Inside The Birds: Holes Left On Birds Roster, How To Fill Them

With the free agent market beginning to take shape, the Eagles are still in search of veterans to fill holes on both sides of the ball.

In the latest Inside The Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discuss new and potential personnel additions and if they into the team’s new scheme. They also clear the air on the Joe Flacco signing.

Does Genard Avery have an ideal fit in Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s new scheme?

Joe Flacco

Adam Caplan: “First of all, people are complaining he’s getting paid too much money. I don’t know what planet some people are on, it’s people who don’t really follow contracts. First of all, had they signed him last week, it would have cost them more. The first week, you always pay more money; it would have been at least $5 million. The Eagles and other teams, I’m told, slow-played it. They we’re looking at other quarterbacks other than Flacco, but as we detailed last spring the Eagles were in on Flacco pretty strong but the neck surgery kind of knocked things out and then Doug Pederson foolishly told Nate Sudfled he’d be the 2 – I don’t understand why he did that, it’s ridiculous. To move this forward here, the contract incentives are a little bit bigger than first thought but it’s not a big deal. So it’s one year, only one-year commitment, the total is $7.75 million, only $3.5 million is fully guaranteed, that’s the cash. The rest of it is $4.25 million in incentives. What is the big deal?”

Mosher: “I tweeted that I still would not be surprised if the Eagles use a late pick on a quarterback because almost every single team I’ve ever known has three quarterbacks. You usually have your starter, your backup and a young, developmental guy, plus the Eagles have been drafting developmental quarterbacks for quite a while. I mean, just two years ago they drafted Clayton Thorson and it didn’t work out, but that’s what they’ve done so you would think that a new coaching staff here that only has a little bit to evaluate on Jalen Hurts and really only has a veteran backup and Flacco might look to the fifth, sixth or seventh round for a young developmental quarterback.”

Caplan: “Ask Mike Shanahan, when he drafted Kirk Cousins the fourth round. Ron Wolf took Matt Hasselbeck in the sixth round. In fact, Ron Wolf, I remember the former Packers GM said if he didn’t do it every year, he drafted a quarterback every other year; he just believed in it. It’s just like pitching in baseball. You cannot have enough good ones.”

Needs

Mosher: “Let’s talk about some of the team needs that are still out there. You and I are pretty adamant about this that the Eagles are still going to do things, but that, as you have mentioned many times, free agency just doesn’t end after a week or two. It goes on until April, May, June, camp, you can make trades in camp like Ronald Darby, right? You can sign somebody in May, like LeGarrette Blount did. There’s plenty.” So, what are the top needs right now? They got their backup quarterback, what do you see?”

Caplan: “I would say No. 2 running back for sure, wide receivers. I would still like to see a veteran, I still think by training camp, they’re going to have one. I couldn’t tell you who it is, it’s not a necessity right now but really for the locker room you’d like someone like that.”

Mosher: “You said receivers, like multiple?”

Caplan: “Obviously, they need a true X. I’d like to see it to be [Jamarr] Chase at No. 6. If you and I were running the show I’d definitely be looking to Chase. The [veteran] guy doesn’t have to be a starter, like Mohamed Sanu, guy’s just a pro, you know what you’re getting. It’s not so much about on the field production at this point of his career, like Marvin Jones. The Jags brought in Marvin Jones for a specific reason. Young football team, they’re rebuilding, a total rebuild. They’re gonna have a rookie quarterback as a starter, the guy’s a true pro. It’s just one of those kinds of guys in your locker room, I think it does mean something. It’s not about measuring wins, It’s about helping the young guys mature.”

Genard Avery

Caplan: “Let me ask you a question, I know you’ve got some intel on this. For this new scheme that they’re installing, is there any way a guy like Avery might be used correctly because [Jim] Schwartz had no idea what to do with the guy. Is there any way that they could salvage him by moving him around or what are you hearing in terms of scheme here?”

Mosher: “From what I’m hearing Adam, they’re going to be way more active upfront on the D-line than they have been. You know Jim Schwartz was [all about] stay in your rush lane, discipline, rush lane. This defense, as I understand, you’re gonna see a lot more stunting, looping, line games, things like that, and again that fits in with the whole disguise and where’s it coming from that you’ve been alluding to for quite a while. So now I’m thinking to myself, wouldn’t that actually be a better usage of Genard Avery as a D-end not a linebacker, as a D-end to be in this scheme where he can stunt around the bigger guys and use that athleticism going laterally. I feel like them moving him to linebacker, when they have these plans to be more active upfront, means that they maybe just don’t see him as a fit no matter what.”

Caplan: “I mean he’s a limited guy there’s no doubt about it.”

– Justin Morganstein (@jmotweets_) is a staff contributor to InsideTheBirds.com

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