ThePhillySportsBlog

The NFL’s “legal tampering” period begins on Monday, March 9^th at noon.  Teams can talk to free agents but can’t sign anyone until free agency officially starts at 4 pm on Wednesday, March 11^th.  Yet somehow a bunch of deals will be finalized at 4:01.  How strange that teams and agents are always able to finalize complex contracts within seconds when free agency opens each year.  I kid because it’s such a joke.

Deals will be leaked during those two days and then a flurry of deals will become official on Wednesday.  With that in mind, let’s look at what the Philadelphia Eagles might do.

We need to start with the fact that the Eagles just signed DT Jordan Davis to a new 3-year $78 million deal, with $65 million guaranteed.  That makes him the highest paid nose tackle in the NFL.  Let’s just hope he doesn’t get fat again after he finally got into shape last season in a contract year. 

With the Eagles only having roughly $12.5 million in cap space before this deal, I’m sure Eagles GM Howie Roseman will now be able to reduce Davis’s cap hit for 2026 by converting the 5^th year option deal he was going to play under for $12.938 million from a base salary for the full amount to bonus money that will be spread out throughout the new deal.

The Eagles are also sure to part ways with CB Michael Carter II, who never played after the Eagles acquired him in a trade with the Jets last season.  They can save $8.736 million in cap space and only have a dead money charge of $1.384 million in 2026 by cutting Carter.

Roseman will surely try to rework other deals to try to save some money under the 2026 cap, but that’s not as easy as it used to be.  Roseman has always been good at manipulating the salary cap, but his tricks aren’t working as well any longer.

Last offseason, the Eagles had to let far too many starters leave in free agency because all the money Howie always pushes into future years with voidable dummy years in contracts finally caught up with him.  This year the Eagles are in the same situation.  Did you know that Dallas Goedert is going to cost the Eagles $20 million in a dead cap hit on the 2026 cap?  Blame those voidable dummy years that Howie loves so much. 

So, what can the Eagles actually do in free agency?

There have been enough rumors about the Eagles making Jaelen Phillips their No. 1 priority in free agency that I fully expect the team to announce on Wednesday that he is returning to Philly.  I’m just not so sure that’s a good thing.

Phillips did play well for the Eagles, after they acquired him for a 2026 3^rd round pick at the trade deadline last season.  While he only had 2 sacks in 8 games for the Eagles, he did have 28 tackles, applied plenty of pressure on the QB and played the run well.  He was also good in the locker room and fit well in Vick Fangio’s scheme. 

The issue with Phillips is that he’s always hurt.  Phillips recorded 15 ½ sacks in his first two seasons, after the Dolphins drafted him in the first round, but he has only had 12 ½ sacks in the last three seasons, due to injuries.  Although Phillips played 17 games in 2025 for the Dolphins and Eagles, he only played 8 games in 2023 due to an Achilles injury and 4 games in 2024 due to an ACL injury.

Is it really a good idea to give this guy $20-$25 million a year on a long-term contract?  I’m not so sure.  I certainly wouldn’t be upset if they brought him back, but that’s mostly because they are desperate.  I like Jalyx Hunt, but Nolan Smith is a bust.  Smith’s career has had more injuries than sacks.  Other than a nice finish to the 2024 regular season and playoff run to the Super Bowl, Smith hasn’t produced much after being a first-round pick.

But with the need to sign other young defensive stars like Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean to extensions in the next few years, maybe the Eagles can’t pay what it will cost to resign Phillips.

An alternative?  How about another former Fangio player, Bradley Chubb.

Sure, Chubb also had an ACL injury that cost him the entire 2024 season, but he played full seasons in 2022, 2023 and 2025.  He’ll also come with a much cheaper price tag as an edge rusher who will produce basically the same as Phillips.

Forget about Nakobe Dean.  The NFL has this thing called a salary cap and the Eagles can’t pay another LB after they gave Zack Baun a big contract last offseason.  Plus, the Eagles smartly drafted Dean’s cheaper replacement in Jihaad Campbell.

The second CB spot?  I hate to tell you all this, but it might just be another year of Adore Jackson.  He played much better as the year went on and he won’t break the bank.  Again, salary cap.

Personally, I think they need to keep Reed Blankenship, but if some other team gives him a big offer, the Eagles can’t afford to match it.  Drew Makuba and another season of Marcus Epps?  That’s not great, but Sydney Brown showed he isn’t anything more than a special teamer.

On offense everything depends on whether or not they trade AJ Brown.  I say get rid of him now for whatever you can get before he starts with his passive-aggressive bull again.  He’s declining as a player and after he quit in the playoff loss to the 49ers, the Eagles don’t need any more of his selfish vibes on the team.  Draft a WR and sign a second-tier free agent to play opposite DeVonta Smith.  They’ll be just fine considering this team needs to run the ball for this offense to even look average.

Speaking of which, the RBs and O-line are basically set now that Lane Johnson is coming back.  I do worry about Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens though.  Dickerson was a medical reject when they drafted him, so him making it this long is a win.  But the stories I’m reading about Jurgens traveling to South America for a “health reset”, stem-cell treatment have me very worried.  Are we talking about a Voodoo doctor here, Cam?  In any event, they really need to re-sign Brett Toth now.

There will most likely be all new TE faces on the team next season.  Goedert is going to get more money than the Eagles are willing to pay him, so what are the options?  Isaiah Likely or Chig Okonkwo?  OK, I guess.  But my preference would be to sign David Njoku from Cleveland and draft a TE.  Sorry, but after his combine performance, Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq won’t be there when the Eagles pick at No. 23, and I don’t see Howie trading up for a TE. But they definitely need a TE who can block in the new offense Sean Mannion is going to install. 

And I’m actually going to talk about the special teams too.  Jake Elliott only connected on 74% of his field goal attempts last season, which is well below league average.  The problem is that cutting Elliott would incur a $6.469 million dead cap hit.  Still, they need to find a better kicker.  As for punter Braden Mann, they need to pay the mann, I mean man. 

There is a certain amount of turnover on every roster in the NFL every season. 

I don’t want Eagles fans to get their hopes up, because I just don’t see any flashy signings coming.  The Eagles are up against the salary cap and simply don’t have several declining veterans to cut to free up enough cap space to sign a big-ticket free agent. 

They’ll add some second and third tier free agents after the big signings happen in the first few days.  Depth signings and/or guys to compete for the second safety and CB jobs, plus a TE.  I’ll assume they keep Jaelen Phillips since there seems to be too much chatter about that for it not to be true. 

Will that be enough?  We won’t know until they start playing the games. But we also have the draft to look forward to, so there is some hope.