The plan for Cooper DeJean, how the Eagles were able to shrug off the Bryce Huff disaster and a remarkable trade the Eagles made 73 years ago.
We finish a busy month of May with our usual assortment of offseason analysis, off-kilter stats and peeks back into the Eagles’ distant past in this weekend’s Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Observations!
1. The one OTA practice the media was allowed to watch so far was a laid-back indoor session that lasted about 82 minutes and was filled with a bunch of individual periods. There weren’t a lot of conclusions to draw, especially with a bunch of veterans sitting out the voluntary session. One thing did stand out. Tanner McKee is a freaking beast. With DeVonta Smith absent and A.J. Brown sitting out most of the drills, most of Jalen Hurts’ passes were underneath or horizontal. He’s got nothing to prove to anybody. No reason to air it out in May. But McKee had a couple opportunities to throw deep, and it was impressive to watch. McKee tossed a deep ball to Danny Gray in between two defenders, fired a rocket to Terrace Marshall down the left sideline and had a sweet deep ball to Darius Cooper. Yeah, it was only one OTA practice and he was working against some deep reserve d-backs, but McKee is No. 2 for the first time and sure looked the part. He just throws the football so accurately and with some serious zip. And he has the ability to diagnose coverages so quickly and fire. Based on what we saw last year against the Cowboys and Giants and the confidence he’s playing with now, I’d have total confidence in McKee if he has to play meaningful games. Now, if McKee plays well in the preseason, Howie Roseman is going to get trade offers for McKee. He probably already has. And if someone offers a 1st-round pick you take it. You just do. But I wouldn’t expect that to happen. A 3rd-round pick, no way. Not enough. The question is would you take a 2nd-rounder for McKee, and I would really be reluctant. That’s a valuable pick, and the Eagles have drafted guys like Brian Dawkins, Eric Allen, DeSean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Randall Cunningham and Hurts in the second round. But when you’re trying to win a Super Bowl, you need a backup QB you can really depend on, and I’m not sure who that would be if you ship McKee. You can get a Joe Flacco / Marcus Marriotta type veteran, but is that kind of guy going to keep the thing rolling if Hurts got hurt? Maybe in a couple years Kyle McCord can be that guy but who knows? Dorian Thompson-Robinson? Don’t think so. There’s no doubt in my mind McKee can be a plus NFL starter, and he’ll probably get that opportunity if he hits free agency after the 2026 season. But right now, the Eagles need him more than they need more picks.
2. The Eagles paid Bryce Huff $17.25 million for 2 ½ sacks. That’s the 2nd-most they’ve ever paid a player who spent one year here. Sam Bradford made $23.998 million in 2015.
3. We speculated so much over the past few months on the Eagle Eye Podcast about how the Eagles would handle corner this year following the departures of Darius Slay, Isaiah Rodgers and Avonte Maddox, and it was good to see our hunch come to life at practice Wednesday with Cooper DeJean at outside corner in base and in the slot in nickel, with Kelee Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson alternating as the second outside corner opposite Quinyon Mitchell. One OTA practice doesn’t mean this is how the Eagles will line up this fall, but it does show that it’s on Vic Fangio’s radar. It’s not easy bouncing back and forth from outside to inside, but after watching DeJean last year I don’t think anybody doubts he can handle it. DeJean is one of your best players and you want your best players on the field all the time, not most of the time. Once DeJean replaced Maddox in Week 6 last year, he played 84 percent of the Eagles’ defensive snaps (619 of 734). A handful of the snaps he missed were at the end of blowout wins, but that’s close to 10 snaps per game he wasn’t on the field. I expect Ringo to win that CB2 battle and I think he’ll play well. Nothing against Ringo. But you’d rather have DeJean playing those 10 snaps per game than either Ringo (or Jackson). I don’t want DeJean leaving the field.
4. Speaking of Terrace Marshall, and we were a few observations back, he’s a potentially interesting guy. Was a 2nd-round pick of the Panthers in 2021 and he’s still only 24 and he’s got good size at 6-foot-2, 200 pounds. We got our first glimpse of him Wednesday and he caught a few passes, and it makes you think with a good camp he could be in the mix for that fourth WR spot behind the starters and Jahan Dotson. Last year’s late-round rookies, Johnny Wilson and Ainias Smith, are still around and will get long looks at camp. Marshall was a bust as a 2nd-round pick – just 67 catches for 808 yards in parts of four seasons with the Panthers and Raiders – but kind of like former 1st-round pick John Ross and one-time 2nd-round pick Parris Campbell, nothing to lose giving a guy who was once really highly regarded a shot.
5. With the Eagles giving up on Bryce Huff after just 12 games and 285 snaps, I would expect the next man up behind starters Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt to be Azeez Ojulari, who has produced when he’s been healthy but has rarely been healthy. Ojulari had 22 sacks in 46 games with the Giants, which is 0.48 sacks per game – almost half a sack per game. For the sake of comparison, Josh Sweat has averaged 0.41 sacks per game in his career, and he just got a four-year, $76.4 million contract. The difference? Sweat has averaged 15 games per season and Ojulari has averaged 11 ½. With the Giants, Ojulari was a 2nd-round pick who carried high expectations, and he averaged 40 snaps per game in New York. And kept getting hurt. With the Eagles, he’s the third edge, he’s making $3 million on a modest one-year contract and shouldn’t have to play more than 20 to 25 snaps per game, which should help him stay healthy. Ojulari had six sacks, 10 QB hits, seven tackles for loss and 10 pressures in 11 games last year. I’m going to put Smith down for 12 or 13 sacks and let’s go with eight for Hunt. If that happens, Ojulari could be the ideal Edge3. There are other options. Josh Uche had an 11 ½-sack season in 2022 (but only five sacks since). Rookie Antwaun Powell-Ryland led the BCS with 25 ½ sacks over the last two years. Jihaad Campbell can play some edge, although it looks like he’ll start out at inside linebacker once he’s healthy. But of all the options for the third guy, Ojulari is by far the best.
