Day 1 of legal tampering went as expected, completely off the rails. We saw a load of stars sign new contracts, we saw a few big-money trades involving some of the best players in the league and then we saw the Eagles do the most Eagles thing possible and sign a defensive tackle.
Obviously, I’m joking, I’ve actually championed for the Eagles to sign a DT for a while, and in fact, I had just finished up a piece about Philly’s needs across the field, mentioning that DT was an area of need and Hargrave would be an ideal FA target, when we announced the signing of him. The real question to ask, is should the Eagles start panicking after what transpired during day 1 of legal tampering?
Wide receiver
Yesterday was an unbelievably hectic day for wide receiver moves. We saw DeAndre Hopkins and Stefon Diggs traded, and Amari Cooper re-sign for Dallas on a huge deal. Oh, and obviously OBJ’s name has cropped up in trade rumors again.
It’s pretty obvious that the Eagles are in desperate need of at least 1 wide receiver. With a seriously deep draft class on the horizon, free agency was always going to be an interesting market to watch.
Seeing guys like Hopkins going for a 2nd rounder definitely didn’t sit right with Eagles fans, and rightly so. Getting a top 3 receiver in the league for a couple of cheap picks and a running back who wasn’t your starter heading into this season is fantastic value. However, you have to look at the other side of things for the Eagles. Like I just mentioned, everyone heading into this period was happy to deal with the issues at wideout in the draft so it’s not all doom and gloom for Philly.
As for Amari Cooper, his new deal is worth $100 million dollars over 5 years with $60M of that $100M guaranteed. That puts him alongside Michael Thomas and just before Julio Jones at the top of the contract value mountain, one the Eagles just cannot afford to climb.
Then look at what was given up by the Bills for Stefon Diggs. A first, fifth, and sixth-rounder this year, and a fourth next year. That's a massive package of picks for Diggs who hasn’t got the greatest reputation at the minute due to his attitude.
It's also worth noting that Robby Anderson is still up for grabs - someone who has long been linked with the Eagles. From a few cryptic tweets, many can see that Robby may not be going back to the Jets and the thought of him and Djax partnering up should have every Eagles fan salivating. Guys like Geronimo Allison and Phillip Dorsett are still on the open market, and if the Eagles wanted to take a punt on a free agent, Josh Gordon is still out there.
There’s also the fact that they hold 10 picks in this year’s draft and could easily pick up some hefty talent in the early stages. The Cardinals getting Hopkins was a huge win for the Eagles in terms of the draft. That’s one less team ahead of them that doesn’t need to take one of the three top receivers, meaning there’s a good chance that one of Jeudy, Lamb or Ruggs falls to 21. Factor in the Colts trading out of 13, allowing the Niners to pick there also helps the Eagles massively, if they want to move ahead of the Broncos, as the Niners are desperate for draft stock. There’s still a lot of options for the Eagles at WR, so the answer for this certain situation is no, the Eagles shouldn’t panic about this at all.
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Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Cornerback
Onto the main thing that hurt the Eagles last night - Byron Jones signing for the Dolphins. It had been rumored for a while that the Eagles were the frontrunners in the Jones sweepstakes. Hell, even up to the last hour reports were suggesting that it was the Eagles vs the Raiders...until it wasn’t and Jones was jetting off to Miami.
This one really hurt because a lot of people’s perfect offseason plans, started with the signing of Jones, fixing a huge issue for the Eagles and securing down one of the best CB’s in the league. Other CB’s like James Bradberry also left the open market and it started to look very worrisome for the Eagles.
However, the Jones deal was massively valued. It definitely hurts but $80+ million is a lot of money to spend and it just means the team still have money to spend elsewhere.
Guys like Chris Harris Jr, Desmond Trufant, Prince Amukamara, and Logan Ryan are still all on the open market and would be quality signings for the Eagles. Then, you factor in the possible trade targets of Darius Slay Jr or Xavian Howard and the sky isn't so bleak after all.
Linebacker
The hardest one for me to deal with and just watch on was at linebacker. The Eagles are desperate for a linebacker, they haven’t really got a starting quality one, especially with it looking like KGH is on the way out. We saw guys like Jamie Collins, Kyle Van Noy, Christian Kirksey, and Nick Kwiatkosoki all come off of the market - guys that the Eagles could have gone for as a cheaper deal than others.
However, guys like Joe Schobert, Tahir Whitehead, Cory Littleton, and others are still out on the market and I think the Eagles should go and make a statement by signing Littleton. It would be a real statement of intent from Philly to invest heavily in a group that they’ve pretty much forgotten existed for several years now. There’s also the chance we bring Nigel Bradham back on a cheap deal, but I’d imagine they'd have done that by now if that was the plan all along.
Once again, they could target linebackers in the draft, guys like Justin Strnad, David Woodward, Jordyn Brooks, Akeem Davis-Gaither and Troy Dye are all exceptional linebacker talent in rounds where the Eagles will have more than one pick.
Linebacker, for me, is just as urgent as a need as wide receiver and corner because of the lack of starters in that position.
Overall, day 1 of legal tampering started with a lot of hope. Along the way, there were some dark times for Philly fans, seeing Hopkins go for so cheap and missing out on Byron Jones but then you see the huge contract Amari signed and the massive package of picks the Bills gave for Diggs and you start to appreciate the shrewd move that Howie and the Eagles pulled off in Hargrave. I’m sure day 2 will be just as nuts and hopefully, we are included a little bit more than we were yesterday but don’t start panicking just yet!
Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
