With the recent waiving of undrafted rookie Jamie Newman, the Eagles now have a hole to fill behind Jalen Hurts and Joe Flacco. They could theoretically just carry two quarterbacks on the opening day roster, but chances are they’ll want someone else in their quarterback room for Hurts and Flacco to work with.
The free agent quarterback market isn’t very illustrious at this point in the offseason — the team will have to settle for another undrafted free agent, or a journeyman who will fit into what the Eagles want to do offensively.
Here are three names to keep an eye on as potential replacements for Newman.
Brett Hundley
About a month ago, Brett Hundley visited Dallas for a workout but he left unsigned. The former fifth round pick of the Green Bay Packers was always seen as a project at the quarterback position, but he never panned out with the Packers and has bounced around the league since being cut following the 2017 season.
Coming out of college during the read option craze that swept across the NFL for a brief period, Hundley was your prototypical dual threat quarterback that scouts were clamoring over during that time. In a quarterback class with Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, Hundley was seen as a the potential QB3 of that draft class. But unfortunately, he never took that next step at UCLA and slid down draft boards.
In his second season in the NFL, Hundley was given an opportunity to start after Aaron Rodgers was lost for the season with an injury. In nine starts, he threw for 1,836 yards, 9 touchdowns to 12 interceptions, while completing 60.8 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 70.6. He added 270 yards on the ground and 2 touchdowns to his total during the 2017 season as well.
At 27 years old, Hundley is now in the journeyman stage of his career. Bringing him in on a one-year, league minimum deal can’t hurt. His dual threat ability would be nice to have behind Hurts if Flacco were to get injured at any point during the year.
Kenji Bahar
After getting scooped up by the Baltimore Ravens following this year’s NFL Draft, Monmouth’s Kenji Bahar was waived just last week. Bahar is a complete project at the quarterback position, but his athletic profile is intriguing enough to take a flier on.
Standing at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, Bahar set nearly every school passing record during his five years at Monmouth. He finished with the most passing touchdowns in school history, set the school record for career total offense by over 1,600 yards, became the only Monmouth quarterback to win a playoff game, this list goes on and on.
Bahar can beat you through the air or on the ground and his strong arm could translate to NFL success with good coaching. He may never become a starter in this league, but he has enough tools to become a competent backup. Bringing him in as a camp arm to compete for that QB3 vacancy would be a low-risk, high-reward move by the Eagles.
Robert Griffin III
It’s a bit surprising that RGIII is still available on the free agent market. I would’ve been fine if the team signed him over Flacco to be Hurts’ backup, honestly.
We all know the RGII story by now. Took the league by storm as a rookie, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year. He subsequently blew his knee out in a playoff game that season, which ended up derailing his entire career with Washington and now he seems destined to be a career backup.
He played sparingly during his time as Lamar Jackson’s backup in Baltimore, starting just two games and playing a total of 221 snaps. During his time in Baltimore, Griffin recorded 1 passing touchdown to 4 interceptions and completed 56 percent of his passes.
As a dual threat guy who can probably run the same type of offense that the Eagles will create around Hurts, Griffin is an ideal quarterback to bring in as a third option.