Inside The Birds Pod: Eyeing Jacoby Brissett In Free Agency?

As the new league year is set to open Wednesday, free-agent deals and contract negotiations are underway around the league.

In the latest Inside the Birds podcast, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan take a deep look into the Eagles’ contract restructures, NFL free agency, and their expected activity level over the next week.

Former Colts QB Jacoby Brissett would be an ideal backup QB for the Eagles.

Restructure Update

Geoff Mosher: “I gotta laugh because I’ve already seen the false equivalences to the Eagles’ situation. For example I’ve seen a couple of times people say, ‘Oh, so the two Super Bowl teams, the Chiefs and the Buccaneers can do restructures, but when the Eagles do it, it’s such a bad thing,’ but that’s such a false equivalence. I mean, the Chiefs are restructuring the contract of a quarterback who’s gonna play 12, 13, 14, 15 more years. Darius Slay is not going to play 12 more years. Brandon Brooks is not going to play 12 more years. It’s totally different when you’re doing it for a 30, 31, 32 year-old player as opposed to a 20 something year-old player who happens to be the best player in the league, and even Brady’s restructure is not going to kick so much money because he took a pay cut just to go there. Again, I’m not killing the Eagles for doing what they do, we’ve already gone through the pros and cons of it. In many ways Howie Roseman didn’t have any other choices.”

Adam Caplan: “They still want to keep a competitive team, while they try to retool this team kind of a transition period where they’re gonna get younger with 10 draft picks. If they’re able to actually have a great draft with these older players who are gonna have to hang around for a couple years. This is 2021, they could be a playoff team in 2023, only if they draft well.”

Mosher: “Let’s talk about these restructures a little more because, look the Eagles have to be compliant by Wednesday so I don’t know if you have the exact number of where they’re at, but we do know that there are a couple more restructures that have gone on since our last podcast.”

Caplan: “Yeah, Javon Hargrave restructured. They took about $11.75 million of his $12.5 base did what they normally do, like teams do they convert it to a signing bonus with three dummy years. The expiration of the real contract does not change. He is still a free agent after 2022 but there’s the three dummy years too for promotion purposes so that got done.”

“Isaac Seumalo, let’s go to him. For the life of me I don’t know why they want to extend his contract, he’s just a good football player. But they decided to restructure and they took his base which was only $4 million, they took $3.1 of it and turned it into a signing bonus. And they got three dummy years on the back end for 2023, 2024 and 2025.”

“One more I found out on Sunday: Jake Elliott, I’m told, they restructured his deal. I don’t have the terms yet because it was more or less completed. The paperwork just had to be sent in but he’s getting one as well.”

Zach Ertz Trade Update

Caplan: “Look, here is the deal with Zach Ertz. The reason why the Eagles won’t cut him is because he has a market. I would say this, if they didn’t think that there was interest, they would have cut him because they could just save the cap space. There is a market but I don’t think they’re getting what they want.”

Mosher: “I had heard they wanted a third for him, but I don’t know now.”

Caplan: “You’re right. I heard the same thing. I’m gonna say Sunday I heard pretty reliably what you heard. Now, I don’t know if they’re gonna get, that but the general manager Howie Roseman has got to make a decision at some point. Are you willing to take a fourth or fifth or a fifth that becomes a fourth or something like that, if that’s what’s out there? I understand that there’s no deadline here because there’s no guaranteed money in this contract, there’s no roster bonus due where they have to make a decision, I get all that. He’s been a great Eagle, I know they don’t owe him anything. But at some point, you’ve got to blank or get off the pot.”

Mosher: “If you get a fourth, that’s cool because you don’t have a fourth this year. But you do have two thirds, from the Wentz trade, so what I would maybe try to do if the highest I was going to get was a fourth this year would be to see if someone’s willing to give me a conditional pick next year, like a fourth that can become a third, and say, I’d rather have that because next year’s draft, I’m potentially getting an extra first round pick from the Wentz trade. I’ve already got 10 picks this draft, and we know how important, not just this year, but next draft will be also for the same reason of the older players on the book, so I might be willing to push it to next year, if I can get the conditional pick.”

Free Agency Pre

Caplan: “[The Eagles] have interest I’m told by multiple sources in Jacoby Brissett. Not surprising, obviously the connection with the Colts coaches but he doesn’t have an agent. He hasn’t used an agent in years. He actually did his two-year extension and did a pretty good job on it by the way. Now, what I understand is Bill Parcells is his advisor, legendary Hall of Fame coach. I think Monday afternoon they could talk to him because he’s not an agent, technically.”

“So far no on [Joe] Flacco I know things could change we’re early in free agency here. Flacco was their guy early on but he needed to have surgery, my understanding that the Jets are interested in bringing them back.”

“Someone asked about Andy Dalton. I know the Eagles in the past liked him, but he’s going to be a starter so he’s going to … he’s going to compete for a starting job, so he’s not coming here. It’s not that they don’t like them, they do, but that’s just not going to fly.”

“Tyrod Taylor, I’m not saying he’s not in. I’m not saying they won’t have interest in him, I mean [offensive coordinator Shane] Steichen coached him. But here’s the question: Is he willing to be a backup?”

Mosher: “Well, don’t you think when he signed with the Chargers last year he knew they were going to be drafting a top-10 quarterback? I mean he probably signed knowing that they were going to draft the quarterback who was gonna have to beat him out but probably eventually would. He didn’t know that the injury would happen that way, especially, but I’m just saying no matter where he goes he’s always gonna go to a team that’s looking to get younger and better at quarterback so he’s always gonna face the idea that he’s competing for the job.”

– Justin Morganstein (@jmo318@comcast.net) is a staff contributor for InsideTheBirds.com.

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