Taking Stock

Posted: March 16th, 2025 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

The offseason is about a week old. The Eagles have made a lot of moves, some expected and some completely out of left field. Is the team better? That’s a really complicated question.

Let’s review the moves.

Re-signed/Extended

• Zack Baun
• Saquon Barkley

Don’t overlook the importance of these moves. Baun and Barkley were difference-makers as player and also great leaders. If you haven’t watched the Super Bowl Mic’d Up, what is wrong with you??? I mean, make sure to check that out.

Baun and Barkley are force multipliers. They make the players around them better. There are a lot of teams around the league who would kill to have a pair of players like Baun and Barkley. Thankfully those guys will be wearing midnight green (occasionally kelly green) for a few more years.

Traded For

• OG Kenyon Green
• QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson

Green is a young, talented OL. He has good size at 6-4, 325. He has 23 career starts. That’s the good stuff. Green has struggled mightily, especially in pass pro. He needs a lot of work. That’s the bad news. The Eagles traded for Green because they wanted to add a talented blocker with some experience to battle for the RG position. Mekhi Becton is gone and they want someone to challenge Tyler Steen.

Jeff Stoutland was able to get Becton fixed and turned him into a good starter. Green will have to transition to RG. He did play on the right side for part of his college career, at both RT and RG, so the move won’t be completely foreign to him. Stoutland is getting a pupil with legit ability. The key is to get him to play up to that ability on a consistent basis.

Playing between Cam Jurgens and Lane Johnson will make a difference. Being around a group of high quality veterans off the field will make a difference. And that Stoutland guy isn’t too bad at his job. Houston is paying part of Green’s salary so this move makes a lot of sense from the Eagles perspective.

DTR is a highly athletic QB. He has struggled in the NFL so the coaches have their work cut out for them. He has a skill set similar to Jalen Hurts so having him as a #3 QB makes some sense. You can put DTR into a run heavy offense and get the best out of him. You can keep the QB run package as part of that. The coaches need to work on his passing. The physical ability is there. He’s just got to develop as a pocket passer.

Signed

• RB AJ Dillon
• TE Harrison Bryant
• TE Kylen Granson
• Edge Josh Uche
• Edge Patrick Johnson
• CB Adoree Jackson
• RS Avery Williams
• LS Charley Hughlett

The theme for his group is depth and competition. There could be a couple of starters in the group. We have to wait and see how things shake out.

Dillon gives the Eagles a true backup RB. If Barkley had gone down last year, would Kenny Gainwell have been able to truly fill in? His career high in carries is 14. His career high in yards is 78. Gainwell is a good role player, but he’s never been a workhorse in the NFL, even for a single game. Dillon has 7 games with 18 or more carries. He has 4 games with 20 or more carries. He can be a workhorse when needed. He’s also been effective as part of a RB rotation.

If the Eagles are going to be a running team, they need a workhorse runner (Barkley) and a viable backup (Dillon). I think Will Shipley can fill Gainwell’s role as the third down/2-minute RB.

TE is a mystery position. We keep hearing about Dallas Goedert being available via trade. Nothing has happened yet, but there is too much smoke for this to be a bogus rumor. Bryant gives the Eagles an in-line TE who can block and catch. Granson is a flex TE who can move around and make plays with his athleticism. You can think of him as a more exprerienced, more productive version of Grant Calcaterra. If Goedert is dealt, the Eagles will need another TE to add to the mix. They could do that via the draft, where there is a deep class of TE prospects.

With Josh Sweat signing elsewhere and Brandon Graham likely to retire, the Eagles needed help up front. Uche only has four starts in five years so he is a situational pass rusher. He does have 20 career sacks, including 11.5 in 2022. He can be a disruptive player.

If the Eagles can get Uche to be a productive part of the pass rush rotation, he’ll be a good addition. Johnson is a STer and role player. He is a limited player, but does his job well and is a good teammate. That’s what you want out of a role player.

The Eagles released Darius Slay so they added a veteran with plenty of experience in Jackson. He’s not as good as Slay, but has been a solid starter in his career. The team would love Kelee Ringo to win the starting job. If he’s not ready, Jackson can step in.

The Eagles have a lot of young corners so adding a veteran like Jackson is smart, on and off the field.

