Youth Movement

The Philadelphia Eagles will look to balance an aggressive free agency period with a desire to get younger on both sides of the ball.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher gave intel on the team’s recent developments with one week to go until free agency.

The Philadelphia Eagles will have to rely more on 2023 first round pick Jalen Carter on the defensive line

Safety

Geoff Mosher: “The Eagles have no choice but to find safeties in free agency. If they want to bring Kevin Byard back, but if you look at what they have under contract which is just Sydney Brown, Reed Blankenship, and Tristin McCollum, it begs for Howie Roseman to get a young safety.”

Avonte Maddox

Mosher: “Here is a guy who enters the last year of his deal and has not been healthy. You wonder if he goes the Kevin Byard route where the team feels they can’t bring him back at that number. When healthy, he is a good player.”

Adam Caplan: “You can’t justify him at $7 million in cash. Really good player when healthy, one of the top nickels…you isolate the production and compare him to the injury history. The money is too rich.”

Fletcher Cox

Caplan: “What we heard at the Senior Bowl, it sounded like he was going to retire. He has a placeholder salary this season of $1.5 million. The way the contract was structured allows for a post-June 1 release this year, he has three void years. They are prepared for this. He played well last season and was a leader. They would love to have him back, but if not it is the two young kids [Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter].”

Younger Players

Caplan: “They are going to get younger. They have a good young core here, 27 or younger is the sweet spot:  A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, (Jordan) Mailata, Landon Dickerson, (Cam) Jurgens, (Jalen) Hurts, Milton Williams, (Jordan) Davis, Jalen Carter, Josh Sweat, Sydney Brown, Reed Blankenship and Nolan Smith. This is a decent young core but they still have a lot of building to do.”

Mosher: “Howie did say the green light is on for Nick Sirianni to get these younger players on the field. That means Jordan Davis and also Jalen Carter, who did not start last year, and Nolan Smith. They have to figure out a way to get him on the field if he shows he can handle that workload increase.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.