45 said:

All bets are off for 2024.  Reddick is really good.  He may fall off now or fall off in 2025.  But it’s one or the other.  
 

Huff is trending up, Reddick trending down.

Better to trade a player a year early than a year late.

I think Fangio's evaluation had a lot to do with this, Fangio doesn't care about Reddick's statistics, he cares about how he fits in his defensive scheme.

If he felt Reddick was too one dimensional to play every down, then he wasn't worth keeping.

1 hour ago, Waiting4Someday said:

That would balance out the Reddick trade for me.

Not happening, they just lost more cap with the Reddick trade 

Howie said he wanted to get younger, and I think he's planned to dump a lot of cap in 2024 and 2025, clearing the decks for the next SB run.

He's also thinking in terms of 20 game seasons, going with a couple really expensive edge rushers may not be as effective in January as rotating 4 guys who maintain fresh legs.

And if Fangio wants a mix of edge guys with different skill sets to mix and match, it makes sense not to overpay a player who'd only be on the field for 500-600 snaps.

2 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Howie said he wanted to get younger, and I think he's planned to dump a lot of cap in 2024 and 2025, clearing the decks for the next SB run.

He's also thinking in terms of 20 game seasons, going with a couple really expensive edge rushers may not be as effective in January as rotating 4 guys who maintain fresh legs.

And if Fangio wants a mix of edge guys with different skill sets to mix and match, it makes sense not to overpay a player who'd only be on the field for 500-600 snaps.

Thinking about it they really kind of screwed Reddick last year with dropping him in coverage and the like. Him having a trash DC really Fd his pockets. Last real chance for a decent pay day for him 

 

It sounds nitpicky but there really is a big difference. You can see the players jerseys through the pants, tags included. Really easy to notice on the Phillies yesterday. The bright sun completely washes out the players nameplates now too. Surprised there wasn't a fix for any of this before Opening Day.

7 hours ago, Random Reglar said:

 

If we didn't already have a two down run stiffer then I'd be interested 

11 minutes ago, greendestiny27 said:

Not happening, the just lost more cap with the Reddick trade 

Gained cash for the ‘cap isn’t real crowd’, but I thought I heard that NYJ was picking up the remaining salary and the Eagles were only on the hook for the roster bonus.

Latu or bust 

All of last year we were old and slow on defense, therefore Howie made moves to get younger and faster on defense. CB is the only position that didn't happen and it will likely occur at the draft.

From a character standpoint, getting unhappy players out of a locker room matters too.

2026 tho?

 

25 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Better to trade a player a year early than a year late.

I think Fangio's evaluation had a lot to do with this, Fangio doesn't care about Reddick's statistics, he cares about how he fits in his defensive scheme.

If he felt Reddick was too one dimensional to play every down, then he wasn't worth keeping.

I’m sure Fangio had input…and I do think there is more non cancerous Jason Babin to Reddick’s game than anyone wants to admit.  But he’s still proven himself as a really good high volume player.

It was just plainly obvious that he was going to be a poor cap value moving forward and we’d regret an extension. Howie, clearly, knew that.  I think Howie wanted this with or without Fangio’s input.

4 minutes ago, DawkinsOwnage03 said:

2026 tho?

 

just in time to use the pick to trade up for an elite OT to replace Lane when he retires.

4 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

I’m sure Fangio had input…and I do think there is more non cancerous Jason Babin to Reddick’s game than anyone wants to admit.  But he’s still proven himself as a really good high volume player.

It was just plainly obvious that he was going to be a poor cap value moving forward and we’d regret an extension. Howie, clearly, knew that.  I think Howie wanted this with or without Fangio’s input.

Unfortunately, it may have been different if Howie didnt make the Bradberry mistake. 2 more years of Bradberry when he was signed, vs 2 more years of Reddick now- I take 2 more years of Reddick easy.

And Bradberry just came off an elite season. But you knew it wasnt good to pay big money to 2 30 year old CBs and Bradberry was the guy who couldnt afford to lose a step.

Arizona had cap space, picks and Reddicks former DC. They have the worst EDGE room in the NFL.

And they said no to the Eagles. Tells us a lot.

13 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Unfortunately, it may have been different if Howie didnt make the Bradberry mistake. 2 more years of Bradberry when he was signed, vs 2 more years of Reddick now- I take 2 more years of Reddick easy.

And Bradberry just came off an elite season. But you knew it wasnt good to pay big money to 2 30 year old CBs and Bradberry was the guy who couldnt afford to lose a step.

