Did Howie Roseman bring back too many old guys?

 

 

 

Reuben Frank

EAGLES INSIDER

Howie Roseman has spoken often about the mistakes he made after the 2017 Super Bowl season, trying to keep that aging roster together for too long before the franchise bottomed out in 2020.

He’s spoken about the importance of not making roster decisions based on emotion. About not keeping players around too long because they’re great people and all-time Eagles. About not running it back with aging veterans at the expense of promising young players.

And here we are.

Taken individually, new contracts for Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Darius Slay and James Bradberry all made sense. Taken as a whole, it’s a concern.

Kelce is 35, B.G. 34, Cox and Slay 32 and Bradberry will be 30 on opening day. Those five players combined will earn more than $50 million in 2023 – we don’t have all the exact contract breakdowns yet – and that’s exactly what Roseman said he wanted to avoid. 

And while he re-signed or restructured five players in their 30s (or about to be), Roseman let four of the team’s six-youngest defensive starters leave – 25-year-old Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and 26-year-olds Kyzir White, T.J. Edwards and Marcus Epps.

verage age of players the Eagles lost to other teams: 27.5.

Average age of players the Eagles signed: 31.4.

Kelce? He’s still the best center in football. B.G.? He had 11 sacks last year, 6th-most among all edge rushers. Cox? He’s not what he used to be, but he did have 7.0 sacks last year, 9th-most in the league among interior rushers. Slay? He dropped off a bit late in the season, but opposing receivers thought highly enough to vote him into his fifth Pro Bowl in the last six years. James Bradberry? He had the lowest opposing completion percentage among all starting cornerbacks.

These don’t seem to be the type of moves Roseman makes out of emotion because all these guys showed last year they can still play.

But the reality is they’re all well older than the league average at their position. Even Bradberry, who turns 30 this summer. Only seven of 70 cornerbacks who were targeted at least 50 times last year were in their 30s. Bradberry was 8th-oldest, Slay was 3rd-oldest. And that was last year. Cornerback is a young man's game. And they're not young men.

Kelce hasn’t shown any sign of dropping off, but he’s the oldest center in football. Depending what happens with Calais Campbell, Brandon Graham will be either the oldest or 2nd-oldest edge rusher in football. Cox projects as the 2nd-oldest regular interior lineman, behind Cameron Heyward (who’s a year older than Cox but has made three Pro Bowls since Cox made his last one). Lane Johnson obviously wasn’t a free agent, but right now he’s the 3rd-oldest starting offensive tackle in the league.

If all these guys play the way they did last year, the Eagles will be fine. But they’re all at an age where the inevitable decline is probably coming soon. With Slay, we may have already seen that process begin. With Cox, we certainly have.

But here’s the important thing to remember: This team has a lot of very good young players: Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Reed Blankenship, Kenny Gainwell, Cam Jurgens, Milton Williams, Landon Dickerson, DeVonta Smith, Jack Stoll, Quez Watkins, Jordan Mailata, A.J. Brown, Britain Covey, Greedy Williams and Josh Sweat are all between 22 and 25. So is that Jalen Hurts guy. At least 12 of them will likely be starters in 2023.

That young nucleus – plus whoever the Eagles add in the draft – is significant, and that’s what really tempers my concern about the older guys the Eagles brought back.

This isn’t really an old team as much as it’s a young team with a small group of unusually old guys who still seem to be able to play at a high level.

Howie didn’t run it back with all these aging veterans because of an emotional attachment to Kelce, B.G., Fletch and the other guys but because he believed they made the most sense at that price for this team. 

And after what we’ve seen the last few years, there’s no reason not to trust Howie’s methodology. He’s the best GM in football.

But these are still older players and they’re still creeping toward an inevitable decline, and it’s a risky way to try and build a championship roster. 

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/did-eagles-gm-howie-roseman-bring-back-too-many-old-guys

I don’t usually find myself doing this but I agree with Roob. 

Look bringing back BG at that price is a no brainer. Kelce is still one of the best C in the league (in fact he’s probably still the best). But I think they gave Cox too much money and should have gone another way. And extending Slay I think is going to bite them too.

Roob is right in large part, but so is the Eagles F.O.  As for Cox, the team just lost Hargrave and is not in a position to sustain further losses.  Cox isn't the same player he was, but he's borderline HOFer and an Eagle lifer - and part of the Eagles model is to reward players for longevity with the team.  Big picture signing here in large part.

C'mon man. When each of those signings happened Roob was poisitive about it. Now it's too many old guys. 

Can the guys he brought back still play good football? Yes. Therefore, the answer to his title question is No.

With exception of Slay (whose contract I didn't like) and Bradberry, they're all back on one-year deals, so it isn't going to bite us long-term. 

Older players lose it from the end of one year to the beginning of the next.  We'll have to see how much Cox and Graham have left

But we need a massive infusion of young cheap players so I continue to contend that we should trade down 2-3 times this draft for more picks

Typical rueben frank article.  Stupid question. 

Teams need a good mix of veterans and young guys to compete and contend.  Frank gets too wrapped up in meaningless numbers....and stupid conclusions.

Kelce and Graham are still playing at an extremely high level.  Slay is still a very good CB and Cox was adequate last year.  

Salary cap management is continuously a struggle especially when keeping a super bowl team together.  The eagles lost some good players, but hardly irreplaceable.  Hargrave will be tough to replace his numbers, but CJGJ, Epps, Edwards and White are very replaceable either with 2nd tier FA signings or the draft.  And media and fans always dismiss younger players, already on the roster, developing into starters.  

Davis, Nakobe Dean, Blankenship, Elliss and Taylor filled in last year and played well.  Hopefully, they continue to develop into starters.

So it's easy to cherry pick and say the eagles "got older" but you can't just look at ages and determine if team got better or worse.  

Just another meaningless article from rueben frank.