Quest to get younger off to creaky start
Quest to get young off to a creaky start in free agency
The Eagles wanted to get younger. That was the priority going into this offseason. Just to confirm that, we went back to the sound bite.
“We need to infuse youth into this team,” general manager Howie Roseman said after the worst Eagles’ season in eight years.
Well, the old guys are still around. With the new league calendar year to begin Wednesday, the Eagles still have 10 starters age 30 or older on the roster, a chunk of them restructuring their contracts to stick around while others like Alshon Jeffery and Zach Ertz bide their time before the other shoe drops on their time in Philadelphia.
The big Eagles’ news on the first day of negotiations before free agency explodes Wednesday? Defensive end Brandon Graham, who turns 33 next month, agreed to a modest one-year contract extension. Coming off his first Pro Bowl, he deserved something.
Meanwhile two young, reasonably priced guys that should have been retained became former Eagles.
Defensive backs Jalen Mills and Rudy Ford, both 26, agreed to terms with the New England Patriots and Jacksonville
Jaguars, respectively.
Mills is in line for a four-year, $24 million deal with $9 million guaranteed. Ford gets a two-year, $4.2 million deal.
The Eagles could have kept both with the money they gave Graham had they not mismanaged the salary cap.
The Eagles can lose without them, for sure, but it certainly calls into question the execution of their master plan to “infuse youth into the team.” Unless, that is, it’s a two- or three-year plan.
The Eagles put themselves in salary cap hell with their trade of Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts for peanuts on