Philly Front Office

UPDATE: In the aftermath of the move, the Eagles have come to terms with safety savior Marcus Epps and form All-Pro Special Teamer JT Gray from the Saints. Epps came in last year and stabilized the secondary after Sydney Brown injured Andrew Mukuba for the season. After that, he almost had to come back. That shouldn’t preclude the Eagles from going after a big time safety starter like Jessie Bates or Budd Baker though. As for Gray, he can also play safety, but he is a world class special teams gunner who has been named All Pro three times and as recently as 2024. Anyone who thought losing Sydney Brown for special teams purposes was a bad thing can now, respectfully, shut up. Both will probably make close to the minimum though terms have not yet been released.

The Eagles have traded Safety and local menace Sydney Brown to the Atlanta Falcons. Going to Atlanta is pick #s 122 and 215. Coming to the Eagles are pick #s 114 and 197. That means the Eagles move up 8 picks in Round 4 and 18 picks in Round 6 in exchange for Brown.

Brown was maybe the most boneheaded out of control player I have ever seen on a football field. He played like his hair was on fire all the time but almost never in a good way. He was out of position, called for penalties, and even hurt Andrew Mukuba with his recklessness this year. Every single Eagles fan at some point over the last 3 years has audibly yelled “what the hell are you doing” in his direction. I legitimately couldn’t stand him anymore even if he was a solid special teams player.

This wasn’t just a nice slide up the 4th and 6th rounds for the Eagles either. They clear $1.6m in cap space with this move. By my count, we should be around $31.5m in cap space. Not a bad day at the office for Howie Roseman.

The 39-year-old Red Rifle has been traded from Carolina to Philadelphia for a 2027 7th round pick. His salary is $3.9m, but that can be restructured down to the league minimum and change. He only started one game this year, but five back in 2024 without too much success, but isn’t incompetent either.

The obvious question is why did they make this move? And the obvious hopeful answer is because they could be making a move with current QB2 Tanner McKee. McKee is in the final year of his rookie contract and has been the topic of much of my trade speculation. We’ll have to wait and see if something happens.

Even with other moves, the top two landing spots for McKee have to be the NY Jets and Arizona Cardinals. Geno Smith and Jacoby Brissett not only aren’t good but provide no realistic upward mobility for the future. A solid 2nd round pick or good 3rd round pick is good for the Eagles while not breaking the bank for either of those teams.

The Eagles have signed Wide Receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to a 1/$6.5m contract. Brown spent the last two years with the Chiefs after being drafted by the Ravens and traded to the Cardinals. Coincidentally, the 25th overall pick in 2018 was originally owned by the Eagles before we traded up to draft (sigh) Andre Dillard. He missed most of 2024 with an injury, but played a full 2025 in a miserable season for Kansas City. Brown was still able to real in 50 balls with 5 TDS.

It is my assumption that Hollywood (we already have a Brown, so I am going with Hollywood from here on out) is here to play WR3. The Eagles have been missing a deep threat at WR3 for years and this fills a hole I have been yelling about all offseason. That being said, be prepared for nonstop bullshit that connects this signing to an AJ Brown trade. I don’t think so. Hollywood is ideally the team’s 3rd receiver due to his fantastic speed. He is 5’9 and has run 40s in the 4.2s. He is the deep threat we have been missing for a long time. The real canary in the coal mine moment for a Brown trade will be the 1st two days of the NFL Draft.

As for the cap hit, expect this deal to be a minimum salary with the other $5m coming in the form of bonuses. Essentially, that is a cap hit of $2.5m. By my math, that brings us to just under $30m left to spend.

Brown went to Oklahoma but did not overlap with Jalen Hurts at all.

Former Atlanta Falcon 2nd round pick out of Penn State (via Temple) Arnold Ebiketie goes to the Eagles on a 1/$7.3m deal. The OLB is essentially a pass rush specialist that got about 1/3 of the snaps in Atlanta. He only had 2 sacks last year, but 6 in each of 2023 and 2024. Only $4m of the deal is guaranteed which is very strange. I’m guessing this means a $4m bonus with a $1m base and $2m in incentives. That should be about $2m in cap hit. We’ll see when the details come out. Ebiketie spent 4 years at Temple before transferring to Penn State. He has only missed a single game in his professional career and that was as a rookie.

Jonathan Jones spent last year with Washington after 9 years with New England. He will be 33 to start the season and came into the league as an undrafted free agent out of Auburn. IT was a long time ago, but he ran a 4.33 40 at the combine, continuing the Eagles focus on speed in the secondary. He won 2 SBs with New England, but now comes to the team that beat him in SB52.

