Rumor: TJ Edwards wanted to return to Eagles

[weko]

1 hour ago, beto_eagles said:

Just like Howie. Since you seem to have forgotten about the current Pro-Bowl level players he's drafted or traded for, I'll just list them and let you keep complaining about the Eagles:

Hurts

Mailata

Dickerson

Kelce

Lane

Swift

Brown

Goedert

Sweat

Slay

Byard

Cox

(Smith was snubbed)

(Carter will possibly be DROY)

 

If we include free agents like Elliot, Bradberry and Reddick, that's 17 Pro-Bowl level players. I don't know about you, but the number sounds pretty good to me.

Howie can recognize talent already in the league and makes excellent trades for value.  That said, you can't trade your way in the NFL.  You have to draft.  He was 

fortunate in our SB year and signed a bunch a free agents that mostly delivered.  That is rare and may not happen again to that degree.  

Reid drafted Kelce.  Kelly drafted Lane.  Stoutland developed Mailata from scratch. That leaves as draft picks often injured in college Dickerson, you should hit on an interior lineman with the 5th pick in the 2nd round, Hurts, which may have been a Lurie pick, Goedert in the 2nd, badly injured in college Sweat, who almost lost his leg, Cox was the 8th pick in the draft. D Smith the 7th pick in the draft, Carter who fell due to perceived league wide character concerns the 9th pick in the draft, Sydney Brown who is undersized but has ability.  That's it.  

Howie has traded many picks to fill holes as he can't draft.  He is an accountant by trade and can manipulate the cap and he makes good value trades but he is horrible at drafting.

We are in a full rebuild on the defensive side of the ball and need to hit on 5-10 picks on D and soon along with needs at starting RG, back up interior OL, OT, 1-2 larger RBs, another WR.  Many many holes to fill and Howie doesn't have the ability to do that job.  Hopefully he recognizes that and hands it off to more capable hands.

 

[EazyEaglez]

Welp so much for all of that talk around here from some people who stated Edwards "really wanted to go back home.” Nah the Eagles flubbed that up, because they were banking on a smallish, oft injured linebacker that they just handed the keys to without proving himself. 

[opa-opa]

Maybe Howie knew he didnt have the money to sign him?

We only had 5 million allocated to our ENTIRE lb corps. There are consequences to signing your QB to a 250 million contract. Thats why the 49ers will prob make it to the Superbowl.

[brkmsn]

6 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

Sure it’s news.

"Per a source..."

Not even Edwards' words. Anonymous sources always ooze credibility. When Dawkins left, he wanted to remain an Eagle and gave the Eagles a chance to match the offer. Where in this "news" report does it mention anything like that. We're talking deal done in the first 15 minutes of free agency --- not just free agency, but the legal tampering portion. 15 minutes ...

Remembering that the actual free agency period didn't begin until March 15. That means Edwards, his agent and the Bears had less than 15 minutes to seek each other out and hammer out a deal before the report came out 

[Utebird]

8 hours ago, Road to Victory said:

This is according to Clay Harbor. Howie didn’t even offer him a contract. 

If this is true Howie had a horrible offseason. Passing on CJGJ and Edwards, only to resign Bradberry, extend Slay and sign Morrow. 

https://x.com/clayharbs82/status/1748159668684247065?s=61&t=e9yGgysitybJoXCHbbEufA

Yup, those two players could have made a big difference to the D..

Granted i wouldnt of paid what CJG was asking, which was ludicrous, Epps actually ended up getting more when the dust settled but still in retrospect havng CJ G over Bradberry would have been huge.

Not to mention its not like TJ signed a huge contract.

[The Holy Vagabond]

I’m sorry but this is all hindsight/20-20 bs. This thread is already longer than the any of the griping when TJ left. ESPECIALLY since there was a considerable amount of whining because "Why can’t Nakobe Dean get on the field? We’ll never know if he’s good until he gets some snaps!”

 

the anticipation during the offseason was that there was NO WAY the eagles were gonna keep all the defensive players. We knew Hargrave was gonna get a bunch of money and not much chance to bring him back. We knew Epps was gonna get a starting job elsewhere. But we couldn’t leave the secondary bare. The overwhelming belief was that if push came to shove, try to get CJGJ back first. If he wouldn’t return, go after Slay and Bradbury.

