Welcome To Eagles: Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni Announced The Four New Signing

The Jacksonville Jaguars haven’t been shy about thei420 mir desire to add to their pass-rush over the last 12 months, even if no moves have truly come to fruition. That isn’t changing this offseason, either. After once again being linked to Minnesota Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, another veteran pass-rusher has been connected to the Jaguars: Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Haason Reddick. According to Cowboys Country’s Mike Fisher, the Jaguars are one of two teams showing interest in a move for the 29-year-old Pro Bowler. “Our source mentions Dallas and Jacksonville as among the teams that are “interested” in making a move. (Rumors are mentioning Detroit, Houston and New England here, but we have not confirmed.),” Fisher said. Reddick signed a three-year, $45 million deal with the Eagles in 2022 and has since recorded 27 sacks (16 in 2022 and 11 in 2023) and earned two Pro Bowl nods. In 2024, however, his cap hit is set to be $21,877,000. The Eagles can’t exactly release him, either, since his dead cap is near $20 million. The Jaguars saw Travon Walker and Josh Allen combine for 27.5 sacks last year, but the rest of the Jaguars’ defense struggled to generate pressure as the Jaguars finished No. 25 in sacks with just 40.

Jacksonville got just three combined sacks out of backups K’Lavon Chaisson, Dawuane Smoot, and Yasir Abdullah, leaving a big need for reinforcements. The Jaguars have tried to fill the need previously, bringing Jadeveon Clowney in for a visit last year and also exploring trades for Josh Uche, Chase Young, and Hunter. “Everyone has their opinion on that. I don’t ever try to look back and say, ‘What if?’ There’s things that we’ve got to do better and ultimately, it falls on my shoulders to make the right decisions and make the right moves,” Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke said this week. “With obviously a lot of discussion and talk with Coach [Head Coach Doug Pederson], and we’re very much on the same page. We work hard to be on the same page. We’re going to continue to do what we do.”

INDIANAPOLIS — The Eagles entered the 2023 season coming off a Super Bowl appearance and in win-now mode.

So it makes sense that they weren’t in a rush to play a bunch of rookies.

But Eagles general manager Howie Roseman on Tuesday admitted that might need to change going forward.

“I think when we look back, and Coach [Nick Sirianni] and I talk about it a little bit, it’s OK to play some young players,” Roseman said. “It’s OK for them to get experience and kind of see what you have. Based on where some of our guys were, they had the ability to sit back and learn a little bit because of the situations that we were in.

“I think going forward it’s going to be harder to do that. Obviously just as you look at our team and who is making a lot of money, and we had a little bit of extra picks over the last couple years. So, I think that for us to play our young players, to develop them, I think that’s something that Coach and I have talked about to not be afraid of. That’s why you draft them. That’s why you sign them.

“So, you have that, and you’ll have a depth chart where they’ll be a little bit uncomfortable about this guy necessarily hasn’t shown it, but we believe in this player. I think that will be an area for us to kind of maybe grow on, and I don’t want to say improve because we have good players at those positions, but it’s exciting, I think, in a lot of ways.”

That would be a bit of a departure. And in hindsight, you could have made an argument for playing some of their rookies a little bit more and/or a little bit earlier than they did in 2023.

But a few minutes after Roseman said that about playing rookies more, Sirianni didn’t quite seem as on board with the idea.

“My philosophy has always been play the guys that are going to help you win the game every week,” Sirianni said. “Regardless of whether you talk about scheme, whether you talk about players, you’re trying to do whatever you can to win the game, because that’s the bottom line, is to win football games.”

You can understand this from both sides. But there’s a strong case to be made for playing the young guys more.

While Carter played a ton and played a ton from early on in the season, you can make a case that a lot of those other draft picks should have played more. Smith was a first-round pick and was fourth or fifth in the rotation at edge rusher all season. Maybe his lingering shoulder injury played a role but even Roseman admitted he probably should have played more.

And there were opportunities to play Steen, Brown, Ringo and Ojomo more and the Eagles didn’t do it. Instead they stuck with veteran players like Sua Opeta, Justin Evans, Terrell Edmunds, James Bradberry and Kentavius Street. Maybe those stop-gaps were slightly better at the time but all of those rookies offer upside. And if you give them a chance, maybe they grow.

During Roseman’s first answer during his combine press conference, Roseman expressed his excitement about some of the moves the Eagles have already made this offseason before the start of free agency.

The Eagles have added several players from outside the organization and also extended tight end Albert Okwuegbunam for another season.

“I’m a little bit excited about kind of aggressively going after some future players that we did to start this off and bringing back at least one of our guys,” Roseman said. “So, it’s a good start, but we’ve got a lot of work to do, and I’m excited to do it with the people that we get the opportunity to do it (with).”

While Okwuegbunam barely played with the Eagles last season, they did trade for him and now bring him back for at least another training camp.

But it was notable that Roseman seemed excited about adding some other players. Since the end of the season, the Eagles have added four former draft picks from other organizations and seven of their 21 futures contracts went to players who didn’t finish the 2023 season on their practice squad.

Here’s a look at those four former draft picks:

OLB Julian Okwara: The Lions used a third-round pick on Okwara out of Notre Dame in the 2020 draft. In his four seasons with the Lions, Okwara played in 38 games with 4 starts and had 9 sacks. He was on the Lions’ roster until late in the 2023 season but then was cut and added to the practice squad.

RB Tyrion Davis-Price: The 49ers drafted Davis-Price (6-1, 219) in the third round out of LSU in 2022. In two season with the Niners, Davis-Price was buried on the depth chart, playing in just 7 games with 40 rushing attempts for 120 yards.

OT Darian Kinnard: The Chiefs drafted Kinnard out of Kentucky in the fifth round in 2022. He played just one game for Kansas City as a rookie and spent the 2023 season on their practice squad.

OLB Terrell Lewis: A third-round pick out of Alabama in 2020, Lewis played in 30 games (7 starts) for the Rams and had 6 sacks and 10 QB hits. He last played in a regular season game in 2022 and has since been on the Bears’ and Saints’ practice squads.

Hurtt is an absolute mountain of a man. And after seeing him in person in Indianapolis this week, he’s just as big as you would expect.

“You don’t want to mess with him, right?” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said. “I want that guy in a dark alley with me. His intensity, his football intelligence, he was always a really good teacher for us and a really good communicator. That really stood out to us right away. I was able to see him last night, gave him a big hug, and I still can’t get my hands around his back.”

All jokes aside, the Hurtt hire is a really important one for the Eagles. Hurtt has experience as a former defensive coordinator and Schneider brought up Hurtt’s ability to teach and communicate. That’s obviously going to be a really important part of Hurtt’s job in Philadelphia, where he’ll be coaching a group of young defensive tackles in Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis and Milton Williams.