Eagles free agent punter Braden Mann gets a 4/$14m contract to remain in Philadelphia. It might sound like an overreaction, but thank God. Mann is a damn good punter, and basically the first good one in an Eagles uniform that I can remember. It’s a huge relief to have competence in a position, I cannot stress that enough.

We won’t know for sure until the final numbers come out, but I am going to assume that this comes with a $3m bonus. That would make this year’s cap hit less than $2m.

Last month I posited that Landon Dickerson was a sneaky release/trade candidate due to the 4/$84m contract he signed in 2024 and his poor season. Well, looks like the Eagles were thinking about this too. Jeremy Fowler is reporting that the two sides have agreed to a modified contract that will lower his 2026 salary (with bonuses) from around $19m to $15.7m with his 2027 salary staying around the same $20m. However, his 2028 salary has been lopped off instead of around $21m. Things are still early, but this should save the Eagles around $1m in cap hit for 2026.

If I am reading the tea leaves here, I am guessing Landon is probably seriously considering retirement after this year or next and is giving the Eagles the ability to June 1 cut him in the process and have an easier time doing it. There are probably other contract notes in this that make that possible. That or they were seriously considering moving him.

At the 2025 NFL Trade Deadline, the Eagles traded a 7th round pick to the Baltimore Ravens for CB Jaire Alexander. He never joined the team. Despite this, the Eagles were required to pay him and the deal was simply lost in the negativity that was the end of the season. Well, turns out Alexander was good about the whole thing and paid back the money he made. It does not always work like that.

Because of the odd circumstances of what happened, the Eagles have been given a credit of nearly $1m on this year’s salary cap. Every penny counts. Where does that leave the team? By my estimation, we started the offseason with around $9m to spend and are now at $19.5m. Here is how…

• Michael Carter’s renegotiation sheds around $8.5m
• Jordan Davis’s extension should add between $4m and $9m (depending on his signing bonus)
• Alexander adds another $1m
• Landon Dickerson’s renegotiation adds $1m
• Woolen’s new contract should have a $4m cap hit
• The TEs are negligible at the moment, as is Brandon Graham
• Resigning Dallas Goedert could add over $10m in cap space.

Lost in the news and reactions of free agency was word from Brandon Graham himself that he was coming back to play his 17th season. After retiring a Super Bowl champion in 2025, the quiet life clearly hasn’t suited BG as he not only came back to play 9 games last season, but isn’t even messing around this time. If the plan is anything like last year, it is for limited snaps anywhere on the defensive line, including DT on passing downs. He averaged 19% of the defensive snaps last year plus some special teams play.

As for his salary, no terms have been announced yet. Last year, he received a $2.4m salary that featured a $750k salary and a $1.67m bonus with all the void years. Maybe he gets a little extra this time for a full season, maybe not. Interestingly, because he did officially retire last year after June 1, BG will have a dead cap hit on the books for 2026 at $4.5m while also carrying a real cap hit from last year’s bonus and this years. I’ll wait on the calculations until we have the real info, but it should only be around $2m tops.

I’m pretty sure Brandon Graham is never leaving the Eagles one way or another and absolutely no one has a problem with that.

The Eagles have rewarded Jordan Davis for getting shape and being an all around awesome Eagle by making him the highest paid nose tackle in NFL history at 3/$78m. That is an astounding sum for the former Bulldog who came into his own this year and becoming the guy they drafted out of Georgia with the 13th overall pick in the 2022 draft. The deal has $65m in guarantees but no word what amount is signing bonus yet.

Details are still early, but considering this is a 3-year deal, it probably includes his 5th year as well, converting the $13m he was due this year into an option. You can also safely assume that the deal has 4 void years on the end. Assuming 1/3 of the deal is a signing bonus, that would mean his cap hit this year is around $9m. That’s an early assumption and will likely change by a million or so depending on the first year bonus and other details.

One thing to note is that Davis did not receive an extension last year when he was first eligible. He then got himself in great shape, did everything right, and he earned it. If Jalen Carter does not end up getting an extension this spring, it is a clear message that Carter needs to do what Davis did. That is pure speculation, and it is certainly possible Carter signs an extension this weekend too, but it is something to keep an eye on.

Tanner McKee’s name was in the mind of Jets fans yesterday as Tony Pauline passed the rumor that the Eagles backup was on their QB starved radar. One of the dads on my kid’s little league team is a Jets fan and he came up to me asking if McKee is legit. This week’s scouting combine provides just the first of many future rumors with the trade McKee conversation. It will heat up considerably as the NFL Draft approaches.

