Adrian Fedkiw
Doug Pederson isn’t messing around, not even waiting until the final cuts to dispatch a pair of disappointing free-agent acquisitions at wide receiver.
Chris Givens and Rueben Randle were two of the notable releases among the 10 Philadelphia Eagles roster moves made on Sunday afternoon.
More on the #Eagles roster moves to get to the 75-player limit ahead of Tuesday’s deadline: https://t.co/30loIAIJME pic.twitter.com/aVKLbY1lX3
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 28, 2016
The Eagles released eight players and placed a pair on injured reserve. The roster stands at 73 players, which is below the 75-man limit that’s required by August 30th.
Defensive tackle Mike Martin was the biggest surprise to me, but back to him later.
Randle and Givens were handed one-year, prove-it deals by Eagles vice president of football operations Howie Roseman during the offseason, but both floundered.
Josh Huff saved his job with his performance last night against the Indianapolis Colts. With the Eagles most likely keeping five wide receivers, that final roster spot was going to be fought between Randle, Givens and undrafted rookie Paul Turner. Despite Nelson Agholor’s woeful Training Camp and preseason, I didn’t envision the Eagles to part ways with last year’s first-round pick this quickly.
Seniority usually rules in the NFL and Turner was undrafted. I give the head coach Pederson a lot of credit for taking a bold stance, going against the grain and keeping the youthful Turner around while already parting ways with Randle and Givens. Turner has hauled in 11 passes for 99 yards over the first three preseason games, which has been more than the total production of Givens and Randle combined. Randle caught five balls for 26 yards, while Givens made just one reception for 19 yards.
Givens has shown nothing since his rookie season and is a one-trick pony; he runs fast. With Lane Johnson being out – most likely – until Week 10, we’re going to see a lot of quick, three-step drops from Sam Bradford to hide the pass blocking deficiencies of the offensive line. By the way, that line held up nicely last night against the Indianapolis Colts. For Givens to get deep, Bradford would obviously need to take deeper drops for Givens’ routes to materialize.
And speaking of vertical threats, Dorial Green-Beckham is a better one anyway.
The Randle release surprises me a lot more, despite the limited production we’ve seen during the summer. Randle doesn’t drop a lot of passes, just three last year and four the season prior, but it’s his inconsistency which made the Giants and now Eagles feel like he was expendable. Randle has put up numbers in the past, something that Givens really hasn’t besides his rookie season.
Turner deserves to make this team. Of course, we can’t get too jumpy just yet because the Eagles can still look outside the organization to add depth to the wide receiving core, whether via trade or signing a player who was released by another team. We saw this last year when the Eagles cut Tim Tebow and Matt Barkley before signing Stephen Morris as the third-string quarterback.
The Martin cut surprises me because he has experience in Jim Schwartz’s scheme and has proven himself in the past to be a solid player. The Eagles are loaded at defensive tackle, however. Offensive lineman Andrew Gardner and cornerback Randall Evans were also notable cuts. Gardner was the starter at right guard last year.