The Eagles Cornerback Room Needs to Be Revamped…Again
Ever since Asante Samuel left, the Philadelphia Eagles have been looking for a true number one cornerback to put in their secondary.
They went through years of looking for that guy while their secondary got torched on a regular basis. In the 2020 offseason, they finally found their guy, as they traded a 2020 third and fifth-round pick to the Detroit Lions for Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay. The Eagles finally had themselves a true CB1.
After making this move, the thought was they would have a tenured cornerback like Rasul Douglas or Sidney Jones play the other side of the field opposite of Slay, and try and establish themselves as a solid CB2. Well, that didn’t happen. Both Douglas and Jones were final roster day cuts and failed to make the final 53 of the Eagles roster. Instead of keeping them, the Eagles decided to move forward with Avonte Maddox playing the other outside cornerback position. The rest of the cornerbacks rostered would be Cre’Von LeBlanc, Craig James, and Nickel Robey-Coleman.
The idea of rostering four slot cornerbacks and one true outside cornerback was very questionable at the time.
With one week left in the 2020 regular season, it hasn’t paid off.
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Throughout the season, the Eagles have seen major injuries again to this position group. All of the cornerbacks have missed time, and they haven’t been all that great either. The brightest spot of this group has been Slay. The first half of the season he lived up to the hype, but as the second half went on, he seemed to slow down and be vulnerable. He’s still a number one corner but needs to make that big play more often for this group to succeed.
This group just wasn’t put in the best position to produce this season. Outside of Slay, the rest are all suited to be slot cornerbacks, not outside cornerbacks. All under six-foot, they aren’t a great matchup to go against the monster receivers that reside in the NFL. The injuries made everything worse, as guys like Michael Jacquet and Kevon Seymour were thrown into the fire the last month of the season, only to be cooked against guys like DeAndre Hopkins, Emmanuel Sanders, and the three-headed monsters that play in Dallas.
After Week 16, it was clear that a revamp is needed again in the secondary.
How the Eagles go in fixing the secondary should start nowhere other than the 2021 NFL Draft. They’ll have a top ten pick this year, and guys like Patrick Surtain or Caleb Farley would be perfect targets for them. They would provide immediate help to the cornerback position, rather than drafting a developmental player like they usually do.
They could try their luck in free agency, as guys like Brian Poole, Kevin King, and JC Jackson are set to become free agents after this season. However, considering how strapped they are for cap space, they don’t have a ton of flexibility in that department. So, it looks like all of their work will have to come in the draft, and maybe get lucky with a free agent.
No matter how they do it, the Philadelphia Eagles need to look at their current cornerback group and figure out how to make it better.
It’s lacking young, cheap talent, and does not offer much optimism for the future. Their moves in the past have set themselves up for this, and it’s the job of the front office to get them out of it.
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