April 30, 2024
Each year after the draft has come and gone, the Philadelphia Eagles typically sign a few veteran players to plug unfilled holes on their depth chart, sometimes immediately, and sometimes a little closer to the season. They have already begun, as they signed former Jets OT Mekhi Becton to be their swing tackle in 2024.
Here we'll take a look at the positions that should still be addressed.
The Eagles currently have six safeties on their roster. Only three are roster locks. They are Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Reed Blankenship, and Sydney Brown. Brown is still recovering from an ACL tear suffered in January, so he may not be ready for the start of the regular season, meaning that they really only have two safeties.
And then there's rookie second-round pick Cooper DeJean, who has the versatility to play safety, but it's probably more likely that the Eagles will let him focus on corner initially, since that's the much more important position.
My conclusion: They'll probably add another safety. There are a lot of old safeties with recognizable names available on the open market, like Justin Simmons, Eddie Jackson, Quandre Diggs, Micah Hyde, Marcus Maye, Jayron Kearse, etc. Safeties are heavy on supply and seemingly light on demand, so the Eagles should be able to bring in one of those guys on a team-friendly deal.
The Eagles' linebacker depth looks like this:
| Defense | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| LB | Nakobe Dean | Jeremiah Trotter, Jr. | Brandon Smith |
| LB | Devin White | Oren Burks | Ben VanSumeren |
Dean will be back as a starting linebacker after an injury-riddled 2023 season. After Dean, there are three newcomers in White, Trotter, and Burks. Smith and VanSumeren are both very athletic players, but probably can't be counted on to have a role that goes beyond special teams.
Dean (5'11, 231), White (6'0, 237), and Trotter (6'0, 230) are all undersized linebackers. It might make sense for the Eagles to bring back Zach Cunningham (6'3, 243), who was the Eagles' best linebacker in 2023 (low bar) and who has a little more size.
The Eagles' defensive tackle depth looks like so:
| Defense | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| DT | Jalen Carter | Thomas Booker | ||
| NT | Jordan Davis | Marlon Tuipulotu | P.J. Mustipher | |
| DT | Milton Williams | Moro Ojomo | Gabe Hall |
The Eagles have selected five defensive tackles in the last 4 drafts:
• Jalen Carter: Round 1, 2023
• Moro Ojomo: Round 7, 2023
• Jordan Davis: Round 1, 2022
• Milton Williams: Round 3, 2021
• Marlon Tuipulotu: Round 6, 2021
Carter, Davis, and Williams will have major roles, and the Eagles need all three of those guys to step up in 2024, particularly Davis. Tuipulotu is a body for depth, and Ojomo is still something of an unknown. This offseason the team added P.J. Mustipher, who appeared in 4 games as a rookie last season.
They really don't have much DT depth. Unfortunately, the available defensive tackles have pretty much been picked clean.
Honorable mention: Tight end.
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