The Eagles are going to want a 2nd round pick for McKee, but will probably settle for a good 3rd and more. Honestly, this is the time to do it for both the Eagles and his next team. Why? Because the compensation is at an equilibrium for both sides to want to make a deal. Not only could the Eagles never turn down a 2nd round pick for a backup QB, but it is not too much for a team to invest in their next potential starter. This year’s draft market frankly stinks. If your team needs a QB, you are not going to do better than McKee with your 2nd round pick and still have any bit of confidence that you might be right. Russell Wilsons and Dak Prescotts happen, but there are far more Christian Hackenbergs and Kyle McCords.

A team like the Jets is in the perfect position to take McKee. They have extra picks galore and that #44 they received from Dallas for Quinnen Williams would probably work well for everyone as the first attempt at fixing their long term QB problem. I had them 4th on my list of hypothetical trade partners during this past season.

The wave of change amongst Eagles defensive assistants continued yesterday as Mike Pellegrino has been hired as the new Defensive Backs Coach. After Christian Parker was poached by the Cowboys, Joe Kasper was promoted from safeties coach to DB Coach and Defensive Pass Game Coordinator. How the titles will eventually settle is up in the air, but it seems like Kasper will be the top lieutenant in the secondary to Vic Fangio followed by Pellegrino.

Pellegrino is an interesting hire in that he has over 10 years’ experience despite being only 32. He was the Bills nickelbacks coach last year (which doesn’t sound like much of a title), but the real meat of things comes before that with the Patriots. Pellegrino was hired by Bill Belichick in 2015 as a defensive assistant before being promoted to CBs coach in 2019. Yes, this means he was on the staff that lost SB52 to the Eagles, but he did win 2 others with Beli, Brady and company. He was let go when Mike Vrabel came aboard. No, Vrabel was never a player with Pellegrino as a coach so it’s not like there was bad blood (I would assume).

Fun fact about Pellegrino is that he was an All-American in college as a lacrosse player and even went pro for Major League Lacrosse for 2 seasons before beginning his football life with the Patriots. He played high school football as a running back.

Only in Philadelphia could the succession at offensive line coach garner so much scrutiny. Following Jeff Stoutland (who followed Howard Mudd and Juan Castillo) will be Chris Kuper, former offensive line coach of the Minnesota Vikings. His contract expired at the end of the season and it was not renewed.

The Vikings ranked near the bottom of the league last year in sacks given up and that number went steadily down during Kuper’s tenure. That being said, they had a better rushing offense than the Eagles last year. Do those poor pass protection numbers have something to do with LT Christian Darrisaw missing a ton of time these past two years and Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold, and JJ McCarthy being pretty terrible decision makers? It’s possible. That being said, it doesn’t sound great, not going to lie.

Some interesting things about Kuper include working under Vic Fangio in Denver when Uncle Vic was the head coach. Kuper is from Alaska and was a former 5th round pick of the Denver Broncos out of North Dakota. He was a former pro bowler and captain with the Broncos who retired in 2014. He is 43 and has one of the biggest heads you’ve ever seen.

Mahaffey takes over the dual roles that used to belong to Jeff Stoutland and Jason Michael. Mahaffey is a 38 year old former fullback who had been coaching his way through college before catching on with the Packers in 2021. He began as an offensive quality control coach, moved to assistant offensive line coach and finally to WR coach the last 2 years where he worked hand in hand with Sean Mannion. He will be in charge of implementing new systems to the offense including BLOCKING!!! I’m not blaming Jeff Stoutland for what happened to the Eagles run game last season, but there was clearly a disconnect between personnel skillsets and their assignments. Mahaffey will need to teach the players how to actually function instead of doing what they always did and it no longer working.

The Eagles and new OC Sean Mannion continue to clean house. Despite it catching everyone by surprise, this should have been expected. The Eagles are completely revamping the offense. This time it is Jason Michael getting the axe. Michael had been with the team for 5 seasons, but his unit fell off a cliff last year and was completely unable to help free our talented RBs. This is two assistants gone in two days. Expect Scott Loeffler, Aaron Moorehead, and maybe Greg Austin to be the next ones replaced.

In what can only be seen as a shocker of a move, the Eagles are moving on from OL coach Jeff Stoutland, Dean of Stoutland University. The beloved coach was originally brought in by Chip Kelly (of all people) but stayed through the reigns of both Doug Pederson and Nick Sirianni. He has been with the team since 2013 and has been the Yoda to a ton of All-Pros like Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, and even Evan Mathis (remember him?). It was reported last week that Stoutland had lost his duties as run game coordinator mid-way through the season.

