Eagles mailbag: Who should Eagles try to re-sign during season?

 

The Eagles are coming off their bye week with a perfect 6-0 record and are ready to make their playoff push.

We got a ton of questions, so we’ll break up this mailbag into a few parts. If you don’t see your question today, check back tomorrow.

Let’s get to it:

The Eagles have 10 starters who will become free agents after this season: Jason Kelce, Isaac Seumalo, Miles Sanders, Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, T.J. Edwards, Kyzir White, James Bradberry, Marcus Epps and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. No matter what happens this year, the 2023 team is going to look different.

We all know Kelce is in a wait-and-see mode after each season so that’s not happening during the year. And as well as Bradberry has played, why would he agree to a contract extension during the season? He’s going to break the bank.

The guy that I’d prioritize signing to a long-term contract during the season is Gardner-Johnson. He’s still just 24 and I’ve already see enough through six games to think he’s going to be a very good safety in the NFL. In fact, he keeps getting better and better at the position as the season goes on. So you might be able to get a slight discount if you re-sign him now as opposed to waiting. And we know he wants a long-term deal; that’s what led to his trade from the Saints.

Yeah, that first part is important. Because the Eagles are going to be favored in most — if not all — of their games the rest of the way. That starts this weekend as 10.5-point favorites at home vs. the Steelers. The Eagles then have to go on the road on a short week to face the Texans. That is tricky on paper but the Eagles are a much better team.

 

The Packers game was supposed to be a tough one but that team doesn’t look very good. Colts on the road? Eh.

The game that really sticks out to me is the Titans in Week 13. That’s at home but the Titans are 4-2 and they’re a really tough, physical team that plays hard for Mike Vrabel. After an 0-2 start, the Titans have rattled off four straight wins against the Raiders, Colts, Commanders and Colts again. They haven’t given up more than 22 points in those four games.

Are the Eagles really going to be 11-0 going into Week 13? Seems hard to believe, but looking at the schedule it’s possible. And that Titans game doesn’t seem easy.

I don’t know if they are yet. But what the Eagles have going for them is they have a ton of veterans, a quarterback who doesn’t seem to get overwhelmed and a schedule that is pretty easy.

Some folks look at the Eagles’ 6-0 record and ask who they’ve beaten, but it’s encouraging to see a good team put away bad teams. It hasn’t always been easy but the Eagles have taken care of business. And they’ve won in a variety of ways so far. They’ve come from behind, they’ve held on to leads and they’ve found ways to win. That’s important.

I don’t see it with the Steelers unless the Eagles are still sleeping coming off their bye week. That’s just not a very good team. The Commanders are a division team so sometimes those games are tough. And even though Taylor Heinicke isn’t very good, he seems to give that team a spark. So I’ll somewhat agree with that Commanders game being slightly tricky.

On paper, the game in Houston is a trap game. Short week on the road. But that team isn’t good.

The other "trap game” might be in Indianapolis in Week 11. The Eagles play the Commanders on MNF and then have a short week to go on the road and play the Colts, who are just a weird team to figure out. They have wins over the Chiefs, Broncos and Jaguars, they tied the Texans and they got shut out by the Jags. Wacky team and that could make for a weird game.

It’s crazy that the NFC has five teams with winning records and three of them are in the NFC East. The other two are the Vikings and the Seahawks and the Eagles handed Minnesota their only loss.

Aside from the teams in the division, the NFC is pretty weak. I know the Buccaneers (3-4) stink right now and Tom Brady looks like a guy who wishes he would have just retired. But someone has to win that awful NFC South and as washed as Brady has looked at times this season, you’d probably prefer to avoid him in the playoffs. Not to mention that Todd Bowles had a game plan that really flustered the Eagles in the playoffs last season.

Overall, it’s just lucky that the NFC stinks in general. As far as the division being so good, not sure if it’s really good or bad for the Eagles. It just makes things interesting. The Eagles are 6-0 but they have those other teams right on their heels, so they need to keep winning. It obviously makes those division games much more important too.

I wouldn’t want to face these Phillies. They’re giving off 2017 Eagles Super Bowl team vibes.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-mailbag-who-should-eagles-try-re-sign-during-season

1 hour ago, time2rock said:

The Eagles have 10 starters who will become free agents after this season: Jason Kelce, Isaac Seumalo, Miles Sanders, Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, T.J. Edwards, Kyzir White, James Bradberry, Marcus Epps and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. No matter what happens this year, the 2023 team is going to look different.

I'd probably try to get Edwards, Epps and CJGJ tied down during the season? I'm sure Edwards and Epps will take reasonable deals and CJGJ is showing himself to be a play maker. 

Bradberry isn't likely to stay as he's earning a monster deal and we simply don't know with Kelce.

I guess the other name is Sanders... That will depend on what kind of contract he is after.

Jason Kelce - all time great, keep if can but if not, Cam looks very cabable

Isaac Seumalo - good player, would love to keep but we have other cheaper options and in Stoudland we trust

Miles Sanders - nope, no need to overpay for a running back

Fletcher Cox - unless it's for minimal money, nope, thank you for everything

Javon Hargrave - should be extended and paired with Davis on the interior 

T.J. Edwards, Kyzir White - Put them together because the reality is, we probably only keep one

James Bradberry - WOULD LOVE TO KEEP, NO WAY TO!! He is going to get PAID.  Him and Slay are making it impossible to pass against us.

Marcus Epps - try and extend now but if not, bye bye

C.J. Gardner-Johnson - must extend now, his experience at safety and corner make him invaluable and we cannot lose Bradberry and Epps along with him

 

So keep resign - Hargrave, Gardner-Johnson and one of Edwards/White

Maybe - Kelce, lesser so Cox, Epps

Good bye to - Seumalo, Sanders

Would love to but unfortunately there is no f'ing way - Bradberry

I think CJGJ is the only "no-brainer" to try and sign during the season.  Bradberry would be nice, but like others say...doubtful cuz he'll get paid bigger money in FA. 

The linebackers will be interesting...I'd imagine they'll retain one of Edwards/White, it's just a matter of how they see Nakobe Dean fitting in.  I have to imagine Dean will be a starter next year, so who does he pair with better?  White or Edwards?

 

1 hour ago, EaglesAddict said:

I think CJGJ is the only "no-brainer" to try and sign during the season.  Bradberry would be nice, but like others say...doubtful cuz he'll get paid bigger money in FA. 

The linebackers will be interesting...I'd imagine they'll retain one of Edwards/White, it's just a matter of how they see Nakobe Dean fitting in.  I have to imagine Dean will be a starter next year, so who does he pair with better?  White or Edwards?

 

I would love to keep this secondary together … we haven’t had this solid of a defensive backfield in years.  But I also agree it seems like an impossible task considering our cap situation and the likely need to give Hurts a market contract soon.  I suppose the one positive is, with some of these players expected to sign fairly big deals elsewhere it should set us up for some decent comp picks in 2024.