Did Eagles GM Howie Roseman bring back too many old guys?
Howie Roseman has spoken often about the mistakes he made after the 2017 Super Bowl season, trying to keep that aging roster together for too long before the franchise bottomed out in 2020.
Hes spoken about the importance of not making roster decisions based on emotion. About not keeping players around too long because theyre great people and all-time Eagles. About not running it back with aging veterans at the expense of promising young players.
And here we are.
Taken individually, new contracts for Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Darius Slay and James Bradberry all made sense. Taken as a whole, its a concern.
Kelce is 35, B.G. 34, Cox and Slay 32 and Bradberry will be 30 on opening day. Those five players combined will earn more than $50 million in 2023 we dont have all the exact contract breakdowns yet and thats exactly what Roseman said he wanted to avoid.
And while he re-signed or restructured five players in their 30s (or about to be), Roseman let four of the teams six-youngest defensive starters leave 25-year-old Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and 26-year-olds Kyzir White, T.J. Edwards and Marcus Epps.
Average age of players the Eagles lost to other teams: 27.5.
Average age of players the Eagles signed: 31.4.
Kelce? Hes still the best center in football. B.G.? He had 11 sacks last year, 6th-most among all edge rushers. Cox? Hes not what he used to be, but he did have 7.0 sacks last year, 9th-most in the league among interior rushers. Slay? He dropped off a bit late in the season, but opposing receivers thought highly enough to vote him into his fifth Pro Bowl in the last six years. James Bradberry? He had the lowest opposing completion percentage among all starting cornerbacks.
These dont seem to be the type of moves Roseman makes out of emotion because all these guys showed last year they can still play.
But the reality is theyre all well older than the league average at their position. Even Bradberry, who turns 30 this summer. Only seven of 70 cornerbacks who were targeted at least 50 times last year were in their 30s. Bradberry was 8th-oldest, Slay was 3rd-oldest. And that was last year. Cornerback is a young man’s game. And they’re not young men.
Kelce hasnt shown any sign of dropping off, but hes the oldest center in football. Depending what happens with Calais Campbell, Brandon Graham will be either the oldest or 2nd-oldest edge rusher in football. Cox projects as the 2nd-oldest regular interior lineman, behind Cameron Heyward (whos a year older than Cox but has made three Pro Bowls since Cox made his last one). Lane Johnson obviously wasnt a free agent, but right now hes the 3rd-oldest starting offensive tackle in the league.
If all these guys play the way they did last year, the Eagles will be fine. But theyre all at an age where the inevitable decline is probably coming soon. With Slay, we may have already seen that process begin. With Cox, we certainly have.
But heres the important thing to remember: This team has a lot of very good young players: Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Reed Blankenship, Kenny Gainwell, Cam Jurgens, Milton Williams, Landon Dickerson, DeVonta Smith, Jack Stoll, Quez Watkins, Jordan Mailata, A.J. Brown, Britain Covey, Greedy Williams and Josh Sweat are all between 22 and 25. So is that Jalen Hurts guy. At least 12 of them will likely be starters in 2023.
That young nucleus plus whoever the Eagles add in the draft is significant, and thats what really tempers my concern about the older guys the Eagles brought back.
This isnt really an old team as much as its a young team with a small group of unusually old guys who still seem to be able to play at a high level.
Howie didnt run it back with all these aging veterans because of an emotional attachment to Kelce, B.G., Fletch and the other guys but because he believed they made the most sense at that price for this team.
And after what weve seen the last few years, theres no reason not to trust Howies methodology. Hes the best GM in football.
But these are still older players and theyre still creeping toward an inevitable decline, and its a risky way to try and build a championship roster.
