Eagles lose 3 defensive players on first day of free agency

The Philadelphia Eagles, at the time of writing, still haven’t made a single move in free agency. In fact, the only activity so far has been players leaving the building — including a few the team had every intention of bringing back.

First came Jaelan Phillips, who signed with the Carolina Panthers on a four-year, $120 million deal. The Eagles were reportedly willing to offer something in the $20–25 million per year range, but Carolina pushed the number to $30 million annually. At that price, it seems pretty clear Philly wasn’t interested in matching.

Then the afternoon brought two more departures. Nakobe Dean landed with the Las Vegas Raiders on a three-year, $36 million contract, while Reed Blankenship signed with the Houston Texans for three years and $24.75 million.

Where the Eagles go from here

While each of these players are solid contributors, none of them are truly back-breaking losses. And if we’re being honest, it feels like Howie Roseman was perfectly comfortable letting all three walk if the price tags climbed high enough.

Jaelan Phillips played well during his short stint in Philly, but Carolina clearly overpaid. He’s simply not a $30 million-per-year player, especially when the Eagles have a massive extension looming for Jalen Carter in the near future. As for Reed Blankenship, he was a captain last season and performed well, but at the end of the day he’s still a replaceable safety.

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The toughest loss might be Nakobe Dean, but even that one isn’t as dire as it sounds. The Eagles already drafted his likely replacement in Jihaad Campbell, who many expected to see a larger role sooner rather than later.

Roseman has been pretty transparent about the Eagles’ plan this offseason: keep the core homegrown talent in the building and prioritize extensions for players already on the roster. Jordan Davis already got paid, and Carter is next in line. Letting three defensive starters walk obviously wasn’t ideal, but it also wasn’t entirely unexpected. By most reports, the Eagles would have liked to keep at least one of them — the market simply got too aggressive.

Fans are understandably getting restless waiting for the Eagles to make a move, and that’s fair. But this front office hasn’t exactly been big-game hunting in free agency for a while now. Their approach has shifted heavily toward building through the draft, which just so happens to be where Roseman does his best work.

There are still a few players the Eagles could try to keep around, with Dallas Goedert being the most notable name. It will be interesting to see if losing three defensive starters changes the team’s thinking at all when it comes to his future.

But if history tells us anything, the Eagles aren’t panicking. This is the quiet part of Roseman’s offseason — the calm before he starts loading up for the draft, where he tends to do his real damage.