Thursday night, we learned that free safety Rodney McLeod agreed to a reworked deal to return to the Eagles in 2019.

We still don’t know the dollar amounts of the rejiggered deal, though McLeod, who tore his ACL and MCL in week three against the Colts, was originally set to hit the cap at 9.9 million dollars this season. Cutting him would have saved $5 million but left the Birds with $4.8 million in dead money, according to Over the Cap. 

More than anything, the Eagles really did not have much depth behind McLeod this season. Rookie Avonte Maddox and veteran Corey Graham covered at safety, while Tre Sullivan saw time towards the end of the year when the banged-up Eagles played dime. Steady free safeties don’t grow on trees, and McLeod is a 28-year-old Super Bowl winner who has performed well since signing a 5 year, $35 million deal with the Eagles back in 2016.

With his return this season, the Eagles secondary depth chart looks something like this:

  • strong safety: Malcolm Jenkins
  • free safety: McLeod, Deiondre’ Hall, Tre Sullivan
  • corner: Jalen Mills, Rasul Douglas, Avonte Maddox, Sidney Jones, Cre’Von LeBlanc, Josh Hawkins, Elie Bouka

Pretty good group going into the draft and free agency.

Speaking of which, it’s a somewhat top-heavy free safety group in the latter department. LaMarcus Joyner and Earl Thomas are the highest valued UFAs heading into the offseason, along with Tyrann Mathieu. Thomas, of course, is coming off the injury and only played four games this year. Chris Conte is also out there along with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who was shipped off to the Redskins last season at the trade deadline. Landon Collins and Adrian Amos are coming off their rookie deals and will get some real money this summer. You’d be spending a good chunk of cash on a solid FS in free agency.

As for the draft, the highest-ranked free safeties are projected in the second round range. Alabama’s Deionte Thompson might be a late first rounder, while Washington’s Taylor Rapp is being pegged as a mid-second type of guy. Delaware’s Nasir Adderley is highly-rated and could be an interesting option, a Great Valley graduate who has also played corner.

Either way, with little in the way of free safety depth, bringing back McLeod on a restructured deal makes sense to me. We’ll see what the dollar amounts look like.