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If we needed any more confirmation that Howie Roseman and the Eagles had an excellent offseason, Pro Football Focus recently dropped an article in which they graded all 32 teams’ offseasons.
PFF handed the Eagles an overall offseason grade of an A- and a draft grade of an A. Their reasoning:
The Eagles have had an outstanding offseason, and few moves are likely to make a bigger impact than acquiring A.J. Brown via trade on draft day. The only question is where that move factors in — whether you count it as part of the team’s draft or not — but Brown gives the team a legitimate No. 1 receiver, which was still a question mark otherwise. Brown has been an elite receiver overall since entering the league but has also excelled in the areas that are still up for debate with DeVonta Smith, such as dominance against press coverage. Smith now gets to develop as a No. 2 receiver with less dedicated attention from defenses, and the Eagles now have a formidable receiving corps to go along with an excellent offensive line.
The team also secured major upgrades to their defense with Jordan Davis in the first round and then Nakobe Dean in the third, who were both stars on the best defense in college football. Dean seemingly slipped in the draft due to concerns with his medical profile that the Eagles apparently do not share, and he could easily become the steal of the draft almost immediately.
Signing Haason Reddick is the biggest free agency move the team made, but it’s not insignificant. Reddick is an impressive speed rusher who will be part of a continued overhaul of their defensive line that continued with the Davis pick in Round 1.”
Grading all 32 NFL offseasons
Here’s a quick rundown of the notable acquisitions the Eagles made since the end of the 2021 season:
- Signed EDGE Haason Reddick
- Signed WR Zach Pascal
- Signed LB Kyzir White
- Traded for WR A.J. Brown
- Drafted DT Jordan Davis, LB Nakobe Dean
The only major loss the Eagles suffered this offseason was Rodney McLeod, who joined Frank Reich in Indianapolis. Steven Nelson also left, but coming off a one-year deal and a subpar outing in 2021, that was to be expected.
I’ve said it numerous time throughout the offseason, Howie Roseman has given the Eagles a real chance to contend in 2022.
Now, a lot of the team’s success will depend on the maturation process of Jalen Hurts. If he can take that leap in development that we see so many young quarterbacks go through, Philly has a real shot to make some noise this year. Every position around Hurts on the offensive side of the ball is buttoned up. It’ll be up to him to make it all work.
Defensively, while the Eagles vastly improved their front-seven with the additions of Davis, Dean, Reddick, and White, their secondary is once again a question mark. There’s still time to correct the issue, and there are still a few names worth looking into on the open market (i.e. James Bradberry).
Even if Howie doesn’t spend anymore money this offseason on the secondary, there’s still hope that some of the young talent on the backend can step up. Marcus Epps has gotten progressively better throughout his young career and may be ready for a substantially larger role this year. Zech McPhearson and Tay Gowan definitely have potential at the CB2 spot, but it’s hard to project what they’ll do this year with any real certainty.
At the end of the day, if the Eagles revitalized defensive line can create havoc for opposing quarterbacks, the holes in the secondary won’t be nearly as glaring. With the amount of assets Howie put into his pass rush this offseason, I have to imagine that was a part of his thought process.
Howie has set his team up for success in 2022. That’s all we can really ask for as fans. Hopefully it actually materializes when the Eagles hit the field in September.