 

Edwards could "walk” because 1) "we can finally see what Dean can do!” and 2) Edward’s was an UDFA and Kyzir White was picked up on the 4th day of FA. They were both "decent at best”. Not my words, the words of the majority of everyone here. So if they both left, it’s ok because "they could be replaced since…. Reasons 1) and 2)”. 

 

chill out with all this revisionist bs. All of a sudden now "oh! I knew we shouldn’t have let him go! He was so good here!” Give me a break. 

[Road to Victory]

1 hour ago, The Holy Vagabond said:

I’m sorry but this is all hindsight/20-20 bs. This thread is already longer than the any of the griping when TJ left. ESPECIALLY since there was a considerable amount of whining because "Why can’t Nakobe Dean get on the field? We’ll never know if he’s good until he gets some snaps!”

 

the anticipation during the offseason was that there was NO WAY the eagles were gonna keep all the defensive players. We knew Hargrave was gonna get a bunch of money and not much chance to bring him back. We knew Epps was gonna get a starting job elsewhere. But we couldn’t leave the secondary bare. The overwhelming belief was that if push came to shove, try to get CJGJ back first. If he wouldn’t return, go after Slay and Bradbury.

 

Edwards could "walk” because 1) "we can finally see what Dean can do!” and 2) Edward’s was an UDFA and Kyzir White was picked up on the 4th day of FA. They were both "decent at best”. Not my words, the words of the majority of everyone here. So if they both left, it’s ok because "they could be replaced since…. Reasons 1) and 2)”. 

 

chill out with all this revisionist bs. All of a sudden now "oh! I knew we shouldn’t have let him go! He was so good here!” Give me a break. 

Not revisionist. Here’s my post from last year. 
 

 

[Mat]

21 hours ago, beto_eagles said:

Lol, you just compared Roseman to the guy who gave like 4 first round picks for a dude who's not even on the team. If you're playing that game, Lynch got veeeery lucky he got Purdy or he might have been fired by now. 

I don't know who the hell their scout is that looks at LB'ers, but I'd give them a hell of a lot of money to try and poach them. It feels like they've hit on just about every LB'er they've picked in the last decade outside of Foster. Like pro bowl level players. 

21 hours ago, NOTW said:

Well Clay didn't hear it firsthand, he said "a source."  Who knows.  There are always these "sources" that come out of nowhere when the team loses. We didn't hear this all year.

All we knew was TJ wanted to go back to his hometown Chicago and signed immediately in free agency.

But you never know. Howie also let Kyzir White walk and he should have kept him.

If the TJ stuff is true that's not great from Howie. They did try and go super cheap at the position, but Edwards has been fantastic and if he was a realistic option they should have paid him. They were super confident in Dean being able to step in. With how quickly Edwards signed I'd be inclined to think the report was BS 

I'm not upset abou White, his play was declining at the end of the season and the Cards gave him the same money as Edwards so he could help Gannon instill the system. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

If that’s true then yeah that’s a big miss by Howie. But he does have a real blind spot for LB and S. He really does think he can get by with below average to poor players at those positions.

[Eagles1960]

I believe the report because the Eagles had literally two seasons to extend him.  They didn't give Edwards an offer he liked so he immediately signed with the hometown team.  This was not an even negotiation as the Eagles had a two season head start on the Bears and apparently were just not that interested.  

[LacesOut]

Wrong.

TJ wanted to go play for his hometown Team, the Bears, and signed within like 20 minutes when the FA window opened.

Howie needed to bring back one Safety, one LB, and one CB. We know how that went.

[Loosechange]

I remember many saying how putrid our lbs were last year. What I wouldn't give for at least one of them.

[Eagles1960]

3 hours ago, LacesOut said:

Wrong.

TJ wanted to go play for his hometown Team, the Bears, and signed within like 20 minutes when the FA window opened.

Howie needed to bring back one Safety, one LB, and one CB. We know how that went.

 Edwards wanted to play for his home town team since Howie didn't give him an offer satisfactory to him over two football seasons.  Howie blew that one.  

[time2rock]

On 1/20/2024 at 3:46 PM, LacesOut said:

Wrong.

TJ wanted to go play for his hometown Team, the Bears, and signed within like 20 minutes when the FA window opened.

Howie needed to bring back one Safety, one LB, and one CB. We know how that went.

