Mocks will be hard until free agency falls out

[Rob331]

With all of the Eagles free agents it will be difficult to do a mock until we see who they resign. Defense will be as MAJOR issue and there are 4 key guys on offense.

Think about it -

• At DE - both Barnett and Sweat are going to be free agents.
• At safety, McLeod is in his last year and Harris has a one year deal. 
• At corner, both Maddox and Nelson will be hitting the market
• Wilson and Avery will both be free at the end of the year. 
• DT seems ok, with this years draft and only Ridgeway on an expiring deal. 
• Mailata is in his 4th year so he'll be a free agent
• Kelce is in his last year
• Then there's tight end with both Goedert and Ertz in the last year of their deals.
• There's a whole group of restricted free agents who we can keep if we want - Ward, Scott, Herbig, Toth Edwards, Singleton, and Croom.
• And there's a couple of extended rights free agents who have to play for us if they want to play -  Elijah Riley and Raekwon Williams. 

With their cap situation not really resolving itself until the new league year and the cap going up it's hard to envision many re-signings during the upcoming season. Players generally re-sign early for the security and since the Eagles aren't in a position to give it to them most of these guys will be testing the market before we have the $ to get them back in the fold. That really make the draft picks we've accumulated important and it's really important Hurts succeeds and we don't need to spend them on a quarterback. 

My opinion - at a minimum we'll need a DE, CB, and S in the first 2 days and they will all have to be ready to play right away. 

Howie's got his work cut out for him and without knowing the needs, those of us who do mocks will be throwing darts blindfolded until well after the super bowl. 

Bottom line - it's going to be fun. 

 

 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I think there's some big quick easy wins though. I mean Cox is absolutely one for either restructure or trade or whatever to get that number down. BG could be another. Then there's guys like Ertz etc, I mean what happens there? We all thought he was going to go this off season. Now it looks like he may stay beyond this year and Goedert may go?

I do agree though there's a lot of moves that need to be made and a lot of guys who are going to be FA's. 

[Rob331]

just an update - Mailata and Sweat have been signed.  I guess I was wrong about cap flexibility this year. 

I still think we should take 2 DE's high given BG's age. 

Signing Mailata takes pressure off the need for a high priced FA or high draft pick at left tackle. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

4 hours ago, Rob331 said:

just an update - Mailata and Sweat have been signed.  I guess I was wrong about cap flexibility this year. 

I still think we should take 2 DE's high given BG's age. 

Certainly one at least. I guess a lot will depend on what they do with Barnett. I suspect he'll leave to test FA so yeah they likely will need 2.

[Ray75]

On 9/18/2021 at 6:27 PM, Rob331 said:

just an update - Mailata and Sweat have been signed.  I guess I was wrong about cap flexibility this year. 

I still think we should take 2 DE's high given BG's age. 

Signing Mailata takes pressure off the need for a high priced FA or high draft pick at left tackle. 

Just do the math; bread and butter has always been the D and O line and upcoming edge class is pretty good. Plus this organisation almost never uses first rounders on DB’s, TE’s, RB’s etc. It’s almost a gimme that Howie will at least use one of his first rounders on a D-lineman. I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses 3 of his first 4 picks on the D and O-line (OG).

[UK_EaglesFan89]

1 minute ago, Ray75 said:

Just do the math; bread and butter has always been the D and O line and upcoming edge class is pretty good. Plus this organisation almost never uses first rounders on DB’s, TE’s, RB’s etc. It’s almost a gimme that Howie will at least use one of his first rounders on a D-lineman. I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses 3 of his first 4 picks on the D and O-line (OG).

Plus we don't know what's going to happen with BG and I'm not sure Barnett should be kept around. 

[eaglesfan0075]

9 hours ago, Ray75 said:

Just do the math; bread and butter has always been the D and O line and upcoming edge class is pretty good. Plus this organisation almost never uses first rounders on DB’s, TE’s, RB’s etc. It’s almost a gimme that Howie will at least use one of his first rounders on a D-lineman. I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses 3 of his first 4 picks on the D and O-line (OG).

I can see CB in the 1st even though we haven't drafted one since Lito Sheppard in 2002, but I agree that we won't see a TE or S in the 1st and it should be no surprise to see the DL and OL prioritized early on based on draft history. 

[Ray75]

8 hours ago, eaglesfan0075 said:

I can see CB in the 1st even though we haven't drafted one since Lito Sheppard in 2002, but I agree that we won't see a TE or S in the 1st and it should be no surprise to see the DL and OL prioritized early on based on draft history. 

Agreed.

I can see them letting Barnett walk and keeping BG but they need to find a proper heir for him cause Barnett isn’t.

I’ve not yet done extensive homework on the draft class but it’s pretty top heavy at DE and corner. 

If Hurts proves to be the guy going forward, you can bet the house that Howie will use his top pick (whether that will be Miami’s or our own) on an edge rusher to become BG’s true heir and Sweat’s running mate going forward.

I’d love Howie to use that 2nd first rounder on a quality corner we could build around but I’m not holding my breath. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

On 9/21/2021 at 7:07 AM, Ray75 said:

I can see them letting Barnett walk and keeping BG but they need to find a proper heir for him cause Barnett isn’t

They certainly shouldn't keep Barnett. I mean he just doesn't make enough big plays to put up with the bone headed plays that he makes on an almost weekly basis.