6. The biggest mistake the Eagles made with Huff was trying to turn him into an every-down player. But when you give a guy a three-year, $51 million contract, you really want him to be more than a 3rd-down specialist. But that’s what he is. He’s just not a 1st-down stop-the-run type of player. So when camp started last summer, they were trying to force him into a position he isn’t good at. Square peg, round hole. Remember what Vic Fangio said last August about Huff playing every down? “Does he look like he can do it today? No.” He paused and added, “I do think eventually he will.” But it never happened, and Howie Roseman has the security as GM for Life to cut his losses, admit an enormous mistake and move on from a guy who didn’t work out. Not many GMs can do that. They’ll compound the mistake by keeping the player around another year or two trying to make it work. Every GM messes up. But it speaks volumes about where the Eagles are as a franchise that despite a massive free agency bust – and remember, Huff was the Eagles’ highest-paid free agent last year, with a bigger contract than Saquon Barkley or obviously Zack Baun – they just kept rolling and won a Super Bowl in large part because their other edge rushers were unstoppable. The franchise is so healthy in terms of roster, culture, coaching, whatever, that it can absorb a $51 million mistake and keep winning. That’s a good place to be.
7. The first 24 players in the 2013 draft were selected to a combined two all-pro 1st-teams. Lane Johnson in 2017 and Lane Johnson in 2022. Johnson has been picked to more all-pro teams than the 23 other guys combined.
8. Kevin Patullo inadvertently gave us a pretty good idea who the Eagles are eyeing as the starting right guard when he was asked Wednesday about having most offensive starters back from 2024, and during his answer, he mentioned, “All 11 guys are back essentially.” Considering that Mekhi Becton is the only 2024 starter who’s gone and only one of the candidates to replace him was here last year – Tyler Steen – that tells you Steen is getting the first crack at right guard. Which we kind of knew, but it was interesting to hear him come out and say it. On Wednesday, with Landon Dickerson still rehabbing, Steen was with the first group at right guard, Kenyon Green was the backup and Matt Pryor – who started 15 games at right guard for the Bears last year – was the starting left guard. And Green played left guard last year. So he was the backup at right guard and wasn’t even backing up left guard. I’m not the world’s biggest Kenyon Green fan, and I think Pryor – back with the Eagles after four years away – has a chance to compete with Steen at right guard while backing up both guard spots. But the job appears to be Steen’s to lose. For the record, Pro Football Focus gave Pryor a 69.9 grade last year and Steen a 40.7. Among 87 guards who played at least 200 snaps, Pryor ranked 22nd and Steen ranked 85th.
9A. Only two players in NFL history have had consecutive postseason games with 100 or more rushing yards and at least a 7.0 average. Those players are Brian Westbrook and Saquon Barkley. In 2006, Westbrook ran 20 times for 141 yards in the win over the Giants (7.1) and 13 times for 116 yards the next week in the loss to the Saints (8.9). And last year, Barkley was 26-for-210 against the Rams (7.9) and 15-for-118 a week later against Washington (7.9). The only other player in NFL history with two such games in a single postseason is Marcus Allen, who was 13-for-121 (9.3) vs. the Steelers in a conference semifinal and 20-for-191 in Super Bowl XVIII against Washington in the 1983 postseason with a game against the Seahawks (25-for-154, 6.2) in between. Only four others have had multiple 100-yard, 7.0 postseason performances in their entire career: Lamar Jackson has had three, and Marion Motley, Colin Kaepernick and Todd Gurley had two.
9B. The only other Eagles with one career postseason performance with 100 rushing yards and a 7.0 average? Wilbert Montgomery in the 1980 NFC Championship Game vs. the Cowboys (194, 7.5), Donovan McNabb vs. the Packers in the 2003 4th-and-26 game (107, 9.7) and Kenny Gainwell in the 2002 win over the Giants (112, 9.3).
10. Here’s one for your list of the greatest trades in Eagles history: In 2, the Steelers drafted two-way player Ernie Steele out of Washington in the 10th round, then traded him to the Eagles that August for halfback George Bruney. Steele had seven outstanding years for the Eagles, played on the 1948 NFL Championship team, piled up 1,857 scrimmage yards and 17 touchdowns on offense and 24 interceptions on defense. He remains one of only three players in NFL history with 1,000 rushing yards and 20 interceptions. The others are Bill Dudley and 1940 Eagles 1st-round pick George McAfee, a Hall of Famer who never played for the Eagles. What about Bruney? He never played in the NFL, and even using the massive Newspapers.com database there’s no record of him even existing, other than getting traded for Steele. Howieball before Howieball.
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