The one counter to that "signed within 20 min" argument is that there is the 48 hr legal tampering period where we easily could have matched any offer if we really wanted to.  Doubt we'll ever know how everything really went down but my guess is, Chicago made an offer that Howie simply did not want to match, that he gave priority to other moves.  So when FA officially started Edwards knew where he stood with us and took the Chicago offer.    

[brkmsn]

1 hour ago, time2rock said:

The one counter to that "signed within 20 min" argument is that there is the 48 hr legal tampering period where we easily could have matched any offer if we really wanted to.  Doubt we'll ever know how everything really went down but my guess is, Chicago made an offer that Howie simply did not want to match, that he gave priority to other moves.  So when FA officially started Edwards knew where he stood with us and took the Chicago offer.    

It was at the beginning of the legal tampering period. His deal was in place in the AM hour of March 13 when free agency actually began on the 15th.

edit --- I may have mis-read what you were saying. 

I don't really believe reports where there isn't a direct quote from a player. He has had dozens of interviews since that day and there isn't a quote from TJ. The reports (of the deal) weren't presented in a way where the door was ever open for the Eagles. The thing about Edwards is he signed for less than another team should have paid him. That indicates that he went to the destination of his choosing. 

[toolg]

The Eagles got one extra year of Edwards for $3.2 million in 2022. We were lucky for that. The Bears essentially doubled his salary to $6.5 million per year for 3 years. He's certainly worth it. But I don't believe the Eagles were ever going to offer that much for a LB. They don't value the position that much.

[brkmsn]

4 hours ago, toolg said:

The Eagles got one extra year of Edwards for $3.2 million in 2022. We were lucky for that. The Bears essentially doubled his salary to $6.5 million per year for 3 years. He's certainly worth it. But I don't believe the Eagles were ever going to offer that much for a LB. They don't value the position that much.

Actually, I think that's in the ballpark of the last contract we signed with Bradham. It's not that they aren't willing to pay for a LB as much as they were confident in Dean to replace him. Obviously Dean is much cheaper. The injury to Dean is probably the only reason this is a hot topic at this point. While I wouldn't really have expected Dean to be exactly where Edwards was at the end of last season, I believe Dean will, with experience, get to that level at least by his 4th year in the NFL. 

I know a lot of fans are worried about injuries with Dean now, but the dude never missed a practice or game in college or in his rookie NFL season. You have to go full negadelphian to really think he's injury prone. The other thing Dean didn't miss this season were tackles. He didn't quite play 200 snaps, but he had 0 missed tackles. His coverage needs work, but that's normal for young NFL LBs. No doubt Edwards is the better player at this point in their careers. But a healthy Dean would have helped this defense immensely.

I think this is kind of like the Miles Sanders situation. Based on what he did in Philadelphia, Sanders received his market value in free agency and the Eagles were fine with Gainwell on his rookie deal (at that point in free agency). Unfortunately for Sanders he went to a trash team with a trash offense and a huge downgrade in blocking. The Eagles obviously added Swift via trade and he actually supplanted Gainwell as the featured HB here. Anyway, the Eagles felt they already had the necessary replacement on a much cheaper deal and that was probably the biggest factor in letting a key player go. It wouldn't make much sense if you didn't feel the replacement was already on the roster. The Eagles were (and still are) high on Dean. 

[Road to Victory]

2 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Actually, I think that's in the ballpark of the last contract we signed with Bradham. It's not that they aren't willing to pay for a LB as much as they were confident in Dean to replace him. Obviously Dean is much cheaper. The injury to Dean is probably the only reason this is a hot topic at this point. While I wouldn't really have expected Dean to be exactly where Edwards was at the end of last season, I believe Dean will, with experience, get to that level at least by his 4th year in the NFL. 

I know a lot of fans are worried about injuries with Dean now, but the dude never missed a practice or game in college or in his rookie NFL season. You have to go full negadelphian to really think he's injury prone. The other thing Dean didn't miss this season were tackles. He didn't quite play 200 snaps, but he had 0 missed tackles. His coverage needs work, but that's normal for young NFL LBs. No doubt Edwards is the better player at this point in their careers. But a healthy Dean would have helped this defense immensely.