This seems like a trickle down effect of the Sean Mannion hiring. All day it was reported that the Eagles were interviewing QB coaches despite having Scott Loeffler still in the building. With Stoutland out and Loeffler possibly next, the keys to the offense are officially all in with Mannion.

Stoutland is a hero in Philadelphia, more than any position coach could possibly ever be in the city. Stoutland University is an institution that we have all been proud of for the last decade. That being said, he will be 64 years old next week. There has been no indication so far that he has been fired, so this could be simply a convenient time to hang up his clipboard. Early reports suggest that he could stick with the team in another capacity rather than join another team. Hopefully that is the case and this not a mutiny simply being put down.

The Eagles have had a hidden gem the last two years in the secondary and his name is Christian Parker. Parker was the defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator but now gets one of the big jobs in Dallas. He’ll be tasked with turning around one of the worst units in football last season (and one of the worst defenses ever by DVOA).

Parker worked as the DBs coach in Denver for a year with Vic Fangio, who then brought him to Philly in 2024 for the same role. The two have worked hand in hand on creating one of the best secondaries in the league, with CP being instrumental in the ascendence of Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Reed Blankenship. He will be missed.

As much as it stinks to lose him, especially to the Cowboys, this is nothing but the right move for him career-wise. He has been stalled out as the DB coach for the last few years and now gets to be in charge of his own unit with extra years of Vic tutelage under his belt. If he can turn the Cowboys around, he will be looking as head coach opportunities as soon as next year. Parker is only 34 years old, but waiting around for Vic to leave probably wasn’t an option. Waiting 5 more years to possibly be on the doorstep wouldn’t have been a smart move.

Of course, as a Cowboy, he is dead to us now and we have to root against him. If it doesn’t work out though, he can always come back.

Diana Russini is reporting that the Eagles have already begun their search for Kevin Pattullo’s replacement and are aiming high with Brian Daboll and Mike McDaniel.

Bot hare former coaches fired this year who are well respected as offensive minds. Daboll coached Jalen Hurts back at Alabama and then quickly rose through the ranks as Buffalo’s OC before taking the doomed NY Giants head coach job. McDaniel started his coaching career at 22 but found his groove with the 49ers first as a RB coach, then 1 year as a coordinator, before taking the Dolphins head coach job. The Dolphins always had a solid offense, but never could beat any good teams.

Whether one of these guys end up in Philly or not, we should all be happy that the team is looking for not only advanced offensive minds for the job, but guys who will not be subservient to any schemes or idea of head coach Nick Sirianni.

I’ve heard people worried that these two would both be possible 1 and done OCs if they do a good job. While that may be true, both didn’t really impress with their first foray into head coaching and could be here longer than you would think. I hope the next guy will be allowed to hire his own assistants so as to create depth at the OC position like we do on the player roster. No more being left bereft of talent and brains when a coordinator leaves.

Our long, local nightmare is over. Word had come out that offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo has been fired. This personnel move isn’t just 44 hours in the making, it is probably about 10 weeks in the making. It was very clear early on that he was not up to the task of calling plays in the NFL. I would say the offense looked like a 10 year old me playing Madden or Tecmo Bowl and just calling run right, run left, throw deep, but that would assume he called anything but running up the middle into a missed block by Cam Jurgens.

He never should have been promoted to the position in the first place, but he was the Super Bowl winning coach’s buddy and that coach needed a new contract. You have to assume that Patullo was part of the deal. He was not even close to qualified for the job (see below). You simply do not give someone who can’t drive the keys to a Ferrari or a tank, however you want to describe this team. The decision may have cost the Eagles another Super Bowl.

The search for a new OC officially begins… again. This is the 4th year in a row the team will have a new OC after Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore landed head coach jobs and Brian Johnson was kicked into the sun where he will be waiting the arrival of Patullo. The Eagles OC job will be one of the most desirable positions in the league as it is loaded with high end talent and is seen as a quick springboard to a much bigger and better job. This is not for novices.

Guys who were previous head coaches, but need to rebound will likely be considered like Mike McDaniel, Brian Daboll, and possibly Kevin Stefanski. Only candidates with the proven ability to navigate a creative offense need apply. The only question now is whether any other heads roll in his wake.

