The Eagles season is over.

They overachieved and made the playoffs, but got their doors blown off in Tampa, so Howie Roseman and company have a lot of questions to answer as we head into the NFL Draft and year number two of Nick Sirianni.

First things first –

The Birds have nine unrestricted free agents. They are:

  • Jordan Howard
  • Hassan Ridgeway
  • Genard Avery
  • Jason Croom
  • Derek Barnett
  • Anthony Harris
  • Rodney McLeod
  • Ryan Kerrigan
  • Steven Nelson

Croom, Barnett, Harris, Kerrigan, Nelson, and McLeod can move on to their next NFL teams.

It’s a bummer that McLeod’s Eagles career will perhaps end with a bad loss in Tampa, but he’s always going to be a member of the Super Bowl team. He turns 32 this summer and has dealt with some late-career injuries, so hopefully the Birds are able to get younger and start moving things forward at both safety positions. Harris was a stop-gap signing and did some good things this year, but he’s also on the wrong side of 30 now.

Nelson was in the same boat as Harris. He was here on a one year deal with the Birds during a transitional year. Assuming Nelson isn’t getting a bigger money long term deal, they need to find the next young CB opposite Darius Slay, and that should be an offseason priority. Avonte Maddox in the slot is perfect, so you just need the other outside piece there.

Barnett obviously didn’t do enough to warrant a big money extension, and Kerrigan didn’t do much of anything at all. Croom was mostly a practice squad guy.

That leaves these players to bring back:

Hassan Ridgeway

Ridgeway is a good rotational piece at defensive tackle. He is 27 years old and inexpensive, a guy who logged 20 tackles and five QB hits this year with two sacks. This past season he earned about a million dollars on a one-year deal, and every team can use a depth piece like him on the defensive line, which the Eagles have always valued.

Genard Avery

Avery came to the Birds as a tweener but found a role as the SAM linebacker in Jonathan Gannon’s “scheme.” I put “scheme” in quotation marks because Gannon insists he does not have one, but he did some creative things moving Avery around on 3rd downs and getting him up to the line when running those “stack” looks.

Avery finished with a career-high 43 tackles this year, adding a sack, two QB hits, and four tackles for loss. He’ll be 27 years old next season, and if you can convince him he’s got a role here as a sub-package player, then he’ll be available on the cheap.

Jordan Howard

The Eagles should probably have never been on the Howard rollercoaster to begin with, i.e. he’s on the team, then off the team, now he’s on the practice squad, now he’s on the active roster, etc.

Howard is a good downhill complement for Miles Sanders and runs hard. He’s not expensive. He only played seven games this year but went for more than 400 yards and three touchdowns while playing on a dirt cheap salary.

Keep in mind, you’ve got Miles Sanders on the last year of his deal and Boston Scott entering the summer as a restricted free agent. Kenny Gainwell returns for year #2. You know what you’re getting in Howard, and it feels almost inevitable that he finds his way back to the Birds backfield at some point in 2022.