Eagles mailbag: What’s the plan at safety in 2023?

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Eagles mailbag: What’s the plan at safety in 2023?

 

We got enough questions in this latest mailbag to split it up into three parts.

Part 1: Is Bijan Robinson worth No. 10?

Part 2: What if Jalen Carter starts to slip?

And now let’s get to part three:

If the Eagles began the season right now, their likely starting safeties would be Terrell Edmunds and Reed Blankenship and their top backups would be K’Von Wallace and Justin Evans. After losing both starters — Marcus Epps and C.J. Gardner-Johnson — in free agency that’s the position the Eagles find themselves in. They didn’t really commit to Edmunds or Evans in free agency, giving them contracts that each included just $600,000 in guaranteed money.

At least Edmunds has been a decent starter in the past. The former first-round pick has started 75 games in his career, including 15 last season. While he’s known as more of a box safety, the Eagles didn’t spend big money at safety in free agency — they put that money into cornerback — so they’re going to need to scrape it together.

Are they done at safety? Seems unlikely. The one problem is that this isn’t generally considered to be a very strong safety draft class. The top guy on the board is Alabama’s Brian Branch, who is a versatile defensive back who can play nickel and safety. After that there’s a bit of a drop-off to guys like Antonio Johnson, Jordan Battle and Sydney Brown. But I think it’s very possible the Eagles add a safety in the draft at least in Day 2 to compete for one of those starting jobs.

The other option the Eagles have in their back pocket is to play Avonte Maddox at safety. The Eagles’ slot corner looked pretty natural at safety before and it is probably easier to replace a nickel than a safety. They could have Maddox play safety on base downs and then slide to nickel in sub packages too. It’s an intriguing option, although Maddox is getting paid like a nickel and not like a safety and that could present a problem.

I’d go with Carter. I just think he’s a better player at a more important position. That’s certainly not a knock on Witherspoon, who is one of the best corners in this draft. But Carter is clearly the top defensive tackle in this draft class, while Witherspoon is one of the top corners. Perhaps Witherspoon is a better prospect than Christian Gonzalez from Oregon but I’d have Gonzalez first and I’m not alone.

In any case, I look at Carter as one of the best overall players in this draft. Certainly, off-the-field issues come into play with Carter. But the only reason we’re even able to entertain this debate is because of those issues.

Howie Roseman is known for his movement on draft day and this year likely won’t be any different. The most shocking outcome would be if he stays at 10 and 30 and picks players. I really think there’s a chance he trades both picks. I could see a short trade up to land one of the draft’s best position players like Carter or Tyree Wilson and then a trade down from 30 to recoup some of those picks. That No. 30 position could be intriguing for a team that wants to move up and get a rookie contract with a fifth-year option attached to it.

There’s no question that Roseman has had some misses. And the misses in the first round have been pretty disastrous. Thinking about Marcus Smith, Danny Watkins, Jalen Reagor, etc. But he’s made good picks too, like Fletcher Cox, Lane Johnson, DeVonta Smith. It’s important to remember that other teams miss too. Look around the league. There are a ton of up-and-down drafts in the NFL.

Even if you look at last year, sure the Eagles added some big-time players through trades and free agency, but a lot of that team was home-grown. In fact, 10 of 11 offensive starters in Super Bowl LVII were drafted by the Eagles. The only one who wasn’t was A.J. Brown.

This is an interesting name. Landry is 30 now and the former Pro Bowler is coming off a season in which he played just 9 games and had the worst output in his career with just 25 catches for 272 yards and a touchdown. His last Pro Bowl season was 2019 with the Browns, when he had 83 catches for over 1,000 yards. At his best, Landry is one of the better slot receivers in the NFL.

If he was willing to take a deal that was really cheap, then sure. You’re not going to turn down a good player at a position where depth is lacking.

But I’m also not sure he’s a perfect fit. The reason I’m not ready to give up on Quez Watkins is because he has the type of pure speed out of the slot that defenses have to account for and because he’s able to make an impact without needing a large target share. Landry has been very good in his career but he’s been a big target guy, getting over 100 in each of his first seven years in the NFL. And in his career he’s averaged 11.0 yards per attempt. Most of the Eagles’ targets on offense need to go to A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert. That doesn’t leave much else and I’m not sure Landry would be as effective without getting those targets. There’s only one football and all of that. Not to mention that there were times when Brown was seemingly a little irked about the ball not going his way enough last season.

Watkins, meanwhile, has the ability to make big catches over the top. While he averaged just 10.7 yards per catch in 2022, a lot of that was because of the types of plays the Eagles tried to force to him last season — plays they should scrap from the playbook in 2023. If the Eagles were interested in bringing in Landry, they’d have to make sure they could make it work from a target-share perspective and that might be tricky. But, again, if you’re not giving up too much it would be worth a try.

I like Josh Jobe but I’m not ready to say I know his career ceiling. The Eagles got signed him after the Alabama product went undrafted last spring. The 25-year-old didn’t play very much on defense in 2022 but did become a solid special teamer. What we did see from him was that he separated from a pack of several young defensive backs in training camp last season. He’ll have the opportunity to fight for a job and a role again this summer. The Eagles are obviously set with their starters — Darius Slay, James Bradberry and Avonte Maddox create a really good trio — but the backup roles are a little less defined. Zech McPhearson and Greedy Williams will presumably battle it out for the top backup outside corner role but there’s no reason that Jobe can’t get into the mix there. If nothing else, he seems like a guy the Eagles will want to keep around to continue to develop.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-mailbag-whats-plan-safety-2023