Britain Covey didn’t get a contract tender so the team needed someone to be the RS. Williams has experience as a PR and KOR. He can be the primary guy in both roles. Williams averages 10.9 yards per PR and 22.4 yards per KOR for his career. His KOR average was up at 27 yards per return last season. Williams has a good combination of elusiveness and burst. He ran 4.43 at the Combine back in 2021 so that’s good speed for a returner.

Rick Lovato had some erratic snaps in 2024. The Eagles obviously felt going for a veteran like Hughlett would be an upgrade.

Overall

Are the Eagles more talented than they were 10 days ago? No, clearly not. They lost good players in Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, Mekhi Becton, Darius Slay, CJGJ,Kenny Gainwell and Oren Burks.

The Eagles do have some backups ready to fill some of those roles.

• Williams – Moro Ojomo
• Sweat – Jalyx Hunt
• Becton – Tyler Steen
• Slay – Kelee Ringo
• CJGJ – Sydney Brown
• Gainwell – Will Shipley
• Burks – Jeremiah Trotter Jr

If those players develop as hoped, the Eagles will be very happy. Reality tells you that not all of them will work out. That’s why the Eagles have made some of the moves mentioned up top. The Eagles are betting that their coaching and infrastructure can bring out the best in some of the acquisitions. The players have ability. This isn’t blind faith.

Stoutland could turn Green into a solid starter. Dillon could be a good fit behind the Eagles OL. Bryant could prove to be a good fit for the Eagles offense. And so on. When things don’t work as hoped, the Eagles will make additional moves where needed.

There have been a couple of keys to the offseason moves. The financial side of things and acquiring resources. In terms of finances, the Eagles wanted to cut back on cash spending as well as adding some cap space. They have accomplished both. In terms of resources, the Eagles are set to get 4 comp picks in 2026. They improved another pick in the Kenny Pickett trade. That stuff has to be factored in when evaluating the offseason.

I thought Brooks Kubena wrote a good story for The Athletic on this being an offseason of "maintenance”. He mixes in quotes from Howie to try and explain what’s going on.

http://igglesblitz.com/2025/03/taking-stock-6/

Yeah bottom line as of right now we are worse off than how we ended the year. We’ve lost a few key players and also some good depth guys. We lost probably our best DE, our best DT not named Carter and our starting RG. Oh and our veteran CB and we traded our best Safety.

But we still have the draft and we still have FA. We also have potential trades and I’m sure that Howie is looking at trade options. I mean with the #32 pick overall maybe he feels it’s better to do a package to get a good young player already in the league?

I can't see Brown being the answer at safety...his game would have to change a lot and not sure if Vic can change his motor 

to play smarter and not like he's on fire. 

I can't see Brown being the answer at safety...his game would have to change a lot and not sure if Vic can change his motor 

to play smarter and not like he's on fire. 

I don't agree with trading CJGJ.....the guy just brings a whole different level of attitude to the defense.  I guess they will drat a safety early in the draft to compete with Brown.

And the offseason would be a whole lot worse if they lost Baun.  

After winning a Super Bowl with a defense like that, it's hard to watch guys leave.  But the eagles are in a unique position with the depth they have, the draft picks and trade assets to replace the talent and production that left.

The core of the defense is solid.  What Fangio and his position coaches did to this defense is unprecedented.  I think Howie believes that Fangio and his coaches can develop talent to fill the loss of some of these free agents.

With what the eagles have done so far, I think their draft priorities are:

Safety

Defensive tackle

Edge

Corner

Interior offensive line

But there's a LOT more that can happen before or during the draft.  I wouldn't be surprised by some trades that have been rumored and Howie wheeling and dealing on draft day.

 

 

 

 

On 3/22/2025 at 1:33 PM, birdman#12 said:

I don't agree with trading CJGJ.....the guy just brings a whole different level of attitude to the defense.  I guess they will drat a safety early in the draft to compete with Brown.

I don’t necessarily agree with it either but there’s got to be something to having what 5 teams in 5 years? 

On 3/22/2025 at 1:33 PM, birdman#12 said:

With what the eagles have done so far, I think their draft priorities are:

Safety

Defensive tackle

Edge

Corner

Agreed! Safety is a real worry right now. DE is a big big worry and I think corner too. I like that we brought in Adoree but he’s older and probably at this point should be a guy to compete?