Birds send Matthews to Bills, beef up at corner
linebacker Nigel Bradham and cornerback Ron Brooks, now nursing a strained hamstring.
Darby is a tackler, his 69 stops ranking fourth on the Bills last season. He picked off two passes in his rookie season.
The Eagles have been seeking a corner for weeks. They inquired about free agent relic Darrelle Revis and asked the Seahawks what it would take to get Richard Sherman.
Jalen Mills played in all 16 games as a rookie, yet has no starts. Journeyman veteran Patrick Robinson has starting experience but no confidence. Third-round pick Rasul Douglas has upside. The Eagles think Sidney Jones, their second-round choice this year, would have been a first-rounder had he not blown out an Achilles’ tendon. C.J. Smith? Please.
Jettisoning Matthews sure makes it look like Nelson Agholor has a job locked up as the slot receiver. That may not please Eagles fans who are used to the Agholor who on fourth-and-one running the jet sweep, loses one yard.
Then again, Roseman went no further than to say Agholor “had a good spring.”
Matthews was selected in the second round of the 2014 draft out of Vanderbilt. The wideout is among just five NFL players with 65 or more receptions and 800 or more receiving yards in each of their first three seasons.
“Jordan Matthews since the day we drafted him, unbelievable teammate,” Roseman said. “Unbelievable worker. Obviously incredibly productive. Historically productive in Eagles history. Hard to pull the trigger on a trade like that and you’re giving up that kind of player and person and by the same token, the draft pick is big, too.”
The addition of Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith made Matthews expendable. Last weekend Matthews ripped Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network, who speculated that Matthews had no role going forward with the Birds.
“It hurts when people you care about leave,” Roseman said. “The hardest part about this was talking to Jordan about. It never gets any easier in this business. However good he is as a player, he’s a better person. But we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do in the best interest of this team moving forward, and that’s why we made the trade.”