Adrian Fedkiw
At least Byron Maxwell didn’t need a plane ride, all he had to do was give his friend Darren Fells a call for a one-way piggyback ride to Miami.
Kiko Alonso should be happy, he can wear belly shirts year-round.
But DeMarco Murray will be lucky if he’ll be remembered in Nashville.
In a span of less than a few hours on Monday, Howie Roseman mopped up Chip Kelly’s mess from last offseason with a pair of stunning trades which sent shockwaves throughout the Delaware Valley. Maxwell and Alonso will take their “talents” to South Beach and play for the Miami Dolphins, while Murray will suit up for the Tennessee Titans this coming season.
On Wednesday, the Maxwell and Alonso trade to the Dolphins became official. Miami sent its eighth overall pick to Philadelphia for Maxwell, Alonso and its 13th overall selection. The Eagles will swap fourth-round selections with Tennessee (No. 97 and 110 overall) to complete the trade for Murray. The moves freed up about $10 million in cap space, but the Birds also ate $8.8 million in dead money. Some of that cap space has already reportedly been used on safety Rodney McLeod, guard Brandon Brooks, linebacker Nigel Bradham, quarterback Chase Daniel and cornerback Ron Brooks.
So let’s recap the moves from last offseason.
Following the Bradley Fletcher and Cary Williams debacle in the secondary, Kelly went and signed Maxwell to a six-year, $63 million contract with $25 million guaranteed. It was top five cornerback money for a player with 17 career starts, but with the Eagles desperately needing one and facing Dez Bryant, Odell Beckham and DeSean Jackson each twice a year, the move seemed necessary.
Maxwell was simply never going to live up to that contract.
Then came the Week 1 performance against the Atlanta Falcons when Julio Jones lit up the Eagles’ secondary for 141 yards and two touchdowns on nine receptions. Maxwell was targeted 11 times in that game and Atlanta receivers caught 10 passes for 179 yards. Fletcher, meanwhile, never gave up more than eight catches or over 168 yards during his time in Philadelphia.
Yikes!
Philly fans never got that bitter taste out of their mouth, especially when they caught Maxwell smiling and laughing about his unsatisfactory debut postgame. Maxwell, however, rebounded from the disastrous start and had his moments during the year. Maxwell had a 10-game stretch from Week 3-13 when he didn’t allow a touchdown. Over his last four games he had an interception, surrendered just 107 yards receiving and didn’t give up a touchdown. In weeks 6 and 8 when he squared off against Beckham and Bryant, respectively, they combined for 3 receptions and 29 yards on balls that were targeted at him. He wasn’t horrible, just not a top five, top 10 or possibly even a top 20 corner.
When Kelly traded the franchise’s leading rusher LeSean McCoy to Buffalo, he saved 15 percent or more on salary cap insurance by switching to Kiko, about $10 million to be exact. Too bad he didn’t spend it wisely. The trade for McCoy was basically for Alonso and Maxwell or Alonso and Murray depending on which way you want to look at it. With neither of the three longer on the Eagles, McCoy was basically given away for nothing.
Kelly might as well sent him away for a new smoothie machine.
As for Alonso, besides his incredible one-handed interception in the end zone during the opening week, the 2013 PFWA Rookie Of The Year provided measly production. After missing all of the 2014 campaign due to an ACL tear, Alonso suffered a knee sprain in Week 2 and never recovered. He returned following the bye in Week 9 at Dallas, but played more horizontally than downhill when making tackles and appeared hesitant when attacking and plugging holes in the run game.
It’ll be interesting to see how Alonso responds when he’ll be back to being fully healthy. Will he regain some of his rookie form or become another Stewart Bradley and always be a shell of his former self? He’ll be entering the final season of his four-year, $4.3 million rookie deal where he is slated to make just over $991,000.
After Frank Gore had second thoughts about coming to Philadelphia, Kelly went after the 2014 rushing champion Murray, who signed a five-year, $42 million deal with $21 million guaranteed. Running behind the best offensive line in the league in Dallas, Murray carried the ball a staggering 392 times for 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns during the regular season in 2014. He then added an extra 44 rushes to his heavy workload during the postseason.
The history of ball-carriers toting the rock more than 370 times in a season isn’t encouraging. History has shown that running backs with that kind of workload either get injured or suffer a serious drop-off in production the next season. Of the 29 running backs who carried the ball more than 370 times in a season (Murray included), just one ran for more yards the next year. That was Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing yards record of 2,105 in 1984. There are 13 instances where a running back saw his production drop off by more than half from the year prior.
Despite the history not being on Murray’s side, Kelly took a gamble on him anyway.
It was a disaster.
Murray ran for just 702 yards and averaged 3.6 yards per carry. By season’s end he was the fourth running back on the depth chart. He didn’t trust his vision, hesitated when hitting the hole and showed a lack of burst along the boundary on Kelly’s patented sweep play all season long. He left a lot of meat on that bone so to speak.
So Roseman just unloaded the two worst contracts on last year’s roster and a starting outside linebacker. Now he has to replace them.
That’s where things get tricky.
Roseman has always been a great negotiator and salary cap guru, but the question mark has always been his ability to evaluate talent. Following the trades, the Eagles had to fill holes at cornerback, safety, outside linebacker, running back, wide receiver, guard and possibly a tackle for the future. Hopefully the 40-year-old has learned from previous transgressions of the “Dream Team” and Kelly’s miscalculations last year. Free agency should be used to plug holes and not overspend, but the key to building elite teams has always been through the draft and using the cap space to extend homegrown talent. It’s also better to have a patient rebuild like the Sixers and Phillies than constantly be in a win-now mentality like the Flyers.
