We are 2 weeks away from training camp and about 8 weeks from the regular season. It’s time to take a look at what the Eagles did on their spring vacation and see how the Super Bowl Champions look on their quest to repeat. I wanted to do this as one big article, but damn football is complicated. The series will run in parts all week addressing:
First thing’s first, do NOT listen to the national media when it comes to the Eagles. Talking heads are the lowest common denominator and spoon feed “takes” to the masses in easily digestible form. Josh Sweat, Milton Williams, Darius Slay, and Mekhi Becton all left and the sky fell apparently. They only see them in terms of the contracts they signed and the starters we lost. Since no replacements were signed, we must have gaping holes, right? That could not be further from the truth.
Overview
Out: Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, Mekhi Becton, Darius Slay, Kenny Gainwell, Isaiah Rodgers, Oren Burks, James Bradberry, Britain Covey, and Rick Lovato (and Brandon Graham, retired)
In: Azeez Ojulari, Josh Uche, AJ Dillon, Adoree Jackson, Avery Williams, Patrick Johnson, Harrison Bryant, and Kylen Granson, and Charley Hughlett,
DT2: Milton Williams -> Moro Ojomo
Milton Williams signed a gargantuan deal with the Patriots, 4/$104m. I hope he sends Jalen Carter flowers every single day. Williams is a good player, no doubt, but he is now inexplicably the 3rd highest paid DT in the league! That’s crazy. Anyone lined up next to Jalen Carter is going to get the benefit of not just single coverage, but the lesser of the interior protectors. It will always be a 1-on-1 inferior matchup.
So how do you replace the “3rd highest paid DT” in the league? By promoting his backup, Moro Ojomo, of course. Ojomo was the Eagles big secret last year and still isn’t known in most national circles. That is going to change. He played in about 1/3 of snaps last year, mostly in passing downs, the equal but opposite of Jordan Davis taking running downs. In those opportunities he had the 3rd highest pass rush win rate in the entire league! Essentially, Jalen Carter played every down while Davis would take first down and short yardage and Ojomo would take 3rd down and long 2nds. Williams played a little bit of everything. Now, Ojomo will take that Williams all-purpose position and the Vanilla Gorilla, Ty Robinson, will be getting the old Ojomo snaps. We will be just fine.
Some notes for the skeptical:
- Milton Williams only played about 50% of snaps last year
- PFF gave Ojomo the 5th best pass rush grade among DTs last year and was rated 39th overall out of 219. Williams was 2nd and 31st.
- The DT rotation is now Carter, Davis, Ojomo, Robinson, and Thomas Booker
EDGE2+3: Josh Sweat + Brandon Graham -> Jalyx Hunt + Azeez Ojulari + Josh Uche
There is a lot of revisionist history out there for Josh Sweat following the Super Bowl. He spent the year as he usually does, collecting his 5-10 sacks but nothing that garners Pro Bowl attention. He was shutout in the first 3 rounds of the playoffs before snagging 2.5 sacks in the Super Bowl on what turned out to be weak/blown protections. Don’t forget that he was almost cut to start the season. This was enough to fool Arizona, but not Howie Roseman. He pays great players, not good ones.
Brandon Graham was having a great season before tearing his triceps but it isn’t like the defense fell off at all without him. His production will still be missed, but his leadership will not be. HE ISN”T GOING AWAY. Of all the favorite Eagles over the years, BG bleeds green more than anyone (and I don’t think it’s close). Jason Kelce hung around the team this year as did Fletcher Cox, but it seems like BG is going to continue to be very active. He is still at the complex, still doing interviews, and still rehabbing with the team. Expect him to be named a special assistant at some point.
In last year’s draft, the Eagles selected Jalyx Hunt out of Houston Christian. He started as a safety at Cornell before moving gradually closer to the line of scrimmage and breaking out. When he was selected in the 3rd round, he immediately received attention for not only having a cool name but being the buzzworthy prospect that everyone wanted in the 4th or 5th round. Howie pulled the trigger early. As a raw prospect, he was not supposed to get playing time. However, once Brandon Graham went down, Hunt was getting about 50% of the defensive snaps and this continued into the playoffs. Despite only playing about half the season, Hunt graded out in the top 40% of all EDGE players by PFF. He is poised to breakout this season.
The Eagles picked up pass rushers Josh Uche and Azeez Ojulari for small deals this offseason and both have serious upside as pass rushers. Uche picked up 11.5 sacks with the Patriots in 2022 but hasn’t matched that since. Ojulari had 22 sacks in 4 years with the Giants and was expecting a much better market despite injury history. On average, Ojulari has produced at a higher level than Josh Sweat for their careers. It is not crazy for these two to combine for over double-digit sacks as the 3rd and 4th pass rushers.
Finally, I don’t want to get too into it now, but Jihaad Campbell is going to see a lot of time at EDGE and Nolan Smith is going to be an enormous problem for teams on the other side.
CB2: Darius Slay -> Kelee Ringo
Admittedly, this is the position I am most worried about. Darius Slay was a post June 1 cut and signed with Pittsburgh. Though we would have liked him to return to solidify the CB2 position or at least turn the job over to Isaiah Rodgers, both are now with other teams. The plan is to keep Cooper DeJean on the field at all times, but in the slot for 3 WR sets. This means the CB2 position will be handed over to Kelee Ringo.
