[UPDATED: The numbers for a possible Cam Jurgens cut have been added]
The Eagles have been eliminated. There’s plenty of anger to go around, but I think if many of us are being honest with ourselves, there is a lot of relief too. This season was a slog. Whether you were on Team WHAT THE FUCK or Team CALM THE FUCK DOWN, there was bad energy all season. It’s over. Time to move on.
I am going to have a lot of off-season planning articles coming up, but I want to start with who is on the bubble of the Stay/Go line. For some there is no debate. Kevin Patullo needs to be fired into the sun immediately. He never should have been promoted in the first place and was the primary reason the offense was a grind on every play. That’s already too much ink. Let’s get to it…1
Jake Elliot
I’m not blaming the kicker for losing yesterday, but after the offense immediately answered the SF opening salvo Elliot hit us with some friendly fire. I don’t know what happened to him, but in a season where kickers were bombing away from 60+ yards with accuracy Jake went the other way. At the very least, he is no longer a positive. At worst, you can’t depend on him and need to bring in at least a competitor for the position this summer. The problem is that he will cost $2m more to cut than use ($7m vs $5m). And that’s for a post-June 1 cut. A straight cut in $11m!!! He is likely coming back regardless.
AJ Brown
Was he right all year? Yes, yes he was. We thought he was being unhelpful, but he really just felt the same way we all did with the offense. That being said, he also had effort issues and dropped 3 game changing balls against SF. I can understand the effort when you know you are being set up to fail, but the drops were killers. I’m not writing to say I want him to leave, but I wouldn’t be surprised or upset if he did.
Is it even possible? Yes, but it isn’t a great move cap wise. The Eagles would lower their cap hit from $23m to $16m this season, but would be hit with an albatross $27m cap hit in 2027, right when they would need the cap space for other guys. Is that tenable? I don’t know. Another team would really need to make it worth the Eagles while.
Reed Blankenship
Reed is entering free agency this offseason. Despite rumors that an extension was in the works, it never happened. For much of the season it looked like the Eagles would not be able to afford him…then yesterday happened. Yikes. Still, he is going to be looking for around $15m per year in a new contract. The Eagles are not going to pay that. What else can they do though? Andrew Mukuba was steadily improving as the year went on, but are they willing to have him be the top safety next year? This might be the biggest under the radar position problem on the roster.
Nakobe Dean
In his first game back from injury, you didn’t hear Dean’s name much yesterday. He still had an amazing season though and ascended to the same dominance in the pros that he showed back in college. The problem is that he is a free agent and the Eagles are kind of stacked at LB. Are they really going to give Dean around $15m per season when they already have Zack Baun and rookie Jihaad Campbell? Campbell showed a ton of promise then was basically relegated to mop up duty when Dean came back from injury. Wasting a first round pick is bad business. Throw in Dean’s injury history and it is a tough sell to bring him back even if he was basically the captain of the D.
Dallas Goedert
Goedert will be 31 and a free agent in 2026, but his replacement is not on the roster. He already took a team friendly deal this past year and probably wants more stability in a new contract than the team wants to give him. How long can the Eagles put off drafting his replacement? I would like to see him back on a 2/$20m deal, but I don’t think he’d go for it.
Cam Jurgens/Landon Dickerson/Tyler Steen
What the hell happened to the interior offensive line this season? The Eagles continued to try to run up the middle only to see Saquon Barkley get hit in the backfield damn near every time. Jurgens especially was a turnstile. One of these guys is going to be gone this offseason due to the presence of Willie Lampkin, the injured center the Eagles stole from the Rams. Who does he replace though?
Steen is the easy one to move back to a backup role since he is still on his rookie scale contract. Jurgens just signed a 4/$68m contract making him one of the top paid centers in the league. In a perfect world, he would be the one to go, but that isn’t happening. Then there is Dickerson who still has quite a bit of meat left on the bone of his 4/$84m extension from 2024. Trading him post-June 1 would mean only a $5m cap hit in 2026 (from $10m), but $12m in 2027. Giving up on a former Pro-Bowl level talent (and certified DUDE) at age 27 isn’t desirable but far from impossible. You just have to hope that Jurgens and Dickerson were simply hurt most of the year and offseason surgeries can get them back to where they were.
A post June 1 trade for Cam Jurgens would be an easy move for the Eagles. He would only have a less than $2m dead cap this year and $5.5m next year. The problem would be anyone taking him. If his back never improved this season, what’s to say he has any value around the league? Cutting him would be a tough sell. WannabGM reminded me that nearly $15m of Cam’s 2027 salary guarantees on the 3rd day of the 2026 league year (mid March). This makes cutting him in any way very difficult. A post-June 1 cut (our usual recourse) would mean that 2027 money accelerates to the next season ballooning to nearly $15m in dead cap in 2026 and $20m in dead cap in 2027. That can’t happen. A regular cut, before that salary guarantees, means nothing owed in 2027, but the 2026 bill is $20m. If cutting him happens, this is the only way. Needless to say, they better get his back right.
Nick Sirianni
The most polarizing guy on the list. On the one hand he clearly gets the team motivated, wins games, and won a championship. He is a leader and more fit to be a head coach rather than a coordinator. On the other hand, his personnel decisions in 2023 and 2025 may have cost us 2 championships. He has no specialty and is not a football genius in any sense of the word. When those 2 seasons were unraveling (especially in 2023), he had no answers.
I think he stays. Not only did he sign a fat new contract after the Super Bowl, but the Eagles stuck with him in a much worse situation before. Nick falls in line when Howie and Lurie tell him what’s what. Nick may have hired his friend Kevin Patullo, but he will have no problem firing him. That is what Doug Pederson wouldn’t do after his previous Super Bowl win.
Personally, I could go either way.
- Jalen Hurts is staying, don’t listen to anyone saying otherwise. ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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