The Seattle Seahawks are the perfect example of how it’s done properly. The Washington Redskins of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and the Eagles’ “Dream Team” are the perfect examples of how it’s not done. The Oakland Raiders are another team that spends a lot of money via free agency and they haven’t made the postseason since 2002.
You don’t build contenders simply through free agency, it rarely works. Teams need to build chemistry and it’s difficult to do when you’re constantly trotting out a new squad year in and year out. Building that cohesion can take years.
Roseman has had a decent offseason so far, extending core players such as Malcolm Jenkins, Lane Johnson, Zack Ertz, Vinny Curry and Sam Bradford. Then there were the salary dumps of Maxwell and Murray, but will Roseman be able to shake off his prior track record and build the Eagles through the NFL Draft? From 2010-2014 when Roseman was the general manager, there’s only 16 of 48 picks still on Philadelphia’s roster. Sure, Kelly parted ways with some of those selections and with Andy Reid still in town from 2010-12 who knows who was calling the shots, but the selections of 26-year-old Danny Watkins and Marcus Smith in the first round were major flops. His lone successful draft came in 2012 when he selected Cox in the first round, Mychal Kendricks and Curry in the second, Nick Foles in the third and Boykin in the fourth.
That’s the type of draft Roseman needs this season.
Moving up from 13th to eighth in the first round may not seem like a huge jump, but it’s a drastic leap. According to the NFL Draft chart, the eighth pick is worth 1,400 points, while the 13th is 1,150. That 250-point discrepancy is the equivalent of a high third-round pick. That leap may also be the difference in being able to select Florida cornerback Vernon Hargreaves or tackle Ronnie Stanley of Notre Dame. Those two most likely wouldn’t be around at 13. The talent gap at tackle and cornerback after Stanley and Hargreaves is substantial.
If the Eagles decide to not go corner in the first round, how will they choose to attack that position? They locked up Leodis McKelvin for about $6 million over two years Tuesday and he’ll be in the mix as a potential starter on the outside or nickel corner. His former teammate Ron Brooks was also brought in, he got a three-year deal. Some other cheap options on the free agent market include Casey Hayward, Sterling Moore, Jeremy Lane or Patrick Robinson. Roseman, however, has had an awful history with signing and drafting cornerbacks. The list of casualties include Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Williams, Fletcher, Curtis Marsh, Trevard Lindley, Jaylen Watkins and Jordan Poyer. Boykin and Nolan Carroll were the exceptions.
The biggest need on the team is at guard and the Eagles need not one, but two. Philadelphia addressed that with the acquisition of Brandon Brooks, who received a five-year, $40 million deal according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. At 6’5, 340-plus pounds Brooks is a perfect fit for the power football head coach Doug Pederson will employ. He did receive the second largest contract for a guard in terms of average per year salary, but with the salary cap going up so do the prices of players. The other starter could be decided between either a rookie, a lower-priced free agent or one currently on the roster.
Scott Boehm/Associated Press
McLeod received a five-year, $37 million deal with $17 million guaranteed according to NFL Network. He’s the in-the-box type of safety that defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz prefers. He’s a huge hitter and has stayed healthy throughout his career, it was a solid get.
Don’t expect Philadelphia to spend a lot of money on a wide receiver. The free agency class isn’t great and you don’t want to overpay for average players like teams did last year at the safety position. Pederson also relies on his tight ends and running backs more than most teams. Doing that will mask some of the deficiencies at the position. Remember who Andy Reid trotted out at wideout his first couple seasons in Philly? Do Torrance Small, Charles Johnson, Na Brown and Dameane Douglas ring a bell?
Philly might’ve found its replacement for Alonso at strongside linebacker. The Eagles signed Bradham to a two-year deal, according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 26-year-old struggled last year in his lone season under Rex Ryan, but had the best season of his four-year career under Schwartz in 2014 when he posted 104 tackles, 2 1/2 sacks and an interception.
A lot of fans want the Eagles to draft Ezekiel Elliott in the first round to take over for Murray, I disagree. The running back position isn’t as coveted as it used to be and solid players can be found in the middle rounds. The Arizona Cardinals found a steal in David Johnson in the third round last year and the Seattle Seahawks’ Thomas Rawls was undrafted. Philadelphia has bigger needs and a capable runner in Ryan Mathews, who may have an injury history, but pairing him up with a Kenneth Dixon from Louisiana Tech for example would be a smarter option.
I was hoping the Eagles freed up the cap space so they could re-sign Cox and get it out of the way, but there’s always next year because the Eagles can franchise tag him. I preferred a rebuild instead of a retool, take your lumps for a few years, build through the draft, continually progress and extend those players when their rookie deals expire. The fans want a Super Bowl, not continuously tread water and suffer early playoff exits.
I’m hoping the flurry of signings and overspending of McLeod, Brooks and Daniel won’t be annual occurrences. Maybe this year was an exception because of how many holes needed to be filled and the coaching changes. McLeod and Brooks are also young, just 25 and 26, respectively, so that’s a big plus.
Many in the city of Brotherly Love have hopped on the Roseman bandwagon already following his offseason moves. I remain skeptical, he still has a lot to prove.
By the time I jump on, there may not be any room left.