Pederson want to take look at RB Charles
The Eagles will kick the tires on Jamaal Charles, the veteran running back released Tuesday by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson dropped the news during a chat with the media at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis Wednesday.
“I’ve got a history with him in Kansas City for three years,” Pederson said. “I think he’s a tremendous running back. And you know, it’s something we’ll evaluate now. We’ll grade him, just like we do every free agent, every person who’s released and see where he can fit into our offense.”
Charles is the Chiefs’ all-time leading rusher with 7,260 yards. While the 30-year-old veteran has 63 career touchdowns, he’s played a total of eight games the last two seasons due to injury.
The Eagles are anything but settled at the running back position, which will be one point of focus at the combine. Though Pederson says veteran Darren Sproles will return, veteran Ryan
Mathews was unable to complete the 2016 season due to a herniated disk in his neck. Joining him on injured reserve were Wendell Smallwood, the fifthround pick, who suffered a Grade 2 tear of a medial collateral ligament, and Kenjon Barner, who tore a hamstring.
The rest of the depth chart is composed of practice squad upgrades Byron Marshall and Terrence Watson.
“It’s hard to predict who’s going to be here, who’s not, injury or not,” Pederson said. “Comfortable with the guys we have? Yeah, but you still would like to add some depth and have some competition at that position … as we do all positions.”
Charles obviously is acquainted with the Philadelphia offense that Pederson imported from Kansas City. The medical is huge.
Consider the status of Mathews stable, to borrow a medical term.
“Ryan’s doing great and we fully expect him to be ready to play,” Eagles football operations chief Howie Roseman said. “He’s under contract and I think it’s as simple as that right now.”
League rules, Roseman reminded reporters, prohibit cutting a player who’s injured.
The condition of Smallwood is another unknown in that Eagles coaches cannot contact players until April 17, per collective bargaining agreement rules.
“We’re looking forward to getting him back in the building and seeing where he’s at,” Pederson said, adding that Smallwood “left the building on track with the health issue.”
Roseman hinted the Eagles weren’t going to make a splash during the free agency period that formally begins March 9, partly because the quality of players isn’t what it was as teams are re-signing more of their top players due largely to the expanding salary cap. The 2017 cap is $167 million per team.
“We’re not going to address any need that doesn’t make sense from a long term perspective in terms of resources,” Roseman said. “We’re going to try to minimize our risk. We’re not going to go out and sign a high-priced free agent if we don’t think the value’s there, even if it’s going to be hard to look at that depth chart for a couple of months. It’s just not the right thing to do for our football team and our organization.
It’s the right thing to do for the long-term for our team.”
That said, the Eagles are ready to dive into an offseason that Roseman says will last until the team begins the 2017 regular season. The combine is when the rumor mill and trade talks begin. The Eagles have assets to deal in defensive ends Connor Barwin and Vinny Curry and center Jason Kelce, among others.
“You get a chance to talk to all the other teams about potential trades,” Roseman said. “It’s almost like the winter meetings of football. It gives us an opportunity to see if there’s something that makes sense for our team and then to go from there.”
The not-so sobering news is Roseman hinted that Nelson Agholor, so overwhelmed by the game he had to be benched last season, still is in the mix at wide receiver.
Roseman insists Agholor has the speed and the ability to get open at the NFL level.
“You just hope it was one of those years where it just kind of snowballs,” Roseman said. “There’s a lot of examples of guys who played two years and then all of the sudden at that receiver position ended up being really good players.”
Roseman didn’t provide any examples.