An Interesting Trend

Posted: March 16th, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

The Eagles have had a very interesting offseason so far. They’ve made some great moves. They’ve taken some risks. There does seem to be one theme among all the moves and I don’t think it takes a great detective like Frank Pembleton or Olivia Benson to figure it out.

 

PLAYER		AGE
Saquon Barkley		27
Bryce Huff		25
Zack Baun		27
Devin White		26
CJGJ		26
Matt Hennessy		26
Brandon Graham		35
DeVante Parker		31
Kenny Pickett		25

We don’t know anything for a fact, but it sure looks like the Eagles made a concerted effort to get younger. The only players above the age of 30 are slated to be role players.

Think of some of the players who are gone from last year.

Marcus Mariota	30
Julio Jones	35
Zach Cunningham	29
Bradley Roby	31
Kevin Byard	30
Jason Kelce	36
Fletcher Cox	33

Cox and Kelce are all-time great Eagles. The others were band-aids trying to help the team win. That didn’t work. Veteran players can have real value, but football is a young man’s game (despite what George Allen might say). The Chiefs won the Super Bowl while playing a lot of young players. We saw the Rams get to the playoffs with a young roster. The Texans won the AFC South with a young team.

The Eagles aren’t in rebuiling mode. They have a strong core. They needed to add talent around that core to get back to being one of the best teams in the league. The Eagles adding players in their prime means the team is looking at a 2 to 3-year window and not just 2024. That’s important. Think about all the young talent already in place. Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, Jordan Mailata and Jalen Carter are all Pro Bowl type players and in their mid-20’s. Now think about the guys who are joining them.

This team is built to win for several years.

*****

There are still good players left on the free agent market. It is possible the Eagles could still have some moves left, but I don’t think they’ll do too much. The draft is six weeks away and that will be the focus. Once the draft is over the team will know what roster holes are left and what areas still need to be addressed.

The position I’m most interested in is DT. Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter give the Eagles a pair of key building blocks. Milton Williams could be the other starter up front. That leaves Marlon Tuipulotu and Moro Ojomo as the key backups. It feels like the team needs at least one more quality player for the DL.

Free agency is only a week old. The market re-sets after the key players are gone. Agents and remaining free agents know most of the money has been spent so they lower expectations and there will be deals to be made. The Eagles got lucky with this in 2017  when they added Chris Long and Patrick Robinson after the initial rush. Those guys proved to be key to winning the Super Bowl.

*****

We still have the draft left.

Rice is the son of Jerry Rice. He’s a legit prospect on his own.

The Eagles need to draft a WR so they can build some depth.

http://igglesblitz.com/2024/03/an-interesting-trend/

23 hours ago, time2rock said:

Rice is the son of Jerry Rice. He’s a legit prospect on his own.

The Eagles need to draft a WR so they can build some depth.

I like Rice from the little bits I’ve seen but don’t we need a slightly more agile and quicker WR? I’m not saying just go for speed so I’m not looking at 40 times but I think that could of WR would be a nice complement to AJ and Smith?