Not that I like losing Reddick at all for this season, but his elite season was 2022, so why pay a 30 year old elite $$ 2 years removed from his elite season?

Losing him is a negative for this season, not signing him at $20+million for the next 2-3 years is a positive.  

On paper right now I actually think the Eagles are worse on defense than the team they ended the season with.

Cox and Reddick are bigger losses than anyone they’ve gained on defense. They lost their two best defensive players.

Huff, at least for 2024 is a downgrade from Reddick. Whoever replaces Cox’s roster spot on the 53 will be a downgrade from Cox.

I actually think Devin White in 2023 was a worse player than Zach Cunningham. White was really bad in 2023 for the Bucs. Now White has higher upside and maybe Fangio gets that out of him, but it wasn’t like he was playing for some bum defensive mind in Tampa. Bowles is a really good defensive coach.

CJGJ is a clear upgrade at safety. That’s the one area they definitely improved.

Baun and Burks… eh. As it stands right now they’re total JAGs.

Hall as a slot corner is a downgrade from Maddox. Rodgers would be too if that’s where they use him.

Obviously goes without saying there’s plenty of time to make moves but they came into the off-season with a massive task to fix the defense and on paper I actually think it’s worse. The biggest upgrade isn’t even a player it’s Fangio,

18 minutes ago, RLC said:

Arizona had cap space, picks and Reddicks former DC. They have the worst EDGE room in the NFL.

And they said no to the Eagles. Tells us a lot.

Well Hassan had baggage there too

42 minutes ago, DawkinsOwnage03 said:

Latu or bust 

After thinking more about it, I think the Eagles locked in to DE as their 1st pick. They have 2 DE on the roster. BG and Josh Sweat. They were looking to move Sweat and only restructured his current deal. DE has no depth and no one in the pipeline.

7 hours ago, RememberTheKoy said:

 

But you aren't paying Huff even close to as much as Reddick is expecting to be paid the next 3 years.  And it's going to be a substantial amount to the extent that it would have likely been the difference between the Eagles being able to keep a one of their top young players in their primes and still in their 20s and not for a player that the Eagles likely got Reddick's best years already.  You say they could have kept Reddick this season but you don't know just how malcontent he is being about wanting a new contract.  All indication from the Eagles end is that he is they perceived the situation to be one where knowing they had no intention on giving him the monster deal he is seeking, they believe that he would have been a major disruption and potential holdout that they wanted to avoid all together.  

 

You keep looking at it as if 2024 is the Super Bowl window and they need to go all in at expense of the future because this is the end of a run, the closing of a window.  The core of this team is young.  The window is open and they are trying to keep it open as long as they can to increase their chances of hitting on a Super Bowl year over the course of the window.  Huff is younger and Huff is way cheaper.  The money saved over the course of what would have been a huge new deal to a guy over 30 will ultimately help retain a blue chip talent far younger than him on the roster within the few years. 

 

Look at the age of this core of cornerstone players.  The window is not shutting in 2024, the window is open for business. 

Jalen Hurts 25

AJ Brown 26

DeVonta Smith 25

Britain Covey 27

Dallas Goedert 29

Saquon Barkley 27

Jordan Mailata 26

Lane Dickerson 25

Cam Jurgens 24

Tyler Steen 23

Jalen Carter 22

Jordan Davis 24

Milton Williams 24

Bryce Huff 25

Josh Sweat 27

Nolan Smith 23

Nakobe Dean 23

Devin White 26

CJGJ 26

Reed Blankenship 25

Sydney Brown 25

Kelee Ringo 21

Eli Ricks 22

Jake Elliott 29

 

Eagles are open for business for the foreseeable future and that is how they are operating. 

I really don’t think Reddick would have been a major disruption he’s always been a good guy and a good teammate. He’s not TO.

And the money they saved for 2025 isn’t 40 million. It’s not the difference in the Eagles being crippled or being in good shape. They save a decent amount of money, but it’s totally operable. Life is about trade offs. They chose moderate cap savings for 2025 and a 3rd round pick over Reddick. Let’s just call it what it is.

And we’ll see if they’re right. The problem is if they aren’t no one will be held accountable, because no one in this front office ever is. Sirianni will be the one who will take the fall for it.

1 minute ago, bpac55 said:

After thinking more about it, I think the Eagles locked in to DE as their 1st pick. They have 2 DE on the roster. BG and Josh Sweat. They were looking to move Sweat and only restructured his current deal. DE has no depth and no one in the pipeline.

dont forget, they list Huff as a DE.