The Eagles have signed the following players to Futures Contracts:

• LB Chance Campbell
• DB Tariq Castro-Fields
• WR Danny Gray
• DT Gabe Hall
• DB Brandon Johnson
• C Jake Majors
• T Hollin Pierce
• WR Quez Watkins
• FB Carson Steele
• Andre Sam

What is a Futures Contract? This is basically the first rendition of next year’s practice squad. Technically there is no practice squad at the moment, meaning these players can still practice with the team and participate without technically being on the roster. These deals do not count against the roster or the salary cap this season, BUT the player is not free to negotiate with other teams. A player is not guaranteed a roster spot this next season or even a minimum salary, but they do get a head start on training camp.

A couple names are familiar here including Brandon Johnson who got some run at the end of the season, Hollin Pierce who is ENORMOUS, and Quez Watkins who isn’t fast, can’t catch, and may have cost us Super Bowl 57 because of it…not that anyone still remembers that.

Back on March 29th, 2024 the Eagles traded disgruntled (but awesome) pass rusher Haason Reddick to the NY Jets for a conditional 3rd round pick in 2026. If he had hit 10 sacks + 67.5% of snaps, that pick would have jumped to a 2nd. It didn’t. Still, because the Jets were absolute trash this year and hell bent on having as little talent as possible, that pick became pretty juicy. Because they 4-way-tied for the worst record in the NFL, they get a top 4 pick in each round. For the 3rd round, that happens to come at #4 or the 68th overall pick.

Reddick ended up holding out and then playing in 10 games for the Jets but only 2 starts and recorded 1 sack. At the end of the season, he was not resigned in NY and went to the Bucs for 1/$14m. It didn’t really work out there either. We will always remember Reddick for being and absolute GAME WRECKER in 2023. After that though, he wanted a raise in the final year of his 3/$45m deal he signed in 2022. Not only did the Eagles not want to give it to him, but for some reason the Jets didn’t work this out with him ahead of time before the trade leading to their short and turbulent marriage.

Since final draft orders and comp picks are not finalized until after the Super Bowl, here is a tentative list of the Eagles current selections:

• Round 1 – 23rd (hopefully 32)
• Round 2 – 54th
• Round 3 – 68 (from Jets)
• Round 3 – 98 (comp pick – Milton Williams)
• Round 4 – 122
• Round 4 – 137 (comp pick – Josh Sweat)
• Round 5 – 151 (from Falcons)
• Round 5 – 179 (comp pick – Mekhi Becton)
• Round 6 – 203

(Picks courtesy of Tankathon)

Disclaimer: this is not a rumor, just rampant speculation by the fan base that should be addressed. Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby is apparently very unhappy with his team. Even though he is ready to play, the Raiders are sitting him for the final two games of the season, which he is vehemently against. It’s a problem. Rumors of a possible trade will be rampant leading up to next season.

Even though Crosby signed a big extension in the offseason, that will not preclude a trade even a little bit. In fact, based on it’s low signing bonus and big season salaries, it was essentially drafted in order to be moved. An acquiring team would be on the hook for his $30m salary in 2026 plus a little under $1m in bonus. In 2027, it’s $29m and less than $1m. 2028 and 2029 are $26.5m and $27.5m respectively, but are not guaranteed. For the Raiders, they would only have $5m in dead cap. He’s as good as gone.

The Eagles are always looking to make trades and have a regular “want” rather than “need” with the pass rush so we will be linked. If Myles Garrett cost 3 firsts and Micah Parsons was 2, expect the 29 year old (next year) to be right around Parsons. If I’m the Raiders, I’m asking for Nolan Smith too. As for his contract, the Eagles would need to initially fit his $30m, but could then either redo his contract completely to add void years or simply restructure it for more room.

There was hope all week that Lane Johnson would practice and a slimmer, but real chance that Jalen Carter would be right behind him. It didn’t happen for either. Johnson is still nursing a Lisfranc sprain while Carter had a “procedure” done on both shoulders. We don’t know exactly what that procedure was, but the rumor is that he went through PRP injections to improve healing in the area which has bothered him all year. Johnson has missed the last 4 weeks while Carter has been out the last two (and a feast of bad offensive linemen). The goal is for both to come back next week for the trip up to Buffalo.

For anyone clamoring for both to return, I get it. We are notoriously bad without Lane in the lineup and Carter is simply a force of nature. The team hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire without them. With our Magic Number down to 1 with 3 games to go, there is simply no reason to rush either of them. We are virtually locked into the 3 seed and playing both against a bad (and dirty) Washington team is not necessary. Ideally, both play against the Bills then take the final week of the season off so they are rested and ready for the playoffs.

I started with the Phillies News and Rumors page for the offseason and it has gone pretty well. I want these to be easily accessible and updateable spots for talking about more minor transactions and newsworthy rumors when a full article would either be premature or simply make the homepage more crowded. Going live for the Sixers and Flyers too.