I have an image in my head of Howie Roseman in an apron running around the general managers’ meetings swinging a broom and yelling, “Git! Git! Git, you little varmints!”
It’s never that easy, is it? Not when you have a roster with a historic level of talent. Not when the rest of the league has historic amounts of salary-cap space. Roseman couldn’t have been surprised by what he saw when he looked out his kitchen window on the first two days of free agency. In the words of the late Logan Roy, all the piggies were at the trough.
The first two days of free agency were mostly what we expected.
There went the Patriots, with Milton Williams. And the Vikings, with Isaiah Rodgers. And the Cardinals, with Josh Sweat.
» READ MORE: Why Zack Baun’s contract makes sense, and where Howie Roseman and the Eagles should look next
Everywhere Roseman looked, he saw another squirrel scampering away with a midnight green acorn in its mouth.
Ain’t that a kick — or a can of Miller Lite — to the head?
The good news for Eagles fans is that Roseman has been here before. The result was a Super Bowl.
You remember the offseason after 2021, don’t you?
The Eagles entered it with roughly the same amount of cap room as they have now, relatively speaking. They made a big strike early, signing Haason Reddick to a three-year, $45 million deal. Then, they waited.
And waited.
Three weeks after signing Reddick, they added Kyzir White. Then, they waited some more.
By the time draft day rolled around, the locals were more than a little restless. Darius Slay was the only defensive back of note under contract. Quez Watkins and Jalen Reagor were the No. 2 and No. 3 receivers. The Eagles were coming off a 9-8 season that ended with an ugly playoff loss to the Bucs. Jalen Hurts was enough of a question mark that his name was popping up in trade rumors involving Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson.
Sometimes, the best moves are the ones you don’t make.
Especially when they lead to this:
April 28, 2022
The Eagles acquire A.J. Brown from the Titans in a draft-day trade for first- and third-round picks, then sign the wide receiver to a contract extension.
May 9, 2022
The Giants release James Bradberry.
May 18, 2022
Eagles sign Bradberry to a one-year contract worth $7.25 million.
Aug. 30, 2022
Eagles acquire C.J. Gardner-Johnson for fifth- and sixth-round draft picks.
That offseason also saw the Eagles select Jordan Davis, Cam Jurgens, and Nakobe Dean in the first three rounds of the draft.
» READ MORE: Thumbs up or down: Eagles writers weigh in on C.J. Gardner-Johnson-Kenyon Green trade
Plenty is different this time. The Eagles don’t have the same level of draft capital they carried into the 2022 offseason. But they do have some expendable powder.
They’ve picked up a couple of fifth-round picks in recent days by trading Gardner-Johnson and Kenny Pickett. They likely have a couple of comp picks coming next year after losing Williams and Sweat to big free-agent contracts. They have an abundance of young talent that will be eligible for extensions over the next one to three years (Jurgens, Jalen Carter, Davis, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean).
It could make sense to spend a couple of mid-round picks on solid veterans rather than higher-ceiling/lower-floor lottery tickets.
Once upon a time, the Eagles acquired Slay for third- and fifth-round picks. That happened a few days into free agency in 2020. Although, admittedly, there were some extenuating non-football-related circumstances that particular March.
Point is, the Eagles did exactly what they should have done over the last week. They realized that Zack Baun would give them the best bang for their buck and focused on re-signing him. They realized that it wasn’t worth $24 million a year to maintain their embarrassment of riches at defensive tackle. Instead, they wished Williams well. They realized that they had given Sweat’s money to Bryce Huff and that they would just have to live with it. They realized that Slay would be 35 years old by the end of next season and that Mitchell and DeJean were good bets to be better than they were in 2024.
They are worse now than they were a week ago. That’s how it works this time of year for elite teams. The salary cap is in place for a reason. Nobody wants to see a team like the Eagles win 10 straight Super Bowls. Well, almost nobody.
“I think I would just ask our fans to just have patience throughout the offseason,” Roseman said two weeks ago at the scouting combine. “The offseason doesn’t stop in free agency. The offseason doesn’t stop when the draft hits. The offseason, really for us, the talent acquisition season lasts up until the trade deadline. … We got a long way to go here to continue to add talent and continue to make decisions, and I’m excited for that.”
The Eagles are playing the game the way it needs to be played when you have the shortest stack at the table. Limit risk. Prioritize value. Take the best of what the bigger fish leave for you.
Replacing Gardner-Johnson will be the biggest key. He was an X factor on this defense, in both phases of the game. The pass rush is always a priority. Unfortunately, that is true across the league. The Eagles need to find the positions where they can get better the most and focus their resources accordingly.