Slay was not dominant last year, but still very solid in coverage with Quinyon Mitchell blanketing WR1s on the other side. This is what we need from Ringo, just solid coverage. Thankfully he has the tools to do it. Ringo is very tall for a CB (6’2″) and very fast (4.36). He is now entering his 3rd season in the league but still has not received many opportunities to prove himself. PFF graded him similar to Slay when he did get on the field. Shockingly, he is almost a full year younger than Mitchell despite being in the league a year longer.
RG: Mekhi Becton -> Tyler Steen
There is only one starter on offense not coming back next season, Mekhi Becton. Becton thrived last year under Jeff Stoutland and cashed in with the Chargers (albeit for less than expected for comp pick purposes). The Eagles were not prepared to pay a 5th offensive lineman and Becton was allowed to walk. That’s fine. With Stoutland in place and All-Pros everywhere, the Eagles are always going to treat this position as an incubator for compensatory picks.
Vying for his starting position are Tyler Steen and Kenyon Green. Steen would have been the starter last year had he not been hurt in the preseason. Green is a former 1st round pick who never seemed to know what to do in Houston. Despite his 3 years in the league, he is still considered a ball of clay for Jeff Stoutland to mold.
RB2: Kenny Gainwell -> Will Shipley + AJ Dillon
Kenny G may have had the best name for a running back in NFL history1 and he always seemed to give us what we needed when we needed it. Was he irreplicable? Absolutely not. Will Shipley will step in to be the primary backup to Saquon and shouldn’t miss a beat as the pass catching 3rd down back that can occasionally break a defense. If it is a good idea to only pay elite running backs, then it goes to show that you should never pay a backup. This spot is up for another draft pick next season.
AJ “Quadzilla” Dillon was almost a thing in Green Bay for a couple years, but suffered a neck injury that derailed everything. Now fully healed, he will be the short yardage fullback-adjacent position utilized to not get Saquon hurt and for the Tush Push.
Other Backups: Oren Burks and Isaiah Rodgers
The Eagles went from never having adequate linebackers to having maybe the best unit in the league. We all know about Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean, but throw Jihaad Campbell into the mix and now we have 3 Pro Bowl level linebackers. The Oren Burks backup role is going to be manned by Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
Personally, I was hoping for Rodgers to be our new CB2, but he was allowed to walk because the Eagles believe in Ringo. So, who does that leave as the primary backup? There are 3 candidates for the job: Adoree Jackson, Eli Ricks, and Mac McWilliams. While Jackson is a veteran pickup with starter experience,2 his role is that of a professional backstop for the position. It will be Ricks and especially McWilliams that are going to get every opportunity to see the field. Their youth could provide high level and cheap upside.
Returner
Last year, the Eagles used Cooper DeJean and Kenny Gainwell as the primary kick and punt returners after Britain Covey went down. I don’t think anyone wants to see Cooper back there possibly getting decapitated ever again. Enter Avery Williams. The specialist averaged 9.3 yards per punt return and 27.2 yards per kick return last season for the Falcons. This is comparable to Covey’s best, but coming off an injury the Eagles decided to go another way.
Long Snapper
If you ever notice a long snapper, it’s a bad thing. That was Rick Lovato last season. He was noticeably bad last year (TWO FALSE STARTS IN THE SUPER BOWL WTF) and the Eagles figured they could not just let that go unfixed. After about 10 years, Lovato is gone and in is Charley Hughlett, the longtime Browns long snapper. Both are around the same age, but Hughlett offers something new to a position that cannot afford to have any mistakes.
Other Pickups:
- Harrison Bryant and Kylen Granson – TE – Both are 27-year-old former 4th round picks that profile as solid backup tight ends, not unlike incumbent Grant Calcaterra. It seems we have 3 bodies for the backup tight end spot, making it the biggest battle of training camp. You have to assume the plan is for 2 of the 3 to make the team and the other make the practice squad.
- Patrick Johnson – EDGE – The prodigal rusher has returned. He is now 27 and, after a year with the Giants, is back in midnight green. The Eagles wanted to keep him last year but got a little too cute trying to stash him on the practice squad. You can never have too many edge rushers, but he is going to try to outplay Uche and Ojulari for some regular playing time.
Compensatory Picks
Comp picks do not get finalized until after the season, but for the most part the league awards teams draft picks based on how big the contracts were for free agents lost. As long as they were not cancelled out by similar contracts being signed by the team, they get picks commensurate with the size of the contract. Because some former Eagles got PAID this year, we are expected to clean up in terms of comp picks.
At the bottom of the list, the loss of Isaiah Rodgers was cancelled out by the signing of Azeez Ojulari. Other than that, no Eagles signings counted toward the comp pick formula.
- Milton Williams: 3rd round pick
- Josh Sweat: 4th round pick
- Mekhi Becton: 5th round pick
I expected Becton to get much more nabbing a 4th rounder, but his market was not as robust as originally thought. Still, 3 mid-round comp picks is pretty nice.
That’s how free agency unfolded. Stay tuned tomorrow for a recap of Eagles Trades
- A fast RB named Gail Sayers is pretty awesome though ↩︎
- Quick tangent. Jackson was let go by the team that drafted him after their efforts to trade him, instead of paying him his 5th year option, failed. Instead of trading a 7th round pick for him to get him at that price, the Giants signed him toa 3/$39m contract that paid him even more money on a similar cap hit. Just more brilliant work by the G-Men. ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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