I think this is kind of like the Miles Sanders situation. Based on what he did in Philadelphia, Sanders received his market value in free agency and the Eagles were fine with Gainwell on his rookie deal (at that point in free agency). Unfortunately for Sanders he went to a trash team with a trash offense and a huge downgrade in blocking. The Eagles obviously added Swift via trade and he actually supplanted Gainwell as the featured HB here. Anyway, the Eagles felt they already had the necessary replacement on a much cheaper deal and that was probably the biggest factor in letting a key player go. It wouldn't make much sense if you didn't feel the replacement was already on the roster. The Eagles were (and still are) high on Dean. 

What would’ve been wrong with having Edwards and Dean at LB? 

[brkmsn]

51 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

What would’ve been wrong with having Edwards and Dean at LB? 

Nothing from a play standpoint. What would have been wrong with a Sanders, Swift, Gainwell and Scott RB room? What would have been wrong with still having Hargrave?

It just comes down to maximizing the cap situation. The Eagles prepared for Edwards' possible departure when they drafted Dean. In fact, when they picked Dean, they weren't even certain Edwards would have the kind of year he did in 2022. The Eagles had both Dean and Edwards battling for the same role. It seemed like a lot of fans were disappointed Dean wasn't starting over White and kind of pinned that as a knock on Dean, but he wasn't being groomed to be a Will, he was here to be a Mike. So was Edwards. So at the end of the year they felt comfortable turning the green dot over to Dean and trying to save space for contract extensions for other key players. 

[Road to Victory]

10 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Nothing from a play standpoint. What would have been wrong with a Sanders, Swift, Gainwell and Scott RB room? What would have been wrong with still having Hargrave?

It just comes down to maximizing the cap situation. The Eagles prepared for Edwards' possible departure when they drafted Dean. In fact, when they picked Dean, they weren't even certain Edwards would have the kind of year he did in 2022. The Eagles had both Dean and Edwards battling for the same role. It seemed like a lot of fans were disappointed Dean wasn't starting over White and kind of pinned that as a knock on Dean, but he wasn't being groomed to be a Will, he was here to be a Mike. So was Edwards. So at the end of the year they felt comfortable turning the green dot over to Dean and trying to save space for contract extensions for other key players. 

The difference is Sanders would be a backup here and Hargrave got a huge contract. Edwards did not. We spent $3.5m on Cunningham, Morrow & Leonard. Why not spent another $3m for Edwards. Seems like a no brainer, no? 
 

[brkmsn]

1 hour ago, Road to Victory said:

The difference is Sanders would be a backup here and Hargrave got a huge contract. Edwards did not. We spent $3.5m on Cunningham, Morrow & Leonard. Why not spent another $3m for Edwards. Seems like a no brainer, no? 
 

Morrow was supposed to challenge for the WLB position in place of White. He was never supposed to be the MLB until injuries forced our hand. The Eagles were confident in Dean at MLB and the cap savings justified the potential dropoff while Dean gains experience. 

As I said, if Dean didn't get injured, this probably wouldn't be much of a topic. 

[Road to Victory]

1 hour ago, brkmsn said:

Morrow was supposed to challenge for the WLB position in place of White. He was never supposed to be the MLB until injuries forced our hand. The Eagles were confident in Dean at MLB and the cap savings justified the potential dropoff while Dean gains experience. 

As I said, if Dean didn't get injured, this probably wouldn't be much of a topic. 

I think it would still be a topic. The 3 guys I mentioned were horrible. Cunningham had a few nice moments but he is such a liability in pass coverage. Morrow and Leonard didn’t even deserve roster spots. 

[brkmsn]

41 minutes ago, Road to Victory said:

I think it would still be a topic. The 3 guys I mentioned were horrible. Cunningham had a few nice moments but he is such a liability in pass coverage. Morrow and Leonard didn’t even deserve roster spots. 

Very few NFL LBs are not a liability in coverage most of the time. 

[LacesOut]

I feel like the LB position went to hell when Nakobe went out due to injury.  Not that he's an All Pro, but he seemed to be able to get the D lined up in the right spots.

[Road to Victory]

5 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Very few NFL LBs are not a liability in coverage most of the time. 

Even Edwards wasn’t great in coverage but he looked like a Pro-Bowler in coverage compared to those 3. And pass coverage was supposed to be Morrow’s specialty. He was total garbage.