Nick Piccone
According to Derrick Gunn on CSN’s Quick Slants last night, a little nugget of interesting information was shared with the viewing audience. Apparently due to the fact about 10 teams lined up for Trent Cole’s services right after the Eagles released him, Chip Kelly wanted to re-sign Cole thinking that he made a mistake. He didn’t get him back.
Here’s what Gunn said:
Rhea Hughes: “Out of all those moves, are there any that Chip may end up regretting?”
Gunn: “I may shock you a little bit, Rhea. I’m gonna say letting Trent Cole walk. Now, I understand that Trent Cole was approaching 33, which he will be in October. But Trent Cole was still a very productive player. You asked him to move from a down position to the outside linebacker. [It] took him a while to get adjusted, but he flourished. You can’t question his durability, Rhea, over the past several years in particular, because last year alone, he broke his hand in December. Four days after surgery he comes back and plays the season finale. And now, you just let him walk, and when the Eagles decided to let him walk, within the span of 24 hours, Trent Cole had over 10 teams that were already knocking at his door about the possibility of getting him there and it’s funny because from what I’m told the Eagles felt, well, maybe we need to re-evaluate the situation. They tried to get Trent to reconsider to come back here. Trent was so ticked off at that point about being released, he said, ‘Not gonna happen.'”
Even with Brandon Graham assuming Cole’s role after a good 2014 season, there’s a question mark regarding him being a first-year starter. Cole would have been insurance for Graham, but he wanted no parts of Philly after he was released. I’m not sure how much it matters, though, because the Eagles defense is infinitely better and Cole wasn’t exactly a superstar.