But yes, as it stands now, he is the only DE on the roster next offseason. 

I think if Verse gets in to the mid-late teens they can make a move up for him.

If not, maybe theyd like to trade down for Robinson. 

16 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

On paper right now I actually think the Eagles are worse on defense than the team they ended the season with.

Cox and Reddick are bigger losses than anyone they’ve gained on defense. They lost their two best defensive players.

Huff, at least for 2024 is a downgrade from Reddick. Whoever replaces Cox’s roster spot on the 53 will be a downgrade from Cox.

I actually think Devin White in 2023 was a worse player than Zach Cunningham. White was really bad in 2023 for the Bucs. Now White has higher upside and maybe Fangio gets that out of him, but it wasn’t like he was playing for some bum defensive mind in Tampa. Bowles is a really good defensive coach.

CJGJ is a clear upgrade at safety. That’s the one area they definitely improved.

Baun and Burks… eh. As it stands right now they’re total JAGs.

Hall as a slot corner is a downgrade from Maddox. Rodgers would be too if that’s where they use him.

Obviously goes without saying there’s plenty of time to make moves but they came into the off-season with a massive task to fix the defense and on paper I actually think it’s worse. The biggest upgrade isn’t even a player it’s Fangio,

I think a lot of that comes down to context. 

Reddick in 2023 was not Reddick in 2022. He just wasn’t. A part of the reason we collapsed at the end of the year was he couldn’t get to Lock and Murray and Taylor like he was the previous year. Due to injury, he didn’t have a sack in the first month. And then he didn’t have a sack in the final month either. What is a DE/LB who doesn’t play the run well and can’t cover when he isn’t getting to the QB? It’s not an easy decision, but now we have 14m$ next year to play with. 

No one player is replacing Cox. Milton and Carter are going to get more snaps. Williams to me has always been underutilized here because of the talent ahead of him. If Carter and Davis develop as we expect, we’re gonna have a better DT room than we did last year. We’ll pick up a cheap vet to fill in the snaps in the back end, or even Ojomo will take a step. But I’m reasonably confident we won’t see a drop off there. Cox was "good” his last year, impressively so. But he was no longer "great.” Carter and Williams can make up the difference for "good.”

I have 1 major prediction for the secondary this year: Bradberry isn’t a bad corner, he’s just more dependent on the system than most corners are. He was great in Carolina, bad in NYG, suddenly great in Philly, then okay with Desai in Sept Oct (but a decline from previous All-Pro), and then a disaster with Patricia. Is he forgetting and remembering and forgetting and remembering how to play corner every year? Fangio’s consistency will be good for him. Right now, I believe CJGJ is the slot in the way that Jenkins often was when he was here. Combine that with Isaiah Rodgers and hopefully some development out of Ricks/Ringo, and the goal is it won’t really matter whether Bradberry is good or not next year. 
 

Who knows at the LB position. It could be a disaster again, or some no name UDFA outplays everyone from 2023 and 2024. Probably wouldn’t take a lot to do so.
 

I agree Fangio was our best move this offseason. But I don’t agree the talent on the field is worse. It’s different, but with better potential.

There is one alternate theory, not sure how likely it is, but considering the Eagles essentially chose to save 2025 cap space over Reddick, I do wonder if this move is indicative of a multi year plan and philosophical shift in how they allocate their money on defense.

And going forward they plan to take some money away from defensive line and putting it into the secondary. If they go out and trade for a guy like Lattimore or something, it might suggest that.

As of right now I don’t think their plan is that complicated or deep. I think they are afraid to pay a 30 year old after Bradberry and wanted to get rid of him and get someone younger and cheaper.

But I’ve said for a while that against the best offenses and best QBs, defensive lines are often negated. Those QBs get the ball out really fast, often pressure doesn’t have time to get home. They might be better served to take a little off the defensive line and start putting that money into the secondary. If this is a shift to that I’d actually be all for it. I’ve always thought the Eagles defensive priorities are askew.

29 minutes ago, RLC said:

Arizona had cap space, picks and Reddicks former DC. They have the worst EDGE room in the NFL.

And they said no to the Eagles. Tells us a lot.

One thing that we know is that Arizona is a horribly run franchise.   So, doing the opposite of what they would do, can only work out well for someone.

 

10 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Well Hassan had baggage there too

He might have been the one standing in the way.