Will Eagles be able to keep Jaelan Phillips in free agency?

The Eagles have plenty of important pending free agents but Jaelan Phillips is at the top of the list.

By Dave Zangaro • Published February 25, 2026

INDIANAPOLIS — The Eagles have plenty of important players who will become free agents when the new league year begins next month.

Jaelan Phillips is at the top of the list.

Phillips is a former first-round pick at a premium position who will still be just 27 when the 2026 season begins. He spent just a couple months with the Eagles after getting traded from the Dolphins before the trade deadline, but he’s exactly the type of player general manager Howie Roseman would probably love to keep.

The two months with Phillips in 2025 only solidified that.

"Obviously, we do a lot of work on these players coming out (of college), and we knew what kind of person Jalen Phillips was from the time we spent with him in the pre-draft process,” Roseman said ahead of the 2026 NFL Combine. "And it was confirmed throughout our time with him in Philadelphia. Unbelievable worker, unbelievable leader, incredibly talented player who cares desperately about winning.”

The Eagles traded away a 2026 third-round pick on Nov. 3 to acquire the talented edge rusher from Miami. Phillips (6-5, 266) played in eight regular season games and the playoff game with the Eagles on his expiring contract and ended up being the top edge rusher in Fangio’s rotation.

In those eight regular season games, Phillips had 2 sacks, 34 pressures, 7 QB hits, 4 pass breakups, 4 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble and 1 fumble recovery. He just really seemed to fit into Fangio’s defense, which wasn’t a surprise based on their success together in Miami for half a season in 2023.

But it won’t be cheap to keep Phillips, who has been ranked as one of the top free agents in an otherwise notably weak class. Here’s where Phillips ranks on a bunch of national rankings in this free agent class:

The Athletic: 3
The Ringer: 3
NFL.com: 3
USA Today: 4
CBS Sports: 4
ESPN: 5
FOX Sports: 10
ProFootballFocus: 14
ProFootballTalk: 27

The Eagles did give up a third-round pick for Phillips, but Roseman said that isn’t really a factor when it comes to re-signing the player. Giving up that draft pick was about trying to make a deep playoff push in 2025.

"I think the third-round pick was because we felt like we had an opportunity here to compete for a championship,” Roseman said. "And obviously that didn't happen but we'll do anything to win a championship.”

Roseman pointed back at the 2018 season when he traded a third-round pick for Golden Tate. For the most part, the Eagles found it difficult to incorporate Tate into their offense but he did catch the game-winning touchdown in the Double Doink playoff game in Chicago. Roseman last week said he’d always happily trade a third-round pick to win a playoff game.

Unfortunately for the 2025 Eagles, their season ended in the wild-card round with a loss to the 49ers. But it certainly doesn’t seem like Roseman regrets taking the chance.

"From my perspective, that gave us a shot in the arm,” he said. "The defense obviously played really well throughout the course of the season and took another step when he was here. We understood the risks of that. We also understood why the Dolphins were doing it and getting the third-round pick now. 

"But, for us, we understood also, here's the worst case situation: Which is he's going to be a free agent. If he leaves a free agent, you would have to not sign somebody to get the comp pick for next year. Understanding that. And also, the hardest part about free agency is understanding who the player is because you don't live with that person. And getting the chance to be with him and see who he was, obviously, to us, is even more additive.”

It’s a little tough to pin down what exactly the market will look like for Phillips. He is a former first-round pick and that matters. But he also has an extensive injury history, which includes a torn Achilles and a torn ACL that ended his 2023 and 2024 seasons early.

The good news for Phillips is that he was able to play a full season in 2025.

"I think that without talking about Jalen Phillips in particular, when you're talking about any decision that you make,” Roseman said, "you're factoring in character, you're factoring in medical, you're factoring level of play, you're factoring in age, you're factoring in scheme fit. And so I think that that's part of the decision-making you're doing on any player that you're signing and extending. That wouldn't be any different in any case that we're talking about here.”

The Eagles know they can’t keep everybody. In recently seasons, the Eagles have been allocating most of their money to the offensive side of the ball and have been playing young and cheap defensive players. That’s about to flip starting this offseason.

Over the next few years, the Eagles are going to have to pay guys like Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean and more. Is there enough room to sign Phillips too? That will probably be dictated by his market, which is tricky to predict.

Here are some projections from various outlets:

The Athletic: 4 years, $98 million ($24.5M APY)
Spotrac: 3 years, $52 million ($17.3M APY)
ProFootballFocus: 1 year, $15 million

Last offseason, the Eagles made Zack Baun their No. 1 priority and signed him to a three-year, $51 million contract. There’s a chance the Eagles could similarly make Phillips their top priority this offseason but there’s certainly no guarantee they’ll be able to keep him when free agency begins on March 9.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/nfl-free-agency-combine-jaelan-phillips-edge-rusher-vic-fangio-howie-roseman/717165/

I predict they are going to let Phillips walk and plan for a comp pick in 2027 for his loss. He likely won't get Milton Williams type money but maybe something closer to what Josh Sweat got, so we'll likely net a 4th rd comp pick in return. If it plays out that way, then basically we traded a 2026 3rd rd pick (with the hopes he would help lead us to another Lombardi this year) for a late 2027 4th.

I'm gonna guess that Howie is gonna make a strong push for him to resign. The biggest question is what will Phillips accept and what types of offers he'd have from other teams. I believe the 2 sides will find a way and he stays with us.

I'm leaning towards keeping him. Because if that happens, then you really don't have to draft an Edge rusher. We can focus more on OL/TE. If the players are there for us.

On 2/26/2026 at 7:29 AM, time2rock said:

I predict they are going to let Phillips walk and plan for a comp pick in 2027 for his loss. He likely won't get Milton Williams type money but maybe something closer to what Josh Sweat got, so we'll likely net a 4th rd comp pick in return. If it plays out that way, then basically we traded a 2026 3rd rd pick (with the hopes he would help lead us to another Lombardi this year) for a late 2027 4th.

I think that’s about right. We wouldn’t pay him more than $15-$17 MM a year and may not be willing to give him a three year contract but somebody probably will.

This is a tricky one… On the one hand a third round pick is not a throw away nothing asset. A third round is generally considered a project player OR a good solid starter after the first year or two. So they gave up a reasonable price to bring him in. And ultimately because of the offense that move didn’t yield the overall team results we’d have liked.

That said after a red hot start he fell off a bit. He has an injury history and I’m just not sure paying him is the right move? He’s not going to be cheap but I’m not sure he’s worth the money being mooted. But then DE is a big gap and hole on the roster and losing him means we need to address it in another way.

Phillips to panthers for $30 million. a year with 4 year contract.

On 2/26/2026 at 7:29 AM, time2rock said:

I predict they are going to let Phillips walk and plan for a comp pick in 2027 for his loss. He likely won't get Milton Williams type money but maybe something closer to what Josh Sweat got, so we'll likely net a 4th rd comp pick in return. If it plays out that way, then basically we traded a 2026 3rd rd pick (with the hopes he would help lead us to another Lombardi this year) for a late 2027 4th.

I was right about letting him walk. And I was also right about not getting Milton Williams money. He actually got MORE!!

Williams signed a 4 year deal for $104M last offseason. So have to assume we’ll get another 3rd rd comp pick in 2027.

On 2/26/2026 at 1:49 PM, LacesOut said:

I'm leaning towards keeping him. Because if that happens, then you really don't have to draft an Edge rusher. We can focus more on OL/TE. If the players are there for us.

Shut up, IDIOT.

A $30 Million a year average is just far too much. Glad the Eagles didn't